...And England, Again

Monday, January 19, 2009

On the final day of our El Chorro trip, Nick and I got up around 9, but had to pack up everything and check out. We finished the last of the cereal (but not the last of the UHT milk...I think that got donated to the free bin). Unfortunately, the sun wasn't really making an appearance while we were packing and it became clear that it would probably be cloudy for most of the day.

We stashed our stuff at Almona, but by this point it was around 11 and the Hampshire team had left for the day (as expected). We also had to do a final run to the food shop in town to grab lunch food for the day, and then headed up to an area very close to where we had climbed on the first afternoon at the far left end of the Frontales, Sector Castrojo. I took some pictures of the valley while Nick read the guidebook.





We did a quick 4 or 5 to start (we weren't sure which route we were on), and then Nick led a very very long 6a. Thirty-five meters, according to the guidebook, and I think it may have even been longer because he went to one set of anchors that was a few meters higher than a different anchor. So to get him down was a bit of a challenge with our 60 meter rope (I was aware that the route was going to be pretty long, but was surprised by the fact that the middle mark was at about the third bolt when he got to the anchors). I got us both to about the same height -- the very top of a more-or-less low-angle slab about 15-20 feet off the ground, and we were able to both detach from the rope and come down from there.

I was going to lead it, but there had been intermittent raindrops the whole time Nick was on it and they looked a bit more steady, so we decided it would be best for me to toprope so we didn't lose gear if it started to really rain. So we did that, but by the time I was at the anchors it had actually stopped raining. Coming down on toprope wasn't quite as bad as getting Nick down since the anchors were slightly off to the side, but we still ended up pretty high up on the low angle slab.

So we ate lunch, and then Nick started up another 6a+ that had anchors that were about 30-40 feet higher than the anchors on the nextdoor route, a 6c+. Right as we were pulling the rope, we felt a few more sprinkles, so I started to lead it quickly. This time, though, there were fewer sprinkles than there had been on the earlier 6a, and they stopped by the time I got to the top. While lowering, I kicked over to the anchors for the 6c+ and put a directional on them to toprope through, but didn't bother cleaning the 6a+ because that would involve a lot of fancy ropework. So instead we just clogged up 2 routes (or three, if you want to be pedantic -- the 6a+ shared a first bolt with the climb on the other side of it). Which wouldn't have been a problem when we arrived, since the crag was empty then, but we felt a little guilty because since then, multiple other parties had shown up, including the Hampshire "OPRA team," led by Guy. (Zeb, Max, Luke, and Earl were still at Makinodromo.)

Anyway, Nick did the 6c+ cleanly on TR after a quick false-start at the bottom crux, and I flashed it clean on TR.

After cleaning all our gear off the three routes, it was about 2 in the afternoon, and Nick and I had to head down at 2:30. Guy had just led a good 7a+ that Nick and I wanted to TR, but in the meantime two of the other Hampshire kids had gotten on it. Nick and I stuck around until about 2:20, but it was clear that there was no way we'd have a chance to get on it the way things were going, so we headed out.

We went back up to Almona, and collected our gear and packed it into plane-appropriate luggage. We then drove off, but stopped on the way out to take a few more pictures of El Chorro.











Then Nick and I headed back to the car rental place in Málaga, about an hour away. We had to find a gas station, since we were supposed to return the car full, and then headed into the rental place. I was expecting them to squawk like crazy because the car was really dirty, inside and out (especially from where I kept putting my feet on the dashboard), and the mud-spray around the wheels kind of indicated that we had off-roaded it (as much as the little tin box could be off-roaded). But they seemed to say it was fine, and we headed onto the shuttle and into the airport.

At the airport, we checked in without too many hassles. (I wore all my coats to make sure that our luggage all fit everywhere it was supposed to.) The bag weighed 20.0kg's, but got a "heavy" tag to warn the baggage handlers it was 20. But we had no problems. I had to put my carry-on into one of the crates to prove that it fit, but it fit fine.

Then Nick and I headed into the waiting area, and had to wait around forever to get a gate. Eventually we decided to head to the gate area anyways to try to figure out which gate ours would be. We finally saw an EasyJet plane make an appearance at a gate that was going to be ours, but at that point it was already only ten minutes until our scheduled take-off time. We followed it to its gate (which had still not been officially announced yet), and pretty much everyone else did, too. Because there are no assigned seats on EasyJet, everyone stampedes to get to the gate first.

As we start the (slow) boarding process, it becomes clear that while they are not enforcing a "one piece of hand luggage" rule that they have, they're very strictly enforcing that the "one piece" (the largest piece) fits into a crate. So before I get up to the front of the line I put all my coats back on so that my luggage will fit. The problem is, though, that I forgot that Nick had put his little "travel folder," which was fat because it had our guidebook in it, in the front of my suitcase, making it bulge. I assumed that the suitcase would fit, since it had fit at check-in, but I forgot that then the folder wasn't in it. So it didn't fit, and they were saying that they would have to check it (other people were all having this problem, which was really slowing down boarding).

But what they did was just put a tag on the bag, told me to walk down the ramp to the plane, and have people take it there to put it in checked luggage. But the ramp was long, with twists, and no one was watching -- so I just took the tag right off the bag and carried it onto the plane with me. HAH.

I was right towards the end of the line at this point, but Nick had saved us seats. I was mad at him becuase his folder had caused me hassles, so he had the job of fitting the suitcase into the already-completely-full overhead bins, but he somehow managed it and kept it from being checked. Excellent.

The plane took off about an hour late after all the hold-ups at boarding, but it turns out that the flight isn't nearly as long as advertised, so we ended up landing at Gatwick at about the time we were supposed to. We then had to take the Gatwick "Express" into London (the train is "express" in that it doesn't stop, but actually takes as long as the trains that do stop because it moves very slowly), take the Underground across to King's Cross, and get the train to Baldock, where Nick's car was. Except that there was "rail works" going on on the tracks near Baldock, so the train ended a few stops early and we had to take the buses provided to Baldock. Then we had to walk from the Baldock train station to Nick's parents' house (at least 15 minutes). Of course, even though it was 11:30 by this point, they'd cooked us a three course meal. So we ate that quickly and then re-packed the car with the El Chorro stuff, the stuff that we abandoned there on Thursday when we realized it wouldn't fit on the plane, and stuff that had lived there over Christmas like my mirror (that needed fixing), my bike (that wasn't supposed to be kept outside in the cold during the break), and my plants (Nick's mom was in charge of taking care of them.

Then we had to drive back to Cambridge, which took about an hour, and we arrived about 1:15 am. We had to unload all my stuff from the car, and then poor Nick had to drive all the way back to Orpington so that he could get to work in the morning. But even though we both got back very late on the Monday night, we both had a good adventure trip.