Poca

Sunday, January 18, 2009

On the second full day of our El Chorro trip, Nick and I again got going relatively late in the day. We were planning on attempting to find the Hampshire kids, who were going to climb at Poema de Roca (or, as Earl called it sometimes, Poca), a cave section with hard and not-so-hard routes in the middle of the Frontales. However, when our alarm clock went off at 8:30, it looked distinctly cloudier than it had the day before, so once again Nick and I hit snooze for half an hour and got up at 9.

We had another breakfast of cereal and UHT milk (ew ew ew) and packed up some of our stuff. The rest was already in disarray in the car from yesterday's Camino/via ferrata adventure. By this point, though, the clouds seemed to have mostly cleared and it was getting distinctly sunny.

We got to Almona by about 10:15, but Zeb had warned me that the Hampshire crew was probably leaving around 10. So we continued up the road to the same spot that we had parked at the day before, and passed the Hampshire crew (walking) along the way. This time, though, rather than park there we opened up the gate and drove through it so that we could park further up along the dirt road closer to the cliffs.

Once we were parked, we had to sort out all our gear, and by the time we were ready the Hampshire crew had again caught up to us. At this point, we took a different approach than we had the day before (when we went to the Arab Steps) to get to Poca.



Once we got to the cave, we started out by warming up on a 5+ and a 6b (which actually ended up being my hardest lead of the trip). Then we had lunch and headed over to a 6b+. First Nick tried to lead it, but got scared on a runout between the fifth and sixth bolts. Then I tried to lead it, and got scared before I even got there. Then Nick tried to lead it again, got all the way up to the last bolt, and finally decided he was too pumped to finish it. Too bad; it would have been good for him to get. He did a good job on it, though. I eventually toproped it.

Meanwhile Zeb worked on Swimming Through a Shark Attack, eventually sending.









It was mid-afternoon by that point, so Nick and I headed over to the nearby Solarium where we did a couple of pocket-y easy 6's. Nothing too exciting, but they were good. At that point, Nick had decided he was exhausted, and we headed back to Poca to see how things were going.

At this point it was starting to get a little dim and cold (there was a lot more shade), but Zeb was doing a final run up the route Poema de Roca, a super-popular 7a. Meanwhile I tried a nearby 7a on toprope, but didn't make it to the anchors.





















At that point, the Hampshire crew went back to Almona and Nick and I went back to Finca for dinner, where we cooked a mini-omelet with our remaining two eggs, and also cooked some pasta and some pasta-with-sauce.

Then we headed back to Almona. We had discussed possibly picking up Zeb, taking him to Finca, and getting him to help us finish the wine discreetly. However, that clearly was not going to be a possibility, because when we got to Almona, it turned out that in the last few hands of their game of hearts, Earl had overtaken Zeb and Luke had hit 500, the stopping point. Zeb lost in the end. And he was curled up in bed in the fetal position.



Nick and I hung out at Almona for a little while discussing plans for the next day. Nick and I were going to head to the far left end of the Frontales for climbing in the morning (we had to fly out in the afternoon), while the Hampshire team was going to head out to the long-approach Makinodromo. Nick and I were going to store our stuff at Almona for the day after checking out of Finca, but we probably weren't going to see the Hampshire team themselves (there was a hidden key).

So that was that! We headed back to Finca for bed before our final day and flight back to England.