UKC

Just finalising plans a first time trip with my son to Catalonia for a week over the Christmas and New Year period. I've already had some great advice via the forum. As a result I had a look at both the Lleida and Tarragona guides for quantity and quality of climbs in the 5 - 6b sort of range. Camasara looks like a good base for Lleida but I'm a bit put off by the reputation it has for low lying mists. The area around Siurana looks fantastic in terms of character and scenery. Although I get the sense that lower grade routes may be a bit more thin on the ground. It does all look a bit harder than the Cost Blanca crags I'm more familiar with. So I was thinking about booking accommodation in Cornudella de Monsanto and using that as a base to explore Siurana, Arboli, La Mussara. The distances don't look far on the map, but I wonder how easy it is to drive between some of the main crag areas from a central base? Any thoughts or advice on the choice of area, base and/ or recommendations on accommodation would be very gratefully received. Thanks in advance.

In reply to alastairmac:

Cornudella would be a good base for Siurana and Arboli, easy drive and close to the shops. Margalef is a bit further but not unreasonable, and plenty of lower grade stuff there. Not sure about other areas, but so much to go at without going any further away.

In reply to alastairmac:

Quite easy to spend a week there and not run out of things to do at all - even Siurana has enough up to 6b to keep you going for a week.

In reply to alastairmac:

Not wanting to confuse matters now you've decided on Siurana/Mussara etc, but just a general point: I was in the Tremp area last December and there was indeed an impressive inversion fog for a lot of our visit. However, Ager and Abella de la Conca were above it. Also, from our accommodation in St Engracia we could see that the conglomerate part of Collegats was probably clear of it too. That said, I have great memories of Mussara and Arboli and I'm sure you'll enjoy those just as much!

In reply to alastairmac:

The mists (as of October) affected Camarasa until later in the day but not higher places like Vilanova de Meia, and Ager - possibly Abella de Conca . They also seemed to stop westwards Os de Balageuer was ok

But they may be more severe over the Winter

In reply to alastairmac:

Everything's fairly close together so pretty easy to get around (as long as you don't mind twisty mountain roads, there's not much in the way of straight lines here), but when the misty inversions are on the whole area tends to sit in the clouds, with only the mountain top crags out in the clear. If you're up on those mountain top crags though, the views while you're climbing in those conditions are absolutely breathtaking, especially if the mist hangs around until sunset.

If you're up around Lleida and it's misty, I recommend heading for Col de Nargó. Loads of great south facing lower grade climbing, and it doesn't seem to matter how much cloud is lying around Oliana, it never makes it up the extra couple of hundred meters.

In reply to alastairmac:

Thanks very much for all the information and advice. It's really helpful and much appreciated.

In reply to alastairmac:

Cornudella is an interesting place to stay, basically Climbersville Central. I think about half the population there are climbers.

The one thing with Siurana area is that it's higher than Margalef and thus noticeably cooler. This may or may not be a factor depending on the weather you get. When I was there (Feb) it was really windy and fairly chilly a lot of the time. We had one day a Margalef which was far more pleasant. The drive from Cornudella to Margalef is pretty far and you wouldn't want to do it every day (maybe an hour along twisty roads).

A friend of mine recently came back and stayed in a village midway between Margalef and Siurana. She said it was a great location as it made both places very accessible.

Cornudella is good if you don't have a car as it's very easy to hitch from with so many climbers there.

In reply to alastairmac:

One thing to consider at that time of year is the aspect of your chosen crag, you'll almost certainly want south facing. It can be below freezing at night and shady crags are like fridges. We're currently in Margalef and have had clear blue skies most of the last 10 days, t-shirt climbing in the sun, very cold in shade and a hard frost and frozen taps most mornings on the campsite. I can recommend Margalef at the very least for a day visit, or more. Two new guidebooks this year and about 1500 routes to go at with more than 250 in the 4 to 6a+ range all within 5 mins drive from the village.

In reply to bandit12:

That's really helpful. Cheers.