Across the Atlantic
A long way to come for a little climbing, but Brian and I arrived in Portugal Saturday and headed out to the seaside cliffs in Cascais with Joe and his student Guga to do a little urban cragging, Lisboa style.
Despite the jetlag and the inhospitable sunny, cloudless, 65 degree weather, we managed a few climbs - V, V+, 6a+ (10a), 6c (11a). US ratings are approximate as I can't find Brian's little crumpled printout of the Euro grade conversion chart. Fun, technical climbing on frictiony sharp rock, and Brian did an excellent job lead climbing outdoors. Felt pumpy and exposed at first, but once the jitters wore off it was pure enjoyment on relatively short vertical to slightly overhanging climbs. The 6a+ had reachy balancy moves straight up followed by a huge, barely static reach to the right; it finished with thank-god jugs up and over to the top. The 6c was tricky technical overhanging moves, with a dicey crux sequence right below the anchors: two finger pocket undercling, big throw right, and dyno to a less-than-stellar left hand.
Pictures to follow.
2 comments:
I AM SO JEALOUS!
You would have killed it here, Guillaume. I'm guessing you'd be leading 7a minimum (11b? 11c?).
The 6c was a little hard to suss out, as we were told by a local climber that that rating was for the eliminate version of the route, with a whole wall off (climb was overhanging but in a corner).
Would love to try another 6c+ or maybe a 7a at some time, but doubt I'll hit that this trip...
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