Chulilla

After flying back from Sella, I took two days off before meeting up with my friend Victor and heading south once again. Before becoming a climbing fanatico Victor was a near professional soccer player and competitive arm wrestler. Yes, a competitive arm wrestler. This time the destination was Chulilla, a small mountain town just west of Valencia. Chulilla itself is incredibly charming. Perched between mountains and at the bend of a great canyon, Chulilla is small town Spain at its best. In the only store the owner proudly sells the local honey and welcomes climbers to enjoy his home. In the bakery the bread is baked fresh in an old wood burning oven, and the bakers themselves seem to glow with pride and fulfillment, particularly so when they threw in a free bizcocho (sweet bread) for us to try. In the evenings everyone meets in the square where the kids kick around a soccer ball and the parents share coffees and glasses of wine. When I tell someone that I am studying in Europe I am often asked where I have traveled. Feigning embarrassment I reply that the furthest I’ve gone is a couple hours from Barcelona, but the truth is that discovering a place like Chulilla is as much of an experience as flying abroad to a new country. I may not be writing new chapters in my travel log, but my Spain chapter is growing increasingly thick.

To be fair Victor and I did not come to Chulilla to eat bizcochos and sample honey, we came for the sweeping limestone walls that tower over the nearby river and stretch for kilometers in all directions. On a favorite climbing website that I frequent all too often Spain is described as having an unfair amount of perfect limestone and Chulilla alone verifies that statement. A recent article in Desnivel (the climbing magazine of Spain) has brought this world-class buried area into the spotlight, and it has quickly become the latest cool spot for climbers. I know it’s the latest cool spot because it was raining in the Basque Country. I never checked a weather report, but I know it was raining in the Basque Country because climbers can be like drug addicts and seemingly all the Basque climbers had made the several hour drive to Chulilla to escape the rain and get their limestone fix. The Basque entourage even included Spanish stars Iker and Eneko Pou who recently climbed all four of the hardest big wall routes in the Alps. So what could possible be this good? 30-40 meter routes climbing vertical and overhanging limestone, thought provoking movement on continuously difficult rock, perfectly sculpted tufas and edges, sun and shade aspects which could both be climbed in the always perfect weather, and hundreds of routes throughout the immense and beautiful canyon. Also the area was stacked with fantastic 5.12s, which meant it would be a great place to do a lot of onsight climbing (trying to successfully climb a route first try). Previously my best onsight was a 5.12c and I had only done one. Over the course of the six climbing days I successfully onsighted three more 12c’s! Each one was unique in its own way. One was a rope-stretching climb of consistent difficulty up to a crux move at the top. One involved powerful moves lower down and sustained climbing to the anchors. The last was an easy climb to a very thin four-move crux. A big part of the difficulty is mental. Tying in for a 12c onsight attempt when I have only succeeded on one or two out of many was butterfly inducing. By the end of the trip, after succeeding on three out of six 12c onsights and both 12b onsights my mentality was completely different and my confidence was much higher. One of my short term goals to complete by April was to onsight 3 12c’s, and I’m really happy to have finished it one week later!

On most climbing trips rest days are a necessary evil. To climb hard routes the body needs to be rested, and after three days (with four left) a rest day was mandatory. The average rest day consists of a shower, a little extra coffee, maybe some reading, and -in the worst case scenario- school. This rest day started of the same, sort of. Victor’s van has a showerhead attachment, so we decided to use it. However, the showerhead feature does not come with an actual shower, so in the parking lot of Chulilla we took turns stripping down and taking quick, cold showers for all the locals to see. Next up was rest day entertainment, and instead of literature we drove to Valencia for a tour of the aquarium, an Imax movie, and a showing (dubbed in Spanish) of “The Tourist.” I used to hold the notion that Valencia was an industrial city lacking character and interesting sites. One day at the Oceanografico and the City of Arts and Sciences changed that completely. First of all the architecture of the place is astounding (dude I live in Barcelona, that’s saying something!), google it! The aquarium was the best I have ever seen, showcasing rare species like...

 Beluga Whales!

 Bob Esponja! Sponge Bob!

Even Rock Climbers

The rest day was great, and I’m really happy to have changed my opinion of Valencia. Make me wonder how many places I’m missing out on because of stupid assumptions.

The fifth day I awoke to a surprise: of the four stinky sneakers that we had left outside the van to air out, only three remained. I spent a while hobbling around on one shoe trying to find the missing shoe. One of the stray dogs must have snagged it as a prize. I asked fellow climbers and parking lot residents but without luck. I saw a man walking back to the group of houses behind the parking lot and figured I would ask him too.

“Hi, I left my shoes outside last night and I only woke up with one of them, have you seen a shoe around?” I asked in the “usted” form

After a good laugh he responded, “It’s ok come with me.”

A short walk later we arrived at his, Vicente’s, house and he walked me down to his garage. After ruffling through boxes and all the other crap that exists in garages (Spaniards have just as much crap in garages as Americans!) Vicente produced a pair of old indoor soccer shoes. I tried them on and found them to be too small, but realizing the gravity of my situation –no shoes, no walking to the climbing- I responded, “they’re perfect!” After a conversation I found out that the shoes belonged to their son who used them when he visited from university every now and then. Happily they offered me the shoes and shooed me off to go climb.

The next few days of climbing were great. I climbed “Los Franceses” 12c which was one of the best onsights I have every done. We enjoyed the long routes, and drove back to Barcelona content and very, very tired.

In the last week I’ve sampled some classes back at Universitat Pompeu Fabra. My friend and climbing buddy Jeff Mckinnon just flew in today and we’re off to Sant Llorenc de Montgai tomorrow for a long weekend of climbing. Who could have guessed?

El Oasis, lots of good rock 

 Chulilla

El Oceanográfico