Saturday 3 March 2012

Asia, England, France, Germany, Spain... Dont stop movin' even if the world stops turnin'

So many things, so many places, and so little time sat in a coffee shop in Spain... Time is running thin so I will do my best to keep things short and sweet.


Banff European Tour Premier in Munich

We returned from Asia a little earlier than planned to a cold and snowy England. Training was to be the name of the game, that was until we found some luck in the shape of a white 2001 VW Transporter. Owning a van has been something I had considered for a long time, but a lack of funds and time has always stopped me from pulling the trigger.

Training took a back seat, squeezed in as an afterthought at the end of each day as time was devoted to converting the back into the perfect little home on wheels. Perhaps not perfect, but good enough for a winter and spring in Spain and Italy - Insulation, Heater, Electrics, Stove, Grill, Oven... Bed... and a few other little bits and pieces. With the Van on its way to be finished, we caught the slow boat across the channel and after 2 days were back home in the sunny south. Training at out local gym, the super steep Altisimo in Grabels, began again in the hope we would miraculously find some of our lost endurance before the imminent departure to Spain.

Oliana is to long what Altissimo is to steep and I was a little intimidated to say the least. Suddenly the 3 routes a day we had been doing in Asia seemed rather poor groundwork, and dreams of floating up the never-ending tufa began to float away on the breeze. We warmed up, which is actually an odd act in Oliana as the few routes in the 7’s tend to be less than 15m long – not perfect when the hard routes are all closet to 50m.


Despite my fears, Caroline seemed to be coping pretty well...

To read more, go to JPClimbing.com

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