Well here we are living in Santa Linya!! Walking from our house to the crag, the cave!
Climbing in Santa linya is probably one of the most surreal places, when your in the village you feel like you are on the edge of the world this is a place where donkeys and packs of wild dogs rule the rutted and mostly dirt streets and where the average age is at a youthly 72.
On arrival at the cave, however, you will probably be greeted by an array of very expensive vans, large groups of people speaking in more languages than you thought existed and nearly all of them queueing up to get on some 9b or another.
Every winter the cave fills up and we spectate watching the climbing elite come from all corners of the world to test themselves on the amazing hard routes that are to be had. Just over the last few weeks there has been an impressive show from team Japan each of the four members climbing 8c+. I think that you can learn so much just from watching the different climbing styles and different approaches to routes. The Japanese guys try to onsight everything even if it is at there redpoint limit. This positive mentality and approach is maybe something we could all bring to our climbing. When was the last time you thought oh yeh this route is as hard as the hardest route I've ever done , I'll just get on it and onsight it?
Well anyway as for me, I have been trying a route called Ciudad del dios 9a/+, having fallen near the top and struggling with flappers and heel slips and numb hands and any other excuse I could think of for falling rather than I just fell, I decided to have a shot on blomu 8c+.
Blomu is an awesome route it breaks dow into three parts 7c, 8b, 8c+ the first is quite short and burly the second is crimpy with two dynamic throws and the third part consists of delicate heel hooks, tenuous body tension foot swaps and a pretty spicy run out, the whole thing is a truly brilliant route. Very psyched to do it but it just isn't my project, which, I am more motivated than ever to get back on, hopefully I can squeeze a couple more cositas out of the tank to top off what has been my best year of climbing to date.
