UKC

Planning a trip to Montserrat, North of Barcelona this Nov. and was looking for any tips on where is best for mid grade trad routes (single & multi pitch)- Two main areas seem to be covered by vertiente norte and cara sur guidebooks but can't seem to find any really decent resources on internet about the climbing or local camping in these areas. Any recommendations much appreciated.

In reply to Tuborg:

I would hazard a guess that more than 90% of the climbing in Montserrat is sport...for both single or multi-pitch.

My own experience there is pretty limited but i think you might be restricting yourself unneccesarily.

In reply to Morgan Woods:

Not the best person to help as I haven't been for many years & then only for the sport but as no-one else is saying anything.

There used to be a campsite near the monastery with a bar & a (limited but adequate) shop in the monastery itself. If that's still open then it's good.

Main snag is that AFAIK most of the trad is further up the mountain.
Fine if the 'pherique's running & you can afford it but otherwise a long plod oh & the bells will drive you maaaaad!

From what I saw of the rock I would expect the trad to be scary.
At a guess lots of slings for optimistic draping over pebbles & probably some blu-tac.

In reply to i.munro:

lol

In reply to Morgan Woods:

Why, thank you kind sir.

In reply to Tuborg:

I would guess that trand climbing in Monserrat would be bloody scary, seeing as practicaly the whole place is giant conglomorate towers, with lots of loose pebbles everywhere.

We were there end of last October, and stayed at the campsite my the monastary. It was pretty run down, and we were the only ones there, but it was cheap and had cracking views. It has obviously been a bit of a climbing destination in the past, with big campus boards and route traverses painted onto the walls everywhere.

We only climbed sport there, which was nice enough, though the routes all seem to feel the same after a while, pulling on pebbles of varying steepness. You can get some pretty improbable looking lines for the grade though, and the views are spectacular.

There are a few huts above the monestary which are closer to the climbs than the campsite, could be better to stay there than the campsite as you don't have to hike up or get the train every day.

Its a cool place to visit and spend a couple of days, the bells will drive you mad though!

In reply to Tuborg:

We just camped off the road, as it was SO DARK by the time we got back down - we missed the last telpherique and had quite an adventure...

But half way through the night, a park warden came and told us off and made us move...

Once again - we only sports climbed...

In reply to Tuborg:
There are several previous thread on Montserrat, if you're after more information. On the last thread I wrote quite a bit about camping, bivvying and staying the refuges.

Morgan's statement that 90% of the climbing on Montserrat is sport climbing is either very true or very wrong, depending on your viewpoint. What is true is that there are aren't many bolt-free routes on the mountain, almost every route will have some form of fixed protection, and certainly bolted belays. However, there are a fair number of "semi-trad" routes, which basically means trad but with the odd bolt in to protect a tricky bit. More particularly, easier routes tend to have less fixed gear, some of the 5s and 5+s can be very runout indeed.

If you are keen on climbing lower grade stuff (not higher than 5+) then the two best areas for you will be the south-east face (the last chapter in the Cara Sur guidebook) which is almost entirely trad, and has lots of routes up to 10 pitches long; and the Gorros (seperate guidebook), which is less featured and has more bolts.

For mid-higher grade stuff head to the area around Vinya Nova which has several excellent routes between 3-8 pitches, mostly in the 6s and low 7s. The north face is the place to go for the truly impressive steep walls but it will be very very cold in November.

One last point, the style of climbing in Montserrat is very different and the grading is tough. I climb at least a couple of grades lower there than I do on the local limestone.

In reply to Alun:

Thanks very much to all for the info. Pretty useful forum this one. Maybe I'm going to look at other options. Live in Sweden so just wanted to find a bit of warmth somewhere this winter and not so keen on bolts.

In reply to Tuborg:

go to Arapiles!

In reply to Morgan Woods:

You could try the Calanques. A better bet for warmth than Montserrat I think.