CIEE Blog March

CIEE blog for March, based on my Alquezar trip.

Hacia Tierra Salvaje

It seems a lot of students have similar travel plans: Amsterdam, Berlin, Lisbon, Marrakech, Paris, and the Alps. The Alps are sort of the odd one in the group in that they present a higher risk of getting frostbite or buried in the bottom of an alpine crevasse. However, it seems that after several weeks near the ocean some students need a change of scenery and jet towards the most well known mountains of the continent. Not that I recommend against the Alps, in fact I have some great memories of steep skiing, shivering bivouacs, and acute altitude sickness, but despite the loss of brain cells incurred by those activities I can still reason that a lot of people might not be looking for such adventures. Maybe there is an alternative...

According to a recent and reliable 30 second Google search Spain is the second most mountainous country in Europe (after Switzerland). Sure there are the nearby “mountains” like Montjuic and Tibidabo, and the slightly farther Montserrat, but my six month long hands-on research has also shown that within a two hour drive in any direction (except east) one is sure to come across some sort of interesting mountainous terrain. For rock climbing and hiking the terrain is endless, and a trip to any Barcelona mountain store is sure to inspire a trek into the wild. For skiing the Pyrenees are the under-appreciated mountain range to the north offering excellent skiing at better prices and less-likely-to-cause-frostbite temperatures. Several companies offer round trip deals from Barcelona to the Pyrenees making transportation a breeze.

In order to take full advantage of the nearby terrain I recommend checking out some of the local clubs and organizations. It turns out that the Club Alpí Català, founded in 1876, is the oldest in Spain and one of the oldest in Europe. More importantly these days the club offers an endless variety of weekend adventures, some for complete beginners and some for seasoned outdoorsmen. Nearly every weekend in the appropriate seasons there are trips going hiking, cycling, nordic and alpine skiing, rock climbing, mountaineering, ski mountaineering, and canyoning (and I guarantee you’ll have a better time than the guy in 127 Hours). The truth is that Cataluña offers countless daylong and weekend adventures and can keep the avid outdoor enthusiast occupied for a lifetime. If you’re not interested in an adventure, the mountains of Spain offer casual and relaxing days in the sun too, even in the middle of winter. So, at the very least think twice about booking that flight to the Alps, a trip to the local mountains might be more rewarding and even a bit more relaxing.

CIEE Blog February

Here is the February post I wrote for the CIEE (my study abroad program blog), which I submitted on "February 29th"

Flip-flops in February

Apparently there are seven cardinal sins, I wouldn’t know what they are because I’m not religious nor enough of a Brad Pitt fan to have seen Seven. Regardless, I can guess what would make the list. However, in Barcelona there seems to be an eighth: wearing flip-flops in winter (I’ll wager it didn’t make the first seven). When described in magazines, newspapers, and travel guides Barcelona is usually preceded by adjectives like young, stylish, diverse, and open-minded. No doubt, Barcelona has an exciting flavor and all of those adjectives apply, but flip-flops seem to be the point where style and open-mindedness collide. Style comes out on top, but at least the collision provides some great entertainment.

On the first day of orientation, a short six months ago, our group of salmon-polo, khaki shorts, flip-flops wearing students received a short presentation about how to blend in, and clearly we needed it. We were recommended to look around and see how Spanish students dressed, and it was noted that in general Spanish students tend to dress up a bit more for school. While walking around Universitat Pompeu Fabra it’s easy to see what is fashionable these days. Despite numerous students bringing brightly colored “Spain clothing” the trend is definitely in the darker colors, particularly shades of grey and black. Up top Spain has some very distinct hairstyles. Generally guys sport shorter hair and use a good amount of gel, and for the ladies bangs abound. However, the most noteworthy hairstyle is undoubtedly the dreaded mullet. A dreaded mullet? Think military cut up front, Lil Wayne in the back. Actually it’s not really fair to generalize the dreaded mullet, after all within the genre there are several sub-styles. Always business up front, but the party in the back varies. Some go for a single long dread, some for a few long dreads, some keep their dreads short, resembling tarantula legs, and, in the most extreme cases, some ornament their single dread with jewelry, key chains, and other jingly-janglies. Looking down you’ll find clogs, sneakers, slippers, heels, and boots. All of these fall within the realm of being stylish. No flip-flops.

During the fall semester, when hot temperatures made between-class beach stops a necessity, flip-flops were tolerated. Wintertime is a different story and, despite the incredible weather, it’s clear that my California born philosophy of “sun’s-out-toes-out” is not shared in Barcelona. So, around late October when the beach visits stopped, I started with the grey sneakers and brought out my darker jeans. Being blonde and pale skinned makes looking like a local a near-impossibility, but I made an effort to adopt the style. However, despite my best efforts, sometimes wearing flip-flops cannot be avoided. In my case, wearing flip-flops usually results from the combination of general laziness and nice weather. Lately there has been an abundance of the latter, and honestly there is never a shortage of the former (which explains why you’re reading a February blog post in March). Luckily, in comparison to the US, Spain’s laundry machine rates are significantly higher, so I can claim that my lack of clean socks and apparent laziness toward simple chores is instead an example of my frugal nature. Regardless, I’ve been wearing flip-flops in February.

I got used to the strange looks after a couple days. A couple people shook their heads. Even the nice weather didn’t deter some people from asking, rhetorically, “aren’t you cold?” The standout moment came as I was walking from the metro to class at the Casa. A fellow pedestrian, himself rocking a dreaded mullet (a few long dreads, nearly hip-length, in case you were wondering), casually approached until he suddenly caught sight of my flip-flops and stopped dead in his tracks. He shot me a horrified look, threw his hands up, and yelled “estás loco?!?!” Despite the stinging irony of having my style be called crazy by guy with a dreaded mullet, I quickly responded “no estoy loco. soy loco!” Feeling witty thinking I had just said, “I’m not crazy today, I’m crazy all the time!” I later realized that instead I said something along the lines of “I’m not crazy, I’m actually mentally insane!” Joke’s on me I guess.

Nowadays I have clean socks so I’m back to wearing stylish grey sneakers. I figure I have two weeks before I’m back to flip-flops, and hopefully by then spring will be in.

Alquezar

The problem with working is that it can get it the way of doing something fun. The solution is holidays. Usually holidays are taken to celebrate a well-known historical day or a famous person, for example here in Cataluña September 11 commemorates the day Barcelona was sacked by French-Spanish forces (apparently there is no victory in Catalan history to celebrate). However, requiring an event or a person to take a holiday can lead to the problem of needing a holiday when no holidays are in sight. Thus, feeling desperate in the period between Christmas and Easter, Spain invented a holiday. I think the Spanish government forgot the second step of assigning some meaning to the holiday, but at least everyone got to enjoy a day off of work. So with three days free we decided to check out a new area: Alquezar.

Alquezar is an old town in the Pyrenees of Aragon, and it certainly holds the mysticism suggested by the name. Over the centuries the limestone stained Rio Vero has cut the mountains of the Sierra de Guara and formed a deep canyon surrounded by sheer walls. These days it is a paradise for hikers, canyoners, and climbers. While it was the climbing we came for, I think I enjoyed experiencing the landscape the most. It was like nothing I have seen, like the start of another world.

The climbing was excellent, and we spent two days climbing long routes on the right side of the castle and one day getting crushed on the caves to the left. I enjoyed getting some nice easier onsights and on Sunday pulled off a great onsight of Alquezar.com 12c. On Saturday I had a little bad luck when a foothold broke well after the crux on another 12c onsight, but no worries, onsighting Alquezar.com was enough. Usually when I show up at a cliff for the first time there are certain lines that immediately catch my eye, series of chalked holds that flow through improbable features or natural lines up the rock tend to be where I look. The better I get the more incredible lines open up to me, and this was definitely the case for Alquezar.com. The climb is actually two pitches, the first a long and vertical 11b, and the second an explosively overhanging 12c. In this case you don’t stop to belay, but instead keep climbing. Overall the climb was probably about 150 feet tall, with all of the hard moves in the top twenty feet. One move involved a dynamic leap from one two-finger pocket to another two-finger pocket, leaving me dangling by a total of four fingers and no feet! Usually I don’t think too much while I climb, but I did have a split second thought: “Aww man that was sick!” Not very eloquent, but it was best I could do in the moment. I struggled to clip the anchor, and it was a very rewarding onsight.

Alquezar is know for being a winter climbing spot because all of the walls face south and it gets a lot of heat. For the days we were there it was actually a little too hot, and so we ended up climbing some easier routes during the day and then getting on the harder stuff as the sun was setting. On Sunday, we found the middle of the day simply too hot to climb. I decided to venture down the canyon to check it out, and I ended up going for a swim.

When I rejoined the rest of the group it was still too hot to climb, and after my tale of a refreshing bath we all went down for a swim. Unfortunately my camera battery died filming my first trip down to the river, so I didn’t get any footage of our whole group swimming.

I think we caught the climbing on the end of the season, so I won’t be heading back to Alquezar in the near future. However, nearby Rodellar is just coming into season so I’m looking forward to getting back to the Pyrenees sometime soon.

For now I’m off to Montgrony!

February come and gone...

Well it’s been a little slow on the Blogging front, sorry. Study abroad has been a lot of study lately. Biggest of all was a 45 min presentation about representations of the myth of Achilles in art, in Spanish of course. I’ll try to catch up.

A few weeks ago I traveled the furthest from Barcelona that I have been since coming to Spain over five months ago. Madrid! Every semester the whole study abroad program goes on a trip, and so all fifty students jumped on an early morning train on Friday and left for a weekend in Madrid. I didn’t really know what to expect from Madrid apart from what I had read in Rick Steve’s Spain guide, which wasn’t much. Overall, I was really impressed with Madrid, and I had a great time. On Friday we spent some time walking around the city, checking out the palace, the plazas, and the other major sites. The evening was the highlight of the day though. First we went to a Mexican restaurant where, compared to the US, we paid twice as much for half the food. In Spain though, Mexican food is a novelty and middle eastern food is the cheap food. We wandered around Madrid for a while, enjoying the lively atmosphere of the late night, until we finally arrived at a salsa club for rumba night. Now, I’m not much of a salsa dancer and have no clue what rumba is, but I’m pretty damn good at making a fool of myself. Luckily in our group was Michelle, whose Latin-American heritage meant she knew every song playing and the proper dances to go with them. After getting rumba 101, I began with the fool making. By the end of the night I got a thumbs up from a Cuban guy, but I’m not sure if it was a “thanks for making the rest of us look good” thumbs up or a “awesome, you almost look like a beginner” thumbs up. Either way, it was a fun night. Saturday we went to Toledo for the day, where we essentially went on a three religions tour. We saw one Jewish temple that was an Islamic mosque for a while, one enormous cathedral, and another small church housing an incredible Greco painting. Sunday we were back in Madrid. Despite a night at the lively El Tigre bar, and some bar hopping in the gay neighborhood, I was ready early the next morning to do some art touring. I made sure to take full advantage of the free espresso in the breakfast lounge, probably putting the hotel out of business. We were off to the museum, and I was off to the Guernica. Wandering for a few minutes through a few Picassos and the war propaganda section, I attempted to make it look like I was there for something other than the Guernica. I gave up and bee-lined for it. It is stunning.

 the palace

 attempting artistic photography

 curved walls to support the weight of the adjacent plaza

 Toledo.

 another attempt at artistry. 

 Gazing at the Guernica

 The Guernica

Plaza-ing

On the climbing front I’ve been climbing a bunch at Margalef. In general I’ve been getting crushed, which can be hard to deal with but I can easily rationalize. At the moment, after going through a full six weeks of climbing outside and the going through three weeks of low-intensity, high-volume base training I have absolutely no power, but I can hang on for a while and my technique has never been better. Basically this has meant that I have been onsighting 12b like crazy, but have been getting shut down on most 12c’s and every 12d. 12b usually presents moves that are just below my power threshold, but if I push it to the threshold or a little higher then I’m off. There was one route a couple weeks ago that crushed me more than the rest, an incredible 12d on the Balcó de l’hermita in Margalef. Despite knowing that I should be logging a lot of 5.11 climbs as part of the base building period, I keep pushing myself onto harder stuff. I have never onsighted a 12d before, but for some reason I convinced myself that it was time to change that. While tying in I studied the series of small pockets that sparsely dotted the first fifteen feet. A quick knot check and belay check and I was off. Two finger pockets -just reaching the first joint on the fingers- were linked by long and precise stabs. The moves were difficult, but I did them perfectly, and with a little teeth gritting I found myself past the powerful start. A short shake out and I kept going, linking move after move of small pocket pulling. I clipped the last bolt, a few far pockets the only obstacles to my first 12d onsight, but a familiar cramping was working into my forearms. I was pumped. Fall now or fall later has become the negative phrase that has taken me to the top of my best climbs, and now it starts to creep into my head automatically when I start getting tired. Fall later, I thought, and threw for the next pocket, and the next, and the next. Hitting a large three finger pocket next to anchor told me the climb was over, my first 12d onsight, but that’s when tragedy struck. I reached to clip the anchor with my left hand, but the carabiner was stuck. After fumbling for several seconds I grabbed the anchor, my belayer thought I had clipped in took up some slack, and I was soon flying off the rock. And that was it, no 12d onsight. I hung in silence, crushed, knowing that I could have done nothing differently, but still being empty handed. It’s silly because I can easily justify onsighting the climb, but for some reason I can’t justify it for myself. Climbing is funny that way, it’s our personal standards that really matter. The climb haunted me for a while, but I think in the long run it was good for me. Instead of going home, eating a kebab and drinking beer, I ate a salad and planned my week’s training. Despite feeling crushed, the fact that I can almost onsight 12d when I’m not in best form is a good sign. Also, as much as I enjoy hitting a new grade, I climb because I like the challenge and having to fight my hardest. I had to dig deep to keep going. I’ll always remember the intensity of the last few moves, and the emotion of slowly falling away from the anchors. Cataluña has no shortage of 12d’s, so I’ll keep trying, and trying, until it happens.

Over the last several months I have been thinking about some possibilities for the future. I came here with the intention of experiencing Spain, becoming a stronger climber, and returning to US with future aspirations unchanged. However, the realization has recently sunk in that Spain will not be a one-year program, and that I will be back, perhaps for many more years. Being 22 means that many friends are facing college graduation with the threat of “real life” looming in the near future. Despite having another year in Boulder before my own graduation, after college options have been on my mind lately. I have been seriously considering the possibility of coming back to Spain for a masters or doctorate program, and at the moment the prospect of spending several more years out here is very exciting.

"I'm looking into graduate school out here," I told my friend Jan, the owner of Rockbusters who turned his Spain roadtrip into a career, over a beer recently.

"Pshhhh, you'll be back." He said. I'm not sure whether he was so certain of my ability to get into graduate school or my complete addiction to Spanish limestone. 

At the same time it is daunting to be taking steps toward a more definite future, but I suppose sooner or later every young adult faces the same challenge. Being called a “young adult” used to bug me. I think I wanted to be considered a real adult, and I must have secretly hoped that being called a grown man would help my chances of growing a real beard. Now, looking at my fuzzy stubble I think I can say young adult is probably the appropriate term. After all neither an adolescent nor a real adult would have a web browser with open tabs to “Political Science Postgraduate Programs” and “DOUBLE RAINBOW SONG!”

I'm off on a 3 day adventure to Alquezar this weekend. Somewhere new and exciting.