Climb Like Sharma?

Siurana, España – Climbing in the land of the hard and strong

Haha, we wish. While we might not be so much as close to red pointing those uber famous routes we see videos of climbers of the likes of Chris Sharma and Adam Ondra making those ever so popular noises on while sending some 5.hard lines; we can look, touch and attempt on the perfect limestone conglomerate cliffs nestled in Catalunya, España.

I had the opportunity to spend a few days crushing in Siurana with three of my favorite French pals – Seb, Diane and Fredéric, you guys rock (pun intended). Siurana is home to the famous La Rambla (9a) and to loosely put it, I am already planning my trip back. The area, situated about 145km outside of Barcelona, is breathtaking and the people are kind and generous. The cliffs are steep and the routes are committing. What is there not to love?!

Recommended Climbs:

Crag can Toni gros
Park in the big lot at km 7.4. Walk toward obvious crag and follow path for 3 min before turning right at green spray paint on a boulder. Easy downclimbing and then heading west and a small scramble delivers you to the base of this sunbathing, wind protected beauty.

• Estrany parany (6b) – nice roof section
• Poll remulant (6b) – slope finish
• Pandemia (6a) – nice flake, jugs to a mantle finish
• No tinc loc (6b) – balancey, great siurana warmup
• Jugant amb foc (7a) – don’t overthink the roof. Tap, tap, tap and balance on the left foot to clear the roof
• L’esquitx (7a)
• Ataviana (6c+) – balancey into a sharp two finger pocket and one more sharp pocket before secure crimping to the top

Esperó primavera
Park at km 4.7 and follow sign for “fontscalades” path. Turn right when you reach base of cliffs (El Cargol sector) and head right. To get your blood pumping, head left instead to check out the “El Pati” sector, Siurana’s largest concentration of holy hard routes and the area’s very first 9a, “La Rambla”.

• Tant se’n fot (6b) – awesome position offering some tasty exposure. Start up the chimney an traverse out right. Boogie on up enjoying feeling oh so vulnerable.
• se ma’apaga la buldufa (7a) – Short by siurana standards. Start with arête slapping happiness, gain the roof and kiss those jugs hasta. Crux right where it should be – the top
• Ramena Nena (7a) – take a rest before you obviously need it. Beautiful crux!

Getting There

Fly into Barcelona (145km) or Reus (37km)
[google-map-v3 width=”350″ height=”350″ zoom=”8″ maptype=”roadmap” mapalign=”center” directionhint=”false” language=”default” poweredby=”false” maptypecontrol=”true” pancontrol=”true” zoomcontrol=”true” scalecontrol=”true” streetviewcontrol=”true” scrollwheelcontrol=”false” draggable=”true” tiltfourtyfive=”false” addmarkermashupbubble=”true” addmarkermashupbubble=”true” addmarkerlist=”41.2581135, 0.9323578{}climbing.png{}Siurana, Spain” bubbleautopan=”true” showbike=”false” showtraffic=”false” showpanoramio=”false”]

Important Numbers

Emergency 112
Police 088
Medical emergency 061

Accommodations 

• Campingsiurana.com
  Camp 10 eur pp and 6eur pp extra. Shower, bathrooms and access to computers with internet. Wifi didnt work so well when we were there but maybe that was a good thing. Any questions about where to climb, talk to Toni Arbonés. Toni runs Camping Siurana and is the omnipotent climbing god of Siurana.
  T 977 821 383
  43362 siurana
  Tarragona – Spain
  [email protected]
• Sleep in a camper van – while this is VERY frowned upon/illegal in the majority of Europe, it is “ok” here. Just be respectful.Visit Carvisa.com to rent camper van.
• Cornudella is the nearest large town with villa rentals, markets and even a climbing shop offering resoles and gear.

Guidebooks

• Siurana by David Brascó and Natália Campílo. The info center sells this local guidebook,for €25 as does the Refugi Siurana, which also happens to serve some pretty phenomenal pizza.
• Tarragona Climbs, by Pete O’Donovan and Dani Andrada covers a plethora of areas in the Catalunya region including Margalef and is available at Camping Siurana for €30 or can be purchased ahead of time on Amazon.