Monday 6 September 2010

Bouldering in Galicia

I am just back from Galicia. I am not going to give you the usual touristic description. Let's just say it's a paradise in terms of food, wine, sun, landscape and not the least, people friendliness.

In terms of rock, it was not the season. Indeed, the main spot in the southern part is Pena Corneira, near the town of Ourense, which did not really see the temperature dropping below 30 during this summer. So I stayed on the coast instead and had a few sessions among the mini sea cliffs.

The guys behind Cantil (A bloque en Galicia/bouldering in Galicia) have gathered a few topos and drafted a Google map of the various areas that have been developed:



There's a great spot called A Pedra Rubia where I had a few nice sessions, but I even found a good spot closer to where we stayed: the Supertanker boulder of Portocelo. I'm not sure if it's got a name or if there's any info about it so I just gave it that name for the sake of it. It's got a good few problems and features a steep overhang with very poor holds. Potential for 8s from sit-start, but hard enough from stand start. Video here:





There's a lot of other stuff around especially between Portocelo and La Guardia. I even found a jumble of boulders with savage roofs and overhang but the landings were also savage, so I did not go near it. It's all in the following video:





And finally, also in Portocelo, close to the Supertanker, is a nice roof with three obvious lines: left arete, centre crack and right arete. But between the last two there's a really hard eliminate that will see me again if I get the chance. Video here:






Special thanks to Miguel and his family for looking after us during As Festas do Monte. It was great!


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UPDATE (23 /09/ 2010):
Luis Vigo (that would be his forum nickname), says that the Portocelo's boulders have been a climbing spot for the last 15 years and it even saw the first Galician bouldering comp in 1998. He says there used to be a topo but he doesn't seem to know where that info is gone.