Siurana Sendage.

Had a long weekend in Siurana - a semi-last minute trip that I was kindly invited on which I very much appreciated. I've been to Siurana, and Costa Daurada, and Spain before, so the climbing was very familiar and I wanted to focus more on pushing myself than on exploration. Thus in the weeks preceding the trip, not only did I have a chronic fucked elbow, but also fucked shoulders, and a fucked finger, preventing almost any useful form of wall / stamina / power training. I tried to work around this with gym sessions, and tackle harder issues with falling practise, and this might well have worked as I had a pretty great trip - good climbing, good variety of Siurana crags, good wee cabin (albeit with a shit shower) and a good value campsite bar... I might have to take a break from tortillas though!

I managed to climb several challenging routes at my previous uninjured limit (but still fucked legs of course). This was despite adding a fucked thumb to the list of my injuries during a vicious gaston / thumb-sprag - I felt a crunching sound part way through the move and thought I'd broken a chunk of rock off....with the rock still intact I thought I might have torn my thumb off, but it was still intact and attached, I think I had just damaged some stabilising tissue, and thankfully after a rest evening it was manageable. Careful taping allowed me to keep generally cranking hard each day, including two routes where I really had to battle and one with a wild slap as the last move which took all the commitment I had and was one of the most overall challenging moves I've done on a rope - very satisfying, and symbolic of a successful trip!

Photos:

In the bar: Perros NO!

 At the crag: Perros SI!

Some pretty rad and exposed route.

 

 Rainy afternoon but sheltered by capping roofs.

Solid challenge which I barely scraped through with a duff sequence.

Previous solid challenge was the red flake and headwall just left, amazing position.

Final day and body has given up!

Team Send (god that's a fucking gay and poncy cliche isn't it?? Yes we are all relative punters but we all pushed ourselves and put the effort in and had a great time so fuck it)