Day 81 - Close, But No Cigar

rock on

At last, today, I felt up to trying some climbing!

My daughter Kim and her boyfriend Roob caught an early flight from frosty Birmingham, and we picked them up from a much warmer and sunnier Alicante Airport at 10.30am and 21C.

We took the opportunity to visit a crag called Marin, 30km inland, whilst up that way, and of course had the bonus of non-climbing photographers.  Usually we only have each other, so many of our climbing photo's are just bum shots from directly below.

Obviously this works ok for pics of Anna, but nobody needs to see my fat arse as I drag it up the rock...

Today's mission was to climb our first outdoor 6a.   We've climbed 6b+ and 6c indoors, three or four grades harder...but indoor grades are notoriously optimistic, as Climbing Wall companies seek to massage the ego's of their clientele.

Here on the Costa Blanca, we've found the grades harder, as expected, but still we felt confident of doing a 6a.

Grading is a funny business.   Grades are set by consensus, meaning that over time, those who climb a route agree on a grade.  This doesn't work so well with temporary indoor routes, but they're just indoor routes, so it doesn't really matter. 

Grades are usually proposed by the first person to climb a route, and over time others either agree, and the grade settles, or disagree, in which case eventually the weight of opinion forces the grade in one direction or another. 

In practise, grades are mainly driven by Guidebook writers, who publish their (considered) opinion.  In the UK, there is also a website where climbers log their climbs, and get to vote on the grade.  Of course, this tends to lead to grade creep, as we'll all claim the harder grade if given a choice!

A new guide to the Costa Blanca was published last year, and this is what we've been using over here.

So today, we were super happy to have climbed Érase una vez, given 6a in the new guidebook.  Or at least, we were...

Kim clearly less impressed

We were mildly disappointed to find that on the website, Érase una vez is only given 5+ - one grade lower!  Votes on the site suggest a consensus of 6a, but I feel slightly dishonest claiming it now.

The crazy thing is, the website is owned and run by the same people who write and publish the Guidebook!   Gah!!

So, looks like a new mission for tomorrow...climb 6a!

We did get some good photo's of the day anyway - Kim and Roob took over 1,000, so trimming them down to just a few wasn't easy! 

Think yourself lucky I'm choosier with pics than I am with words!   ;-)

Anna on the rocks