A COUPLE OF ROUTES IN EL MONTGRÒS

It's been a long time since our last trip to Montserrat, but bad weather and bird closures have taken us away for a while. Last weekend, we headed to Torrent del Migdia area with the aim of climbing a couple of routes up to the magnificent Montgròs, one of the best viewpoints of the mountain. 

The Montgròs is the huge chunk of rock in the centre of the picture

We were two climbing parties, so we choosed two routes closer enough one to another in terms of take some nice pictures: Retrobolting and Griviola Bella.

 

 Retrobolting is mainly a face climbing while Griviola Bella follows a pronunded groove. 

 Griviola Bella 4th pitch

Retrobolting 3rd pitch

 El Montgròs summit

From el Montgròs summit views all over Montserrat are stunning
 

El Coll del Migdia

 

Ecos, Frares and Agulles regions

 

Sant Jeroni region

 Sant Benet region

 Sant Joan region

 La Roca Plana dels Llamps

Descent thru the Camí dels francesos

LA PROA & EL FARAÓ EBOOK IS ALREADY AVAILABLE

Since now the spanish version is already available too at rocktopo shop

LA PROA & EL FARAÓ EBOOK IS ALREADY AVAILABLE

Since this afternoon, our new ebook is available at the price of 7.95€ in our rocktopo shop. The book is focused, thru 59 full-colored pages, in these two Montserrat South range areas, and it deals with trad as well as sport rock climbing. You can already find the English and Catalan version. The Spanish one is comming very soon.

NESTING BIRD CLOSURES IN PARET DE L'AERI/SERRAT DEL MORO

The West half of El Serrat del Moro is bird-banned until mid June from Casas-Chani to Esperó nordoest routes, both included.  For more information about this subject:  Parc Natural de la Muntanya de Montserrat web site .

Birds was first, respect them

THE ROUTE SARAJEVO 92 IN LA MIRANDA DE LES BOÏGUES

On April-10 we headed to Agulles Region. Just a couple of pics of Sarajevo 92 in la Miranda de les Boïgues. Both pictures are taken from El Pedestal del Martell (Jimmy Jazz route) and they show a Rocktopo staff climber dealing with the last pitch of this hard route.

Take a look at this amazing view. The Miranda de les Boïgues needle is the big one in the centre of the picture.

THE ROUTE JORDI VIDAL IN PLECS DEL LLIBRE

On February-2 we decided to start our short week holidays climbing in the heart of Montserrat. We choosed to try JORDI VIDAL, an all-free route climbing the massive East wall of Plec del Llibre superior. The route consist of 4 long pitches (6b/6c/7a/6b+), the difficulty is mandatory and the equipment good (excellent bolts). It was established by Salvadó Figueres and Kim Santacatalina, what is guarantee of quality and boldness.

The climbing went smooth -except for a nasty wind that kept blowing during all the ascent- and every single pitch was great.

On the pitch-1 runout 6b

Pitch 1 is the easiest and the crux is the slightly runout section to enter the belay st.

Pitch 2 is wonderful, offering technical wall climbing with a distinguished crux to reach bolt 4. In this one there are no runout sections, but climbing is mandatory except for the central meters.

The great pitch-2, full view

Pitch 3 has a boulder move to start, then sustained climbing all the way to the belay anchors. Look for single finger pockets in crux sections half the way up.

Pitch 4 enjoys the route's best rock and has the hardest (and mandatory) section from bolt 8 to 10.

The route is completely equipped. Bring 2 long slings for the belay anchors and 11 quickdraws, some of them longer than usual to avoid rope drag.

This is a magnificient climb, but to enjoy it you should lead at least 6c. It needs a little bit of traffic for the rock to be cleaned up in some flakey sections, but it has what it takes to become a great -though difficult- classic free climbing route.

We at ROCKTOPO are currently finishing our ebook on Plecs del Llibre-Montgròs. As soon as it is ready we'll make it available for you to download at rocktopo.com. There you'll find detailed rocktopos for Jordi Vidal and many other great routes.

ROCKTOPO NEW E-BOOK READY: LA PROA & EL FARAÓ

The new ROCKTOPO ebook is almost ready and will be available to download from our web rocktopo.com within days. It is La Proa - El Faraó area, covering the west side of Montserrat's Southern slopes and including a wide selection of both sport craggs and trad multipitch climbs. From the popular Agulla del Senglar 8a's to the all time classic Anglada-Guillamon in El Faraó, from single pitch sport problems in the warm Vermell del Xincarró to the fine multipitch bolted lines of West la Proa and Agulla de l'Aritjol, all is featured in this our last rocktopo ebook with our hiper-understandable and info-loaded rocktopos. Check them out and enjoy climbing out there.

TV3 DOCUMENTARY: CAVALL BERNAT 1st ASCENT RECREATION

Take a look at this short movie recreating Montserrat's Cavall Bernat first ascent, back in 1935, oct-27. It was produced by the catalan public broadcasting corporation TV3. It is in catalan but the images are fine and the movie offers a good general view not only of the Cavall Bernat area but of the whole Montserrat. We hope you like it!

Go to ROCKTOPO WEB SITE -or click the ROCKTOPO SHOP button right hand- for detailed topos of the best routes in Cavall Bernat -including the REGULAR ROUTE featured in the movie- and/or to download -you may also click the FREE TOPOS button right hand- a free PUNSOLA-RENIU topo, Montserrat most popular 200m plus route.

SIR CHRIS BONINGTON CLIMBING IN MONTSERRAT

 Our friend Chris Bonington visited us last Saturday -March-6^th- to take advantage of the only window of good weather he has had during his first visit to our country this year. We have been climbing together for several years now (Chris visits us twice a year, usually March and November). When it comes to rock climbing, he has a taste for long moderated free climbing stuff and magnificient landscapes, and Montserrat provides us both.

 This time we met in El Bruc for breakfast, went thru several topos over it and finally decided to show up in Can Jorba area soon enough to beat the crowds that by mid morning wait in line to start any of the excellent long routes exploring the Miranda de Can Jorba slab. We were a “little” group of 11 climbers: 2 teams went for Sol Solet, 1 team decided on Escabroni Escapullini and Chris’s rope team went for Bego-Miguel-Kush. 

 

  

 

 

 

All 3 routes enjoy 5-6 pitches of perfect conglomerate, perfectly equipped sustained climbing within the 4a-4c range with the occasional 5a-5b move, and clean rock from bottom to top. Once in the wall we had to endure a polished first pitch (result of these routes popularity) in the shade in a quite cold morning but, after reaching the first belay station, a warm sun accompanied us all the way to the top, on which we were standing shortly after 3 hours of climbing, at 01:00 p.m. 

 

With such beautiful routes, the fair weather and the typically wonderful Montserrat landscape around, only Chris’s left painful ankle (a “souvenir” of an old fall) stopped Chris short of rounding a great day up with another route in the Torrent de Migdia area. Instead of that, we took our time to hike around and slowly descending back to Can Jorba while enjoying a beautiful scenery. We finished the day sharing some beers and snacks in El Bruc, truly happy after another day in paradise.

 

Sol Solet, Escabroni Escapullini, and Bego-Miguel-Kush topos can be found in Vinya Nova and Can Jorba e-book, available in our ROCKTOPO SHOP

WELCOME TO ROCKTOPO

Welcome to ROCKTOPO rock climbing blog. We have created it as a complement to our rocktopo.com web site. Here we will periodically upload news and events related with Montserrat as well as details on the day-to-day rock climbing activity we carry out in this wonderful stone universe that fires rock climbers imagination like no other place on Earth. More than that, we will be very happy to post comments and pictures of your Montserrat experience.

Rising in the catalan heartland and less than one hour’s drive from Barcelona and its metropolitan area, Montserrat is the only top ten world class rock climbing destination that close to such a big and dynamic city. Plenty of climbers visit it every weekend and some of them call it home year round. Both cutting edge free climbers and state of the art wall rats push the standards of rock climbing up year after year, proud heirs of the pioneers that back in the 1920s roped up for the first time to reach a rocky summit in this country.

Montserrat has magic within. Craddle of catalan mountaineering and birth place of acrobatic climbing, it is Europe’s Yosemite. The sheer, dramatic walls, the amount of established routes (Somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000), and their challenging nature are unique. Come and see!