UKC

Hi Guys,
Few of us are heading out to barcelona in May and hoping to get a days climbing in.
Wondering if anyone could recommend anywhere?
Everyone climbs a variety of grades but no one will be climbing mega hard.
Don't mind heading out of the city but probably not going to have a car so as accessible as possible would be great.

Any advice would be top

Thanks,
Josie

In reply to lady_radiation:


http://www.rockfax.com/climbing-guides/miniguides/barcelona/


Chris

In reply to lady_radiation: Montserrat is well worth a visit and easy to get to from Barcalona.

In reply to lady_radiation:
The best crag for grade spread, position and route quality is Gelida, about 40 mins drive from the city centre (you need a car).

The Rockfax guide does a good job of getting you there but, beyond that, is a bit useless now (sorry Chris), as more lines have been added since its publication. If you google 'Gelida ressenyes' you should be able to find some more up to date topos.

Of the other crags in the rockfax guide (I've climbed almost every route in it), both Pas de la Mala Dona and Penya Ginesta are worth a visit, all the others are best described as 'for local interest only'.

Montserrat is about an hour from Barcelona, and is a different experience altogether.

In reply to Alun:

We tried Subirats, and one or two of the routes were rather good. The others were a bit pants though. We picked it because Rockfax said it was relatively quiet - which it was, in the same sort of way that Stanage Popular End on a sunny bank holiday is quiet

In reply to Alun:

No - that is fair comment, it could do with a refresh, especially the Gelida section. I'll add it to the 'To Do' list.


Chris

In reply to Chris Craggs:
I emailed Alan a while ago offering to help with this. He provisionally accepted, but also put it on the To-do list (I think somewhere nearer the bottom!)

In reply to Toreador:

Indeed. In the 6 years of living out here I've been to Subirats once, while I've been back to Gelida and Pas de la Mala Dona more times than I can remember!

To be honest, all the crags in the book are a little 'old' now, and attention (at least, my attention!) has moved on to newer discoveries; but for visitors some of them are a great day out.

In reply to Alun:

OK - lets get on with it, I'll need to get the original files and see how much work is involved. Consider it promoted to the top of the To Do list.

I'll be in touch shortly.


Chris

In reply to Chris Craggs:

I have had a word with Alan and it isn't great news. the Barcelona Miniguide was originally created in Quark Express which we stopped using years ago. Conversion isn't easily accomplished which probably means starting again from scratch. I'll have to look at the schedule as several other projects are bubbling away and this one isn't a very high priority.


Chris

In reply to Alun:

Hi Alun,

Following on from the 'Lleida Climbs' and 'Tarragona Climbs' selective guidebooks to Catalan areas, Dani Andrada and I have been discussing a projected Barcelona/Girona book with various local activists.

Whether or not we actually go ahead will largely depend on enough of the locals accepting our plans and agreeing to help us in return for substantial bolt-funding (as has happened in Lleida and Tarragona).

If and when we go ahead with the project I would welcome your input as a fellow 'foreinger'!

Cheers,

Pete.

In reply to lady_radiation:

Hi Josie,

First of all, sorry to hijack your post.

Enjoy your stay in Barcelona. If you really want to get a day's climbing in I would suggest Montserrat as the best idea.

Pete.

Subirats is my local crag. It has a few routes well worth doing, but it's also got very very polished, actual see-your-face-in-the-rock polish on some routes, and that's because the days of it being quiet are long past. It's easily accessible to the Barcelona Metropolitan area and it's shady on summer afternoons so it's heaving at the weekends. It used to be nice and quiet in the evening during the week, not any more.

I'd agree with going to gelida, has some real good routes, bit polished nowadays, and there's lots of variety in montserrat, 2 more suggestions I would throw out are grau dels matxos- nice sandstone crag 45 mins away from b arcelona and shady in the afternoon, routes start getting really good from 7a onwards, but there are some good routes below that aswell,

And st llorenc del munt, you can find all the info on google.

Have fun

In reply to lady_radiation: Thanks for all the advice, although it took a bit of picking through to find it. Going to do a bit of a Google on some of the mentioned places.
It would just be really nice to climb in the sun rather then horrendous winds like last weekend!

In reply to lady_radiation:

Getting back on topic... I would definitely recommend Montserrat. Just back from a couple of days there for my first experience of climbing in Spain and it was amazing. Just a short 40 mins to the monastery and you are surrounded by finger tempting rock. Because it is a popular tourist pilgrimage there is a train service that gets you there very easily if you arent hiring a car. We went midweek and had most of the classic routes all to ourselves. However, topping out on some peaks there was a queue for the descent so I would think that going there on a saturday or sunday would mean you would be jostling for position. But, with so many amazing climbs there you can guarantee that something will be free if you are flexible.

Hope you have as good a time as we did wherever you go. Just dont pack your rope in your hand luggage like I did... and forked out an extra £60 to check it in.