Mountain Journeys

Ridges, Sea Cliffs, & Lead climbing on the Costa Blanca

More absolutely fabulous days have been enjoyed here in Spain. Rest days were shunned in search of more adventure and how much could be crammed into a few short days. Never enough time.

On Sunday everyone completed a full traverse of the Toix ridge. Our variation on this includes a multi-pitch climb of around 250m starting from Toix Este. So this is a very big extension to the day, and well worth it. The climbing is mostly straightforward, but the whole time the atmosphere builds as we climb higher and higher above the sea.

After lunch at the Mirador, we continued our journey by venturing onto the main Toix ridge. This begins with more straightforward climbing, leading to a scrambling section which is extremely memorable. Narrow and space below your feet come to mind. Everyone did really well on this mentally and physically challenging day. Photos of this day are below.

The star of these days for me was without any doubt the 'Magical Mystery Tour' on the Toix sea cliffs, Calpe.

Only 1 of the team had abseiled before, so we engineered a practice session into the day. This was essential as access to the sea cliff is by a 40 metre free-hanging abseil!!! So a warm up to this was needed. The practice session and the real deal all went without hitch, with everyone arriving in the big caves at the bottom of the abseil looking and probably feeling a little awe-struck.
The temperature on the cliff was high, with no wind, full sun, and reflection from the sea, everyone was soon feeling hot and bothered.
No worries though, for this is an awesome place with plenty to occupy one's thoughts!

Straightforward scrambling soon leads to the climbing, but the transition isn't at all gentle, suddenly there's a 30 metre drop straight into the sea and you need to step over the void to make the move, spicy it certainly is.
From now on the climbing is continually interesting and the crux is fittingly near the top. Everyone emerged triumphantly at the top of the cliff, relieved, elated, inspired, refreshed.
A wonderful experience.

Photos from the sea cliffs are above.

And the final day of the course had to come, sad times indeed.

We spent it well, with a visit to Toix TV for some quality single pitch cragging with beautiful views over the coast and to the mountains.
Routes in the 6's were being cruised by all, and some very smily faces as a result (and aching muscles). Some sensational leads by both Edd & Lauren on 'Gufelwufel' (5). This is at the top of the grade and both cruised this on lead. Really pleased with this and the smoothness of transition from indoor to outdoor leading for both, well done.

Photos below show Genevieve on Gufelwufel, and below again is the view from the crag.

What a place to climb. What a week has been had. All in the company of such lovely people.

Thanks to: Edd, Nicola, Genevieve, Lauren, Jules, Chris, Kate, and Kim. You made it a fantastic week.

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