After spending several months climbing
in and around
El Chorro (Spain), the place feels like a home to me. The
sky-reaching
Frontales in the middle of a rugged highland view with
dozens of vultures is where my thoughts always wander. Those things
are also the reason why you, my travelling and climbing reader,
should visit El Chorro at least once in a lifetime.
When it comes to climbing,
opportunities in El Chorro are almost endless.
It would take me
forever to tell you everything about climbing in El Chorro, so this
time I'm going to concentrate on the multi pitch routes east of
Poema
Roca. Yep, there's enough of them to entertain you for many sunny
days!
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| View from the top of Bombay Sapphire (6 pitches, max 6b) makes you forget to breath for a while. |
Let's start from the easiest multi
pitch you can imagine. Despite having a dozen pitches,
Blue Line (12
pitches, max 5c) is the perfect choice for your first multi pitch
ever.
The whole of Blue Line is well bolted, rock quality is excellent and
climbing itself is quite homogeneous.
All these things make Blue Line a
better choice than it's near neighbour,
Rogelio (11 pitches, max 6a). Unlike Blue Line,
Rogelio has a couple of pitches you can literally run through.
While galloping on the huge ledges makes you feel very safe, you're
also likely to miss a pair of sneakers in places. Two pitches at the top are slightly harder than any of those on Blue Line, but not worth all
the scrambling.
Yeah, I know. Sector
Escalera Suiza has a couple more multi pitch routes, that I haven't mentioned yet. Having no experience on those, I'm not going to mislead you by trying to guess how they're like.
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| Looking for an easy multi pitch? There's a couple of them at sector Escalera Suiza. |
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| When you reach the top at sector Escalera Suiza, hiking via Escalera Arabe is the easiest way back down. |
If you're ready to move on to another
sector and want to follow me and T's footprints, move your feet a bit closer to
Poema Roca. At sector Austria, you'll find another pair of easy multi
pitch routes just waiting to be climbed. Trust me, you'll enjoy both
Valentine's Day (4 pitches, max 6a) and Bombay Sapphire!
Valentine's Day is an excellent choice for
pushing yourself a notch deeper in the excitement-filled world of
multi pitch climbing.
The route offers many pitches of steady
climbing on good rock and a magnificent view. It seems to be possible
to break the route in a couple more pitches, but me and T only have
four marked on our guidebook (Escalada En Malaga 1: El Chorro).
After Valentine's Day, Bombay Sapphire
makes a natural next move. You can climb this wonderful line with in
two different ways, that are almost the same in grade. The solid
limestone is enjoyable to climb – except for the last pitch, that feels kind of redundant.
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| The steep gray slab at sector Austria is pleasant to climb. |
In case you're looking for something a
bit more challenging, step in the cave of Poema Roca. Me and T have a
guidebook from year 2013 and in that book the easiest multi pitch at
Poema Roca is around 7a. If you're tough enough to crunch through a 7a crux, I bet you'll
fall in love with the cave as well as the overhanging wall above it.
And when you do, make sure to tell me about your adventure!
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| Anyone up for an overhanging multi pitch? Take a look in the direction of Poema Roca! |
In case you missed out on the first
post about multi pitch climbing in El Chorro, you can still find it
here. Remember to check out the posts about
El Turon and
Desplomilandia – two beautiful, but totally different crags near El
Chorro – as well!
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