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I am proposing to run a climbing meet to Calpe (an hour’s drive north of Alicante airport on Spain’s Costa Blanca) in October 2020. Your other half is welcome too – we normally end up with a mix of singles and couples – there is plenty for non-climbing partners to do.
Accommodation would be in one or two large villas, close to the beach, bars and supermarket.
There are currently 2 villas available in a good location (near each other), near the beach, each with a pool: 1 x 6 bed (3xdbl 3xtwin 4 bath) and 1x 7 bed (4xdbl 3xtwin 5 bath). Proposed date Tue 13 – Friday 23 or Sat 24 October. I’m proposing going for longer than a week as it is difficult to fit everything into 6 days, which is all you get if you travel Sat-Sat. However, some may prefer to come for 1 week (say Tue-Tue or Sat-Sat) only. Some have expressed a preference for Tue 13- Fri 23 as the Friday flight is £50 cheaper than the Saturday flight. We can shuffle the dates to suit the majority. If many people choose to come for a different subset of the dates, the cost per person would go up a bit due to the villas being partially occupied for a few days. Accommodation cost would be between £140-£200 per person for the 10 nights (depending on whether we can fill every bed). I’d be trying to get commitment quickly so that we can book one of the villas – late deciders would have to sort their own accommodation.
A typical itinerary could include…
Toix – good warm up location 44 routes < 4+, 91 routes 5-6a+ (mostly sport). Well worth visiting for 2+ days. A nice layback route up a big flake Espolon Limbalan (5) 2 pitches.
Puig Campana -Espolon Central – HS (4+) 13 pitches (trad) in a mountain environment.
Penon – Via Pany – HS/VS- (5) 7 pitches (trad). The Penon is the huge rock sticking out of the sea that dominates Calpe.
Penon – Via Valencianos – VS (5+) 8 pitches (trad)
Olta – great location with good views overlooking Calpe with hundreds of sport routes at all grades.
Dozens of other great crags with a thousand routes within a 1 hour drive
Bernia Ridge – fantastic mountaineering day mainly grade 3 scrambling with short section of climbing (4)
Toix Ridge – another ridge scramble but with more climbing (10 pitches total with several climbing pitches up to 5+)
Canyon 1 – Barranc de l’Estret de les Penyes (Algar)
Canyon 2 – Gorgo de la Escalera (Anna)
Both canyons involve abseils through waterfalls up to about 15m high and need a wetsuit. Brilliant adventure though – worth buying a cheap wetsuit for (I bought mine for £25 from Mountain Warehouse). The only climbing skill required is abseiling, so some non-climbing partners may be interested.
Walk – to the summit of the Penon
Walk – Benissa along a path halfway up a cliff face
Walk/swim – Fonts de vela (natural springs)
Guadelest – climb or sightsee (a castle on top of a mountain with climbing routes around it – 13 routes < 4+, 92 routes 5-6a+). Great place to visit even if you don’t climb – bars with fab views.
Beach – villas 5 mins walk from lovely sandy beach
Via Ferrata – 2x easy 2x hard (the best one is 1.5 hours drive from Calpe but it is pretty amazing with a ‘gate swing’ where you hinge out above the abyss).
It is notoriously difficult to get club members to commit but the villas will be booked up soon. There are always plenty of apartments available so late committers can sort their own accommodation, but if you want to be in one of the villas to be more sociable then you need to decide quickly and be ready to pay a £100 deposit so I can book.
Flights from Liverpool are currently about £185 (with a cabin bag plus a 20kg bag, which is fine for sport climbing) or £236 (with 2 bags if you want to take a big trad rack). Flights from Newcastle are currently about £287 (with 1 20kg bag) or £356 (with 2 bags). We can share trad racks so only a few need 2 bags I think.
The other costs are a share of car hire (maybe £50pp) and food/drink.
Can you let me know…
If you are interested but unable to commit at the moment
If you are interested and ready to commit and pay £100 deposit so we can book a villa
Which dates within the 13th-24th October period you would ideally like to arrive/leave.
Best to email me direct at stuartataltitude@gmail.com
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