Ahh Weather

Today we took a semi forced rest day. It rained a lot last night and quite a bit this morning. We were planning on climbing but motivation was low so Linda and Claude stayed at the Albergue with Dylan and I went for a hike around the canyon to look at some of the walls we have not gotten to yet. There were a handful of people out climbing but nowhere near as many as on the previous days.

On our last day of climbing Linda sent her 5.12a that she had done on TR. Claude did a 5.12 and the extention to that route which was 5.12+ and I on-sighted a 5.13a and a 5.13b. Here is a shot of the 5.13a, called El Delfin. It climbs a cool feature and because of this is considered classic, but it is really sharp and overated as far a quality goes IMO. There is a climber on it in this image that I took today while out walking.

Here is a shot of Dylan hanging out by the river while Claude and I were up at El Delfin and the other routes in the area. The routes that Claude and I did were in an area called Las Ventanas, "the windows" where there are 2 arches and a big steep wall to their left. The routes in the arches are on pretty fractured rock and in some cases it is a wonder that the holds don't pull off the wall. The steep wall to the left however is really cool, the further left you go the better it gets. Claude did La Cena de Isodoro which follows an angling crack through the overhang that is dripping with tuffas and the extention adds another 20 feet on top that climbs 2 tuffas that join up near the anchors. The 5.13b that I did was further left up a blunt arete and called A Cravita, which is supposed to be the classic 8a at Rodellar. It was really good to say the least. Fun tuffa climbing to start then a little boulder problem over a roof to some more tuffas, a jump move to a good hold then flat to sloping holds the rest of the way to the anchor and past, I did not clip them till they were at my waist.

The whole day has been spent basically indoors, though it means that Dylan got a nap today, something that only happens on rest and travel days. Because of this he has been pretty good all day...until he fell down the stairs in the Albergue...which was pretty spectacular, took a couple of complete rolls, Linda was sitting at the bottom talking to the caretaker and turned as he got to her and grabbed him...He is fine, but with a couple of nice bumps on his head to show for his efforts. Maybe I'll get a picture of his OWWIES for everyone to share in his pain.

And here is a video of Dylan eating cereal when we were staying at the refugio at outside of Montgrony. I hope you enjoy it because it took something something like 3 hours to load over the free wi-fi at the Albergue, so I will probably not be posting any more videos.

Also Happy Birthday's go out to Melissa "MEL" Anrig and Scotty B.