Spain!

Deep Water Soloing

We're down in Costa Blanca now for the Deep Water Solo Fest. We'll be spending the week climbing on cliffs over the water, desperately trying not to fall the 10 - 20 metres into the water. The med looks beautiful!

Mangled fingers

Siurana wasn't that inspiring. The guide book is terrible which means you get lost a lot and it takes a long time to figure out which route is which. I finally found a climb I really wanted to project. Cant remember what it was called but it was really steep and had a lot of pockets. After two attempts, my fingers were destroyed! The damn pockets were so nasty, they cut up three of my fingers to the point were I had to give up on the climb and now i'll probably have to stop climbing all together for a few days to let my fingers heal. Fuck! This is a setback. Oh and I forgot to mention that caught the rope with my leg when I fell and now I also have a huge bruise to go with the mangled fingers. I'm so glad to be moving on. Adiós Siurana!

Lightning crashes

The other night we experienced the wildest lightning storm I've ever seen. It was right over us and we feared our little cabin might get fried. The lightning was so close and so big that it would light up the entire sky with blues and oranges. We counted to see if the storm was passing. Flash goes the lightning. One one thousand, two one thousand... Crack goes the thunder (poltergeist? Move into the light Carral-Anne).

I now have sufficiant Internet access.

I've left Siurana and am now further south in Costa Blanca. The wireless access works on my phone so I'll start catching up on posts.

First day at the office

We're in a remote area of Spain near a tiny old town called Suirana. The area is breathtaking. Our first day of climbing went like this: there's a trail leading out of our campgroung that couldn't find. Then we couldn't find the crags we wanted to climb at. It took us quite a while to find an area out of the sun. I'm weak. It's frustrating me. I just can't seem to get my fitness to where I want it to be before going on climbing trips. So I guess the first few weeks here in Spain will be all about getting strong again. I got on a few really nice climbs. Then I ended the day trying this new route on this huge, super steep boulder. I didn't know the grade but it looked to be doable. It wasn't. I fell trying to clip the third bolt and hit the ground. Not a good scene. Fortunately Evan caught most of my weight so I didn't get hurt but it's always freaky when you gal from a route and your feet hit the ground. This didn't deter my from trying again and I managed to flail my way to the top. This route was way over my head. Talking to the local guru later confirmed that I had bit off way more than I can chew. It was a rough day at the office.

Whistle blowers!!

They have whistle blowers working at the Gaudi museum. I had Chris take this picture of me just after the guy in the white shirt, the whistle blower busted me for sitting down on some tile railing.

Sangria!

You can't visit Spain without drinking a few litres of sangria.

The kids are misbehaving already

Visiting the Gaudi museum got a little out of hand. Chris tries to climb up the look out structure while evan tried at swat him off. We're doing the tourist thing today while we wait and hope to retrieve our lost luggage.

Hostel Living

First night in barcelona was awesome. We lost some luggage and lost our way to the hostel. 2 hours later we found chris and now the gangs together.

I'm blogging ?!

I'm not a blogger. I don't read blogs. I don't write blogs. But... here i am. Blogging.

This is for you mom. You've been through a lot lately and I want to be a better son and try and be there for you more. Hopefully this blog will help us stay more connected while i'm away.

Colleen, we both know i probably won't call as much as you'd like me to. Hopefully this will help fill in the gaps. I'll miss you like crazy baby.

My Peep: In case you start missing me, you can check back here to see what's going on. I'll try and do a brain dump of all my crazy thoughts and feeling throughout the trip. There'll be photos too.

Let the adventure begin.

_jerf_