Siurana Easter Meet

Siurana from the village – Photo Harry Moss

I muted the idea of a club trip at Easter to Siurana to Peri and Alison in October and quickly found that I was the nominated organiser. After a worryingly slow start with few takers the trip grew throughout February and March and at the end of the day we had about 30 people join the meet.

We were mainly staying at Camping Siurana but a few chose to stay at the bottom of the hill in the pretty town of Cornudella de Montsant. We held a couple of fun social events to allow mingling and making plans and sharing of beta. The Café at the campsite cooked us paella, though my apologies to the vegetarians because, unbeknown to me although the vegetarian paella did not contain meat it did contain prawns! The cook seems to have a somewhat relaxed view of what constitutes vegetarian.

Alison enjoying a well earned beer outside the highly sort after mobile homes! – Photo Harry Moss

We had teams heading somewhere different each day and it felt like we only scratched the surface at Siurana as there is such a large number of sectors. We found it possible to walk-in to most crags around Siurana which allowed us to avoid the stress of finding parking space. We also climbed further afield at Arbolí, La Mussara, Margalef, Montsant and Vilanova de Prades, all accessible in between 30 minutes to an hour. The rock was solid limestone of immaculate quality and beautiful to look at, the area has a wonderful wild feel to it. There are steep sandstone routes on the lower cliffs but I didn’t hear about any one from our group climbing on them.

Although the campsite was busy and we had a few accommodation trials with so many separate areas spread out along the village promontory and valley below crags climbing did not feel particularly crowded. We were lucky with the weather and although it was nippy early in the morning and evening the temperature during the day was generally perfect, and shade at the bottom of most cliffs helped in the afternoons. The Pete O’ O’Donovan Tarragona Climbs Guidebook was good out of print so the majority of people used the excellent local guides.

Having read about the world famous hard climbs with a 7, 8 or 9 at the front at Siurana I thought I would be struggling but with a huge amount of rock in the area, we found plenty of climbs even in the easier grades, 5s and 6s. Everybody managed to find plenty to occupy a couple of weeks and I am sure we all returned home sated and with aching arms. In conclusion, a most enjoyable meet. Thanks everybody who joined the meet for making it a fun time. Llieda (just north of Siurana) next Easter?

Harry Moss

Posted in Meets, News

Leave a Reply

milanobet bahis siteleri illegal bahis hiperbet