First off Gaz Parry has made some notable ascents at Sella's Sector Wild Side. On 5th January Gaz made a quick redpoint of Espacio Tiempo F8c as well as on-sighting both La Forquet Del Diablo O Romocop and Dimension Diamante both F8a+ on the same day commenting:
"They were more like F8a but excellent climbing."
More recently Gaz also on-sighted The Destroyer F8a at the Los Pinos/Pinturas area. Prior to his sport climbing exploits Gaz repeated a Mark Edwards E7 (name currently unknown) on the Costa Blanca which he thought was perhaps slightly over-graded and more like E4, but he was as psyched as ever saying:
"I cant wait to do some more!"
Next up is Chris Savage who has also been busy at Sector Wild Side. On the 9th January he red-pointed Pintoreta an F8c that he describes as:
"25m indoor like climbing to a rest at 12m which you can get foot in hole then bouldery rounded tufa then big reaches to the top!bad ass line"
Chris also on-sighted the route Ergometria F8a at the same crag a few days earlier. This is a good start to 2009 for Chris and follows on from last year's good form which included two more F8c red-points and an F8b on-sight.
Finally further north, Tom Bolger continues his love affair with the imposing Catalunyan cave that is Santa Linya. On 25th January Tom red-pointed Santa Lena F8c/+, a route which he describes as:
"Really amazing. Slopey and crimpy."
Earlier in the month Tom also came agonisingly close to an on-sight of the F8b route, Santa Linya. Apparently another amazing and crimpy outing, Tom managed to red-point it on his first attempt but was obviously disappointed to have blown the on-sight. "Estoy idiota" was the comment I think he made!
You can view some photos of Tom's ascent here.
Climbing in the Costa Blanca area has suffered a recent set-back with a large fire breaking out on the Puig Campana. Tragically we have had reports that several people have been killed. More information is available on this UKC Forum Thread.
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