This drawing (made by one of my students, months ago, of how he thought my name was spelled) is completely irrelevant to this post. Unfortunately (and unsurprisingly) I failed to bring a camera with me yesterday when I went rock climbing in a palce called Valeria (or Las Valeras; I think this is the area and Valeria the town we were in) near Cuenca.

So I had told one of my friends here, a co-worker named Ade, that I was into climbing, and she introduced me (via email) to a friend of hers named Javi who they all call Geme (short for gemelo, identical twin, which he is). And so we made plans and yesterday I met him at the train station in Getafe, about twenty minutes south by regional train, which is where he lives. He in turn drove me to where we met up with his friend Luis, who’s in his mid-thirties and into climbing, and the three of us drove about two hours to where we were climbing. There, we met up with Fran, Elena, and two others whose names I’ve kind of forgotten — Mariano? and Alma-something. They all (more or less) know each other from the climbing gym they go to in Getafe.

Now as I’ve mentioned before, I have more trouble with Spanish in groups speaking Spanish than I ever would with one person speaking Spanish — with one person, I can ask questions. With a group, I’m not going to stop every time I don’t understand. So I miss a lot even when the number ups to two. Not to say that I don’t follow, but I have to try a lot harder. A lot.

In any case, Fran had two ropes, and Mariano (an Argentine!) had one, so we were all set. The site was quite pretty, despite being odd in a few ways — literally on the side of the road for one, and in the midst of someone’s backyard for another. (I think it’s an odd case of eminent domain, maybe — the house was fenced off, and the man I saw was this super-old dude. The house was like literally built into the rocks, besides, and there was a smokey fire burning in the front yard when we arrived.) The weather was grey, but not too cold that I needed more than a light jacket. And, of course, we were climbing!

This image, also, is more or less irrelevant. These dudes were changing a poster on the side of the department store near my house today, so I took a photo. Actually, I took the photo from Guillaume’s balcony, which has an awesome view; my camera was in the flat.

Anyway, I only ended up doing three routes, since it began to rain around 14:00. Nonetheless, it was awesome. The routes were all reasonably easy, for me; I guess my strength and endurance is better than I had thought. In any case, the first was a 5c, which is really like a 5.8 or 5.9 by the YSD system, for the one person reading who has any clue what I’m talking about. (Moreover, rating scales tend to change around the world, at least in my opinion; they only give you some idea of what you’re talking about.) The climb was straightforward, and maybe 10 meters high, although honestly I’m awful at estimating height. It went around a tree, and then straight up the face. It was also already set up, so I just top-roped it. The second and third climbs I did were both 6a, or 5.10a; I remember neither name but both were slightly difficult. I led both; the first had the quick-draws already set into the bolts. The first had a sequence, around the fourth or fifth clip, that was somewhat tough; there weren’t really handhelds to be noticed. At the same time, the next clip was pretty close, and it just wasn’t such a big deal. The second climb was pretty straightforward as well, and probably my favourite; it was also only my second time leading a climb completely (which is to say, I brought up quickdraws myself). None of them were terribly difficult; I’d like to get onto something a little harder next time. But they were all quite a lot of fun.

After, we all went into the tiny town of Lower Valeria, where we found a bar and had some beers (€1.40 per) and giant sandwhiches (€3 per; I had chistorra). We sat and talked (well, I talked only a little) for around an hour, and then took off. (Not before getting to see Elena’s Volkswagen California, a sort-of-camper van VW makes here but not in the US.) All in all, excellent fun.