The motivation for this trip was climbing, so today we decided to do some climbing. For regular readers of the blog, there’s not a ton of excitement to share, but it was a lovely day. We started out with a delicious breakfast at the bed and breakfast, then drove up to the crag. We decided to stick to single pitch sport climbing for the day, to get comfortable with the rock and the route finding.
We started out on some routes that were super sharp and stabby – not the kind of stuff that soft midwestern hands love. (luckily, as we moved along the wall, things got less pointy) The climbing was all a bit slabby, which means the wall is leaning slightly away from you. The benefit of slab is that you’re not having to work quite as hard. The unfortunate thing about slab is that if you fall, you cheese-grater your face down the wall. Fortunately, everyone still has their face.
The climbing area is gorgeous – friendly dogs and donkeys wandering through, climbing groups from all over the world chatting politely, and a snack bar two minutes walk away with smoothies and coffee. High living.
We climbed until about 5pm, then went back to the hotel to shower and get things organized. Tomorrow, half the group is going to try to rent mountain bikes, and the rest of us are heading for some multi-pitch climbing. So far so good!
WOW Your pictures are Amazing and Breathtaking we feel like we are there With you and kat
I hope you don’t have to be up super early tomorrow morning—I feel terrible about mistakenly ringing your phone. These photos are great—hope you got to climb too.