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Spain 2005 - continued
Monday March 7th
SALEM
Drove up towards Gandia, turned of leftwards from the motorway and headed for one of the few crags that we knew had a selection of routes that would suit us all. Bob and Chris could do their hard routes and the rest of us could do the four and five's. This proved to be OK, because it turned out to be a pleasantly warm day and everyone thoroughly enjoyed it. John and I did three new routes left of the electricity sub-station, then went on up into the barranco to another new area at the end of the canyon. There, we did a 4 and a 5 and the last route of the day was a 5+ that I found desperate and had to rest on two bolts before reaching the top. Rose and Joyce also had a good day doing routes on both sides of the sub-station.
Tuesday 8th March
TOIX PLACA LOWER is a relatively new area of the Toix complex, but its inclusion in the new guidebook is well worthwhile and a bonus to the middle grade climber. All the routes are fixed with bolts or threads and many of them are starred, multi-pitch routes. Our first route boasted two stars and was called ‘Oma Sus’. The top pitch was graded 5, and involved a delightful rising, well-positioned traverse and we both agreed that the whole route was very commendable. After ‘Oma Sus’, we did ‘Lara’, which was a two star, three pitch grade 4+ route, followed by ‘Anto’, a two pitch grade 5. Altogether that day we climbed a total of nine pitches in all and from the top of each route we abseiled a full, double rope length to get down. Rose and Joyce climbed various routes that were a little further on up the crag and seemed to be going well, doing several long 4+ routes. Bob and Chris joined us later in the day after coming down from climbing in the Echo valley. At the end of a sunny day we all made our way back to the apartments in good humour.