Spain Trip: Boulder in Albarracin or Sport in Catalunya?

[daustin]

Hey everyone!

I have a work trip to Madrid in early September coming up, and just now realizing I can shuffle my schedule such that I'll have an extra 2-3 days for leisure. And as we all know, leisure = climbing. I was hoping I might get input from a few of this forum's Spanish climbing experts (I'm looking at you, heelhook ) on a plan for climbing in Spain. My tentative schedule is:

Monday, Sept. 4th: Fly out of SF
Tuesday, Sept. 5th: Arrive in Spain, rent car, drive to climbing location
Wednesday - Thursday, Sept. 6-7th: Climb!
Friday, Sept. 8th: Travel to Madrid for work

So the main things I have to think about are: convenience in getting to the climbing location from an airport, convenience in getting to Madrid, and availability of a partner. I've boiled this all down to two main options:

Option 1: Bouldering in Albarracin
I could fly into Valencia, rent a car and drive to Albarracin. The bouldering looks awesome, and it seems like it would be fairly easy to either drive the rental car straight to Madrid from Albarracin, or drive back to Valencia to return it and take a train to Madrid. The big advantage here is not needing a partner. From what I've read, sounds like it might still be warm in early September, but not too hot to make climbing miserable.

Option 2: Sport in Catalunya
I could fly into Barcelona, rent a car and drive to Siurana/Margalef. I would absolutely love to go sport climbing here, but the main challenge is that I'll be traveling alone and not sure about finding a partner for sport. I guess I could show up to crags and find partners that way, but this seems risky for only having a couple days of climbing.

So I'm leaning towards option 2. Anyone here have beta on bouldering in Albarracin? Must-see areas, must-do problems, cool non-climbing stuff to see/eat/drink, best places to stay? Think there will be a lot of people there mid-week? From a quick web search, seems like there's a climbing shop in town called Sofa that rents crash pads, so I should be covered in that regard. It also seems like it's just as cheap to rent a car in Valencia and return it in Madrid as it is to rent/return in Valencia and take the train to Madrid.

Thanks in advance for any insights!

[heelhook]

Hey daustin ! So cool you'll be coming to Spain!

So I have a better idea for you, why don't we meet up and go climbing together? I'll be in Andalucia in those dates in between climbing trips (coming back from Berdorf early September and flying to Kalymnos late September). If you feel like coming down to the El Chorro area for some steep limestone I'd totally be into it.

That said, Andalucia and September is not ideal wrt to temps, so if you feel like heading up north that'd also make sense.

Regarding the two options you mentioned; well, Albarracin in September might be... painful. Two days of climbing might be too much as you'll be skinless in just a few moves. Albarracin is super intensive on your skin. YMMV.

Regarding driving to Margalef and Siurana and winging it at the crag. It's unlikely you'll get lucky there. September is the worst month for both crags (trust me, I lived in Margalef two years). I actually just came back from Siurana two weeks ago and there was almost no one there and it wasn't as hot as it's going to be in September. Again, YMMV but I'd be very surprised if you can find climbing partners at the crags in either Margalef or Siurana.

My recommendation would be to get the car in Madrid and just drive north to Bilbao or Rodellar. In Rodellar you WILL find climbing partners. I mean, you might even get annoyed by how many people there will be there; you could be peeing and someone might approach you to give a quick belay on someone's project

Enjoy your trip; I'm sure you're going to have an awesome time! If you stay in Madrid and are looking for a sick climbing gym make sure you hit The Climb, super good with system board, moon board, huge bouldering area, etc.

Pablo

[daustin]

Thanks, Pablo -- super helpful. I really appreciate the offer to climb with you at El Chorro. It does seem a little further away from Madrid than I'd like to travel, though maybe I could make it work.

Great beta about Catalunya. Rodellar looks awesome and sounds like there's an abundance of partners. I'll definitely look into it. That said, I'm leaning towards doing some bouldering just for the convenience of not having to find a partner (or get belayed by a total stranger, that still makes me a bit anxious).

You mention Albarracin being painful in Sept -- is this because of the heat? Or just because it's sharp in general? Since I'll likely only have 2-3 days of climbing, I'm not too worried about skin, and I like that it's not too far from Madrid. Other bouldering areas seem to be Santa Gadea, and a few that are closer to Madrid -- La Pedriza, Zarzalejo, El Escorial. Have you been to any of these places? Seems like another trade-off between cooler temps in September and proximity to Madrid.

Thanks again for your help!!