Rannoch Mountaineering Club
www.climbrannoch.co.uk
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Rannoch Mountaineering Club
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Sun Rock 2001 – Majorca
Arrival in Palma was by aeroplane, and ‘the Muscles from Brussels’ was propping up the bar as expected. It’s funny how Stefan always manages to arrange a flight to arrive before us, thus getting a head start on the cervesa front. Anyhow, we sorted out the car-hire quickly and the team was soon careering northwards to Pollenca. The time it took finding the shed varied from 10minutes (one wrong turn and twice round the wheelie-bin)…….. to about an hour (past the wrong wheelie-bin and every wrong turn in-between, twice)……. To 15 hours. (Iain forgot his instructions, got lost, phoned everyone-and-his-mother then spent the night in a supermarket carpark). The remainder of the night was spent re-acquiring a taste for San Miguel and fighting for the best bed in the shed. Day 1- Creveta The lads were a bit too keen, arriving at the crag before the sun was on it, so it was a bit cool and very breezy. After a warm up and cobweb-blowing-away session on ‘Mi cojones es frigidos, V+’ we proceeded to pummel the crag into Teutono-Caledonian submission, routes included: ‘Uno Gusto Blew mi capoff, 6a’ ‘Warmeros imperceptiblo, 6a+’ ‘El sol at lasto appearanciano, 6a’ ‘Shorts y vestos, 6b’ ‘Paso mi factor 20 amigo, 6a’ Day 2- Cala Magraner f-f-f-f-fantasico…….timed
it just right as the sun comes out and the lads surf into the crag on a tidal
wave of sun-tan lotion……. ‘A yahoo on el Mahou, 6a’ ‘San Mig big big
big, V+’ ‘Campo cruiso on el Cruzcampo, 6b’ ‘Estrella Damn Fino, 6a’.
Willie then did the direct 6b crux move on ‘El faggots cop-out a dextro, 6a’
at least 5 times before down-climbing and doing the RH variation……he liked
the place so much he returned on 2 other occasions and rumour has it he has
changed his name by Deed Poll to Willie Magraner, with the crag now known as
Cala McLure. Day 4- Betlem 2 A new crag. Kicked off with ‘El groovo twistio y juggy, V+’, followed by something of a rarity in these parts, a soft-touch! ‘Peesapisso, 6b’, (though I don’t think JD and Colin would agree)! Then the target route of the crag, just left of the Erich von Daniken etchings ‘The Dog Sucker, 6b+’. This involves a delicate yet sustained series of reaches and jibbers, followed by a bicycle-leg judder and ‘dead-mans-gripper-clipper’ before a desperate slap onto hand-shredding razor-rock to finish. There was blood, flesh and skin everywhere! Marvellous. Round to the left another couple of superb pitches, ‘El Front Cover del Chris Craggs, 6a’ and ‘Ghastly crackos, V+’ Day 5- Enforced rest-day. Absolutely pissing it down most of the day. Various options on a day like this…… Drink yourself silly Mope about the shed with face tripping you Drink yourself silly Go to Palma with face tripping you Drink yourself silly Go to a wet crag with face tripping you Drink yourself silly Go to Supermercado and buy loadsa sausages’n’stuff Have a barbecue Drink youself silly Day 6- Es Queezle and Los Perches We were hoodwinked into going to the poxiest crag in all Majorca. Bollox majorcis. Jungle-bashing walk-up, to an east-facing shady bag of shit, and sand-bag city. Leader falls and abandoned crabs. Apart from all that this is a beautiful idyllic paradise. Rescued the day at Los Perches……..sunny……..1 minute walk-in……..good long very well-bolted superb rock. 2 routes, ‘Bueno longo superbos boltnificent escalada, 6a+’ and ‘Ditto a dextro, 6b’ Day 7- Gubbed on Gubia It happens every year, those last day blues………bleeding stumps for fingers, snore-induced-sleep-depravity syndrome, cirrhosis of the elbows. However , we managed a couple of pitches at Sector Lethargicos, ‘El lower-off at tufa-dampo, 6a+’ and ‘ a 30m route on a 55m rope what a fucken carry-on, 6a’ Taking everything into consideration, another brilliant week. Roll on the next one. That’s what I say |
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