This year I was lucky enough to take my first overseas climbing holiday, El chorro.
El Chorro is in the south of Spain approximately two hours give or take from Malaga Airport . The holiday was in mid April. I had only been climbing for roughly six months.Though I was in very safe hands with the man himself. He who got me into climbing… Lucky for me. As in saying that it had taken me the six months to learn how to do a figure of eight knot. I was told that I had to untie and then retie myself back in at the top of the climb. Which meant I had to secure my self at the top with a quick draw * I think? Any way some sort of dohicky, in order to prevent my falling to my death. So no pressure!
We started off on some 4s and worked our way up to a 6a. All was going pretty well until me and the main man had.. lets call it a.. communication malfunction! As it happened we had some very nosey neighbour’s climbing next to us. One very opinionated neighbour thought I hadn’t secured myself at the top before uniting to retie in… silly man..
I was petrified! I was thinking this is it! This is how it ends, I am going to fall to my death. A little bit O.T.T looking back on it now. As it turned out I was secured but both myself and himself the climbing partner in crime got an awful fright.
So my top climbing tip for beginners is to have total trust and communication with your climbing partner and to ignore nosy neighbours. After I recovered my composure we climbed on for the rest of the afternoon.
So my take on El Chorro… Between showers climbing was good the rock was slightly polished but there was a great variety of climbs to make up for it. Amenities at the campsite were top-notch and there was a great climbing community vibe even for a few nosey neighbours.
A big thumbs up for a first time overseas sports climbing trip to El Chorro and if you do get rained off there is the Camino Del Ray to hike or a few beers to down! @MN329SocMedia
How to become a climber? 