In mid October this year I was fortunate enough to have a week in Pedriza on invite from Manuel Cordova and Jesus Garcia Frances. In the mid 90s I used to see the odd article about Pedriza but for the last decade it has fallen off the radar and I had some reservations about going there rather than the standard limestone cliffs. Some of my main concerns were that there weren’t going to be many routes, they were going to be all desperate polished slabs and that I was going to get sandbagged. These turned out to be a foolish as the place was phenomenal, having great views, everything from overhanging faces to ridiculously easy angled slabs, great bouldering, vultures and several lifetimes’ worth of climbing to do and development left to occur. Just before going out I had spoken with Johnny Dawes about the area and he had warned that some of the 6b+s were old school and desperate, these words came back to haunt me a few days later.
Dani on El Bodeguero
Having arrived in Madrid I was kindly picked up by top alpinist Manuel Cordova. Pedriza lies an hour North from the biggest city in Spain above a lovely town called Manzaneres el Real. We stayed in a small town nearby, Soto del Real. Each day would have a similar framework for food, we’d have toast at eight in the morning, Manu would have a small banana (3inch by 1) and a cereal bar (114Kcal) for lunch, I would have twice as much as Manu and we’d eat a main meal about ten or after at night.
We spent the first 2 days on El Reloj (the clock) which offers vertical crimping style routes of between 20 and 30 metres in length, all of top quality, some of the best we did here were:
Codan el barbaro 6a+
El Bodeguero 6c+
Metal Y Tan 7b
Orquidea salvaje 8a.
We spent the first 2 days on El Reloj (the clock) which offers vertical crimping style routes of between 20 and 30 metres in length, all of top quality, some of the best we did here were:
Codan el barbaro 6a+
El Bodeguero 6c+
Metal Y Tan 7b
Orquidea salvaje 8a.
On the 3rd day we went to an area which was the ‘real deal’ of slab climbing and one which I’d not experienced considering I’ve climbed a lot on granite and slate. On the Placas Principales, sector derecho o muro superior.
It felt like a shorter bolted version of Etive slabs. We had two more members of the team Aitor, top guy, climber, local, filmmaker and Dario who directs Desnivel which as well as being the main Spanish climbing magazine is a huge mountain bookshop in the centre of Madrid.
Aitor recommended a route called Azul de Samarcanda a 6b+ diagonal line as a warm up! Aitor lent me encouragement on the first 3m I managed to clip the 2nd bolt with relief and thought back to Dawes words. It had felt like an e4 6b and although I’d felt good on an 8a and 8a+ I’d done the prior day I knew I was in for a Pedriza kicking at this new and very different venue.
The 2nd warm up Semilla Negra, 7a+ felt like a grit e6 6c. The next was Jartum, 7b+/c which felt like an e7 6c which is ridiculous as the bolts were really close together! La Llambria, 7c+/8a felt much the same in terms of lack of security and by the end of the day I felt mentally drained from the feeling of possibly falling off nearly every move all day.
It felt like a shorter bolted version of Etive slabs. We had two more members of the team Aitor, top guy, climber, local, filmmaker and Dario who directs Desnivel which as well as being the main Spanish climbing magazine is a huge mountain bookshop in the centre of Madrid.
Aitor recommended a route called Azul de Samarcanda a 6b+ diagonal line as a warm up! Aitor lent me encouragement on the first 3m I managed to clip the 2nd bolt with relief and thought back to Dawes words. It had felt like an e4 6b and although I’d felt good on an 8a and 8a+ I’d done the prior day I knew I was in for a Pedriza kicking at this new and very different venue.
The 2nd warm up Semilla Negra, 7a+ felt like a grit e6 6c. The next was Jartum, 7b+/c which felt like an e7 6c which is ridiculous as the bolts were really close together! La Llambria, 7c+/8a felt much the same in terms of lack of security and by the end of the day I felt mentally drained from the feeling of possibly falling off nearly every move all day.
Aitor looking over the Sector derecho o muro superior
Aitor suggested that they feel more secure if it is 5 degrees cooler and I mentioned I’d be keen to go somewhere with grips the next day. Later that night we headed to the Desnivel bookshop in the centre of Madrid where I wished I’d spent more time on Duolingo before dithering through a presentation. The Main Square in Madrid is a five minute walk from Desnivel and myself and Manu strolled there afterwards for a late night paella.
Elena on Vickie el Vikingo, 8a+, Pelaez de Yemas is the left hand rib
The following day we went to an area with a different style again: Risco de la Peseta. Starting on some great 30m slab pitches on the lower tier before going to an area with some great lines. I found it difficult to gauge the angle but Aitor had assured me there were holds on the climbs here as I was keen to use my upper limbs. Aitor was keen for me to try a classic 8a+ called the Pelaez de Yemas . Getting up it without slipping off felt something of a miracle and if Aitor mentions there are holds on routes I wouldn’t expect any good crimps. If anyone enjoys classic climbs on the slate such as the Medium they would do well to pay this sector a visit.
Elena on Vickie el Vikingo
Aitana on Puro Barrio with the 7a crack on the left That night we were joined by Pedro Pons (Boreal team manager) and Nuria along with Ignaci and Sara. The last time I’d seen them was at their lovely guest house overlooking Chulilla. It had been a rather noisy last night in Chulilla and it tested my Spanish to the limit to try and palm that whole evening off onto Jordan and Nathan but I think I managed it.
The following day involved an hours’ drive to meet up with many other climbers including Luiz Munoz, Jesus, Carlos Lagrono and Nacho Sanchez. We went to a pretty impressive limestone bouldering venue which certainly pisses over any I’ve seen in Britain. There were some strong scenes, none of which involved me and I was instantly missing the slabs of Pedriza. People more than 6 foot 5 were trying a font 8b dyno which did look impossible. It was great to see Pedro looking steely strong, Carlos romping up an 8b and Nacho nearly doing a rather chunky looking font 8c with the last deadpoint to a mono looking particularly hard. I would have liked to have had Dan Varian and Ned there to do some ‘team sends’.
The following day with a much smaller team we headed to El Muro (E). This face offers yet different climbing again being a steep slab and offering climbing which feels just off vertical with some normal holds here and there. The top routes we did here were:
Puro Barrio 6a+
La Raya del Luis, 7a+
La Mana de Espana, 7a crack
La Correvuela, 8a
The following day involved an hours’ drive to meet up with many other climbers including Luiz Munoz, Jesus, Carlos Lagrono and Nacho Sanchez. We went to a pretty impressive limestone bouldering venue which certainly pisses over any I’ve seen in Britain. There were some strong scenes, none of which involved me and I was instantly missing the slabs of Pedriza. People more than 6 foot 5 were trying a font 8b dyno which did look impossible. It was great to see Pedro looking steely strong, Carlos romping up an 8b and Nacho nearly doing a rather chunky looking font 8c with the last deadpoint to a mono looking particularly hard. I would have liked to have had Dan Varian and Ned there to do some ‘team sends’.
The following day with a much smaller team we headed to El Muro (E). This face offers yet different climbing again being a steep slab and offering climbing which feels just off vertical with some normal holds here and there. The top routes we did here were:
Puro Barrio 6a+
La Raya del Luis, 7a+
La Mana de Espana, 7a crack
La Correvuela, 8a
La Correvuela
La Correvuela was probably the best route of the trip and is like a shorter and more difficult version of The Indian Face climbing lots of Shallow Scoops but with thankfully plenty of bolts.
Later that day Dario made the funniest comment of the trip saying how there were lots of charismatic climbers in Britain. He obviously hadn’t spent much time in Sheffield, although with improvements in stem cell therapy there is hope yet. Dario put a few short videos of some of the climbs online which Mark Reeves commented were some of the most exciting climbing videos he’d ever seen?
Later that day Dario made the funniest comment of the trip saying how there were lots of charismatic climbers in Britain. He obviously hadn’t spent much time in Sheffield, although with improvements in stem cell therapy there is hope yet. Dario put a few short videos of some of the climbs online which Mark Reeves commented were some of the most exciting climbing videos he’d ever seen?
The final day we had some bad weather and utilized the excellent Climb rocodromo where Manu showed me how easily he could crack out a load of 1 arm pull ups and Carlos, Alfonso and Luiz were lapping up 1,5,9s on the campus. I gave another talk at this wall on that night and big up to these super strong guys, Jesus and crew for coming along and giving up part of their evening. Me, Manu and Luiz went for the biggest burgers in Spain at the ‘Pirates Bar’. I’d been struggling to sleep for much of the week so that last night decided to scroll through the internet looking for the most boring reading I could find, I eventually settled on Nick Bullocks Blog and was out in seconds.
Aitor had been our main friend/guide of the trip and he had suggested that spending a winter there would be a good idea, if the opportunity arises in a couple of years I’ll certainly endeavour to do this. We didn’t get to one of the major slabs where the brilliant looking Artherencia lies which looks as good a slab as I’ve seen. For climbing a great deal of stunning granite I can’t think of anywhere better in the world. It has a huge number of slabs, faces, corners and cracks, mainly single pitch that are well bolted with a good guidebook for the single pitch routes, unlike Yosemite. Aitor seemed to know of a huge number of stunning looking projects from 8b to 9a scattered around.
Aitor had been our main friend/guide of the trip and he had suggested that spending a winter there would be a good idea, if the opportunity arises in a couple of years I’ll certainly endeavour to do this. We didn’t get to one of the major slabs where the brilliant looking Artherencia lies which looks as good a slab as I’ve seen. For climbing a great deal of stunning granite I can’t think of anywhere better in the world. It has a huge number of slabs, faces, corners and cracks, mainly single pitch that are well bolted with a good guidebook for the single pitch routes, unlike Yosemite. Aitor seemed to know of a huge number of stunning looking projects from 8b to 9a scattered around.
Luiz and Manu
I’d highly recommend it for anyone wanting to improve on granite, improve footwork or just go to hang out in a lovely spot with a friendly atmosphere.
Big thanks to Manu for looking after me, Jesus for sending me, Aitor for being a legend, Paulo for getting me and Manu into a posh party in Madrid, Pedro for keeping me with Boreal and everyone who came to the presentations given in the worst Spanish imaginable.
Great effort from Mcmanus and Pwiddy on the Secret Passage in Yosemite as well, it sounds a serious outing.
Big thanks to Manu for looking after me, Jesus for sending me, Aitor for being a legend, Paulo for getting me and Manu into a posh party in Madrid, Pedro for keeping me with Boreal and everyone who came to the presentations given in the worst Spanish imaginable.
Great effort from Mcmanus and Pwiddy on the Secret Passage in Yosemite as well, it sounds a serious outing.
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