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El Chorro

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Once one of the forcing grounds of Spanish sport climbing, El Chorro dropped of the hit list slightly over the last few years mainly due to unclear crag access, and a reputation for hard routes and polish. The publication of a new guidebook has revealed that there is much more to the place than these rumours and the time may have come to start considering El Chorro again when planning your sun rock trips this winter.

Read more - http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=1540
 jkarran 05 Jan 2009
In reply to Alan James - UKC:

The 'view 112 pictures' link is broken in the new gallery viewer thing. Good article anyway. Possibly because of the seasonal overcrowding there seemed to be no practical restriction on wild camping last week (besides the weather!), there were people dossing everywhere!

jk
 Chris the Tall 05 Jan 2009
Just wondering if anyone has climbed the "High Bolt" routes at Turon ?
In reply to jkarran:

Thanks for that. Nick is working on a fix.

Cheers

Alan
 timjones 05 Jan 2009
In reply to Alan James - UKC:
> Once one of the forcing grounds of Spanish sport climbing, El Chorro dropped of the hit list slightly over the last few years mainly due to unclear crag access, and a reputation for hard routes and polish. The publication of a new guidebook has revealed that there is much more to the place than these rumours and the time may have come to start considering El Chorro again when planning your sun rock trips this winter.
>
> Read more - http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=1540

It seems a real tragedy to me that the new guide book is going to focus attention on some real unpolished gems of routes because the guidebook author has stuck 3 stars on them ;(

In reply to timjones:
> It seems a real tragedy to me that the new guide book is going to focus attention on some real unpolished gems of routes because the guidebook author has stuck 3 stars on them ;(

Curious comment. I think you might even be serious!

Alan
 timjones 05 Jan 2009
In reply to Alan James - UKC:
> (In reply to timjones)
> [...]
>
> Curious comment. I think you might even be serious!

Is it really such a curious comment?

I'm very serious! I'd like to see all stars removed from guidebooks and let people learn to judge quality for themselves. Get it right and the reward is quality routes with less polish. Those who can't recognise quality routes for themselves should go without IMO.
 Chris Craggs Global Crag Moderator 05 Jan 2009
In reply to timjones:

Would you also like to see the removal of descriptions such as:

"a magnificent classic"
"a must for all competent parties"
"worthwhile"
"a grot-fest, avoid at all costs"


Chris
 timjones 05 Jan 2009
In reply to Chris Craggs:
> (In reply to timjones)
>
> Would you also like to see the removal of descriptions such as:
>
> "a magnificent classic"
> "a must for all competent parties"
> "worthwhile"
> "a grot-fest, avoid at all costs"

Good question!

Text descriptions could have the same effect, but they aren't quite as in your face as a star system IMO. I feel that studying the text to glean info challenges the imagination in a way that star spotting never will.

On the lower end of the scale I find that some routes described in derogatory terms are worth a look for a challenge or just a bit of a laugh
In reply to timjones:
> I'm very serious! I'd like to see all stars removed from guidebooks and let people learn to judge quality for themselves. Get it right and the reward is quality routes with less polish. Those who can't recognise quality routes for themselves should go without IMO.

Nobel aim but I'm afraid it doesn't really work, as the CC pretty much found out with their Tremadog guide.

I refer you to the now quite old discussion here - http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=17

Alan
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