Sport Climbing Partner(s) Spain May 2012

A friend and I will be in Spain in May of 2012 and are looking for someone we can pair up with to climb some good sport. Any location would be feasible, but we'd really like to check out Barcelona or El Chorro. I am not familiar with European grades, but I onsight U.S. 5.10's and my friend is in the 5.8-5.9 range. We are looking for someone with a rope and draws as we won't be carrying that. Will belay generously. Neither of us have ever climbed in Spain before so someone with previous experience would be ideal, but not necessary.

Our schedule is very flexible, but the first or second week of May would be the best time for us I believe. Let me know!

Honestly, don't bother with Barcelona. To me, the best places you can go are Riglos (which is sorta close to Barcelona, closer to Zaragoza) and Costa Blanca (fantastic climbs with views).

When are you going to be out there? How long?

I should also note that Spaniards are very nice people. If you just show up with the ability to belay (lead, and good at it), they will set up routes and climb with you.

We will be in Grenada starting May 3rd and from there its pretty open. We have the whole month of May, but would probably be looking to climb either the first or second week of May.

I just came back from Spain a couple of weeks ago. Did not get a chance to climb at any of the destinations, but I wanted to comment on how easy I found that it was to bring my gear. I carried the rope as a carryon, and put the draws, shoes, and harness in the checked luggage. I just checked the draws on the way home. The outside of my backpack was swiped to check for a bomb in Denver on the way out, but the person doing it knew it was a climbing rope. Took an extra minute, maybe. No other checks at any point in the trip. The rope can fit under the seats, thus does not have to be checked even on the smaller planes.

Beautiful country, and climbing all over the place. Have fun. Check out worldtopo.com for the smaller places. We just found the towns listed and looked for cliffs. Worked well for our trip, but I would of loved to go to El Chorro.

Thanks Elijah,
I've considered carrying the stuff along with me, the only thing is that this isn't primarily a climbing trip. I'll mostly be backpacking around Europe and climbing here and there when I get the opportunity and a rope and draws would be a lot of extra space and weight so I'm not planning on bringing them.

La Mussara and Siurana are about 1.5 hours from Barcelona and have many fabulous routes. Also near these are Mont-Ral, Montsant, Arboli, Falco, and Margalefs. These areas have more moderate climbs than Riglos, which is quite commiting.

I wrote about LaMussara and siurana on my blog, if you want more info -

funclimbsaroundtheworld.com/