Penon de Ifach | chossclimbers.com

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Diedro UBSA.

Our backup plan for Picos de Europa was actually Montserrat and not Riglos. However, the former too had some capricious weather forecasts as confirmed on the ground by Ferran. And so from Riglos we drove south towards the town of Calpe on the Mediterranean coast and its iconic beachside mountain called Peñón de Ifach. We expected that the place would be a tourist zoo and were not disappointed. An alpine start the following morning was to ensure that we could find a parking spot – such are the trials of urban climbing. Our route of choice, Diedro UBSA (9 pitches, 5+), was very polished and the hot and humid conditions were not helping. In fact, somebody slipped off the starting moves and ended up with a bloody ankle. The route also featured a pretty sandbagged face climbing pitch midway up. On the upside, the views of the blue Mediterranean were fantastic and we enjoyed the company of another climbing party of locals (many thanks for the photos Hugo). We topped out and hiked off the backside grabbing some seafood lunch and beers on the descent. The upsides of urban climbing cannot be denied.

Photos

A place where we overnighted in Benissa (few kilometers from Calpe).

Not a bad place for crash out for the night (Sept. 2017).

Making climbing plans for the following morning (Sept. 2017).

Long range shot of Penon de Ifach and the town of Cape from our hotel room (Sept. 2017).

Penon de Ifach (Sept. 2017).

Sights on the short approach to the Penon de Ifach (Sept. 2017).

Fishermen in the morning during our short (but alpine!) approach (Sept. 2017).

A couple small yapper dogs and a gang of local street cats…shit was about to get real so we quickly extricated ourselves from the situation (Sept. 2017).

Starting up pitch 2 of Diedro UBSA. Those first 3 or 4 pitches were really polished and super slick esp. in the hot and humid conditions (Sept. 2017).

Shirley following the slick pitch 2 of Diedro UBSA (Sept. 2017).

Shirley topping out on pitch 2 (Sept. 2017).

Pitch 3 of Diedro UBSA (Sept. 2017).

Morning time views from low on Diedro UBSA (Sept. 2017).

Shirley on pitch 3 of Diedro UBSA with a team of local climbers behind us (Sept. 2017).

Pitch 3 action (Sept. 2017).

More of similar views but with the sun higher in the sky (Sept. 2017).

Shirley topping out on pitch 4 (Sept. 2017).

Leading the 6th and crux pitch of Diedro UBSA. Here’s the key beta: aim for that lower/smaller (dark) roof, clip a bolt there, move down a foot or two and make an exit move to the right. Pretty hard climbing we thought (Sept. 2017).

Shirley following the crux pitch 6 (Sept. 2017).

Topping out on pitch 6 (Sept. 2017).

Shirley on the pitch 7 pendulum (Sept. 2017).

A cute toy ship below us (Sept. 2017).

…and the belay (Sept. 2017).

The 15 meter penji on pitch 7 of Diedro UBSA (Sept. 2017).

And the reverse view thanks to our companions (Photo by Hugo).

Views of Calpe from high on the route (Sept. 2017).

Leading pitch 8 (Sept. 2017).

Hugo – the leader from the party that passed us (and the person who’s replaced the HW on this route) – is leading the last technical bit of Diedro UBSA (Sept. 2017).