Rock climbing brings a huge array of challenges. One of the biggest is getting to the crag. This past weekend, Mary-kate Meyerhoffer and I took on the daunting challenge of finding one of the most popular limestone cliffs in Spain. We managed to get lost but we did discover a few lessons while looking for El Churro.
A crag above the Olive Branch, one of the hostels in El Churro
Communicate
From the train station in downtown Malaga, we traveled west, using directions from a climbing guide book to all of Spain. An orange vendor provided some directions but we failed to understand all he said. We continued west, following signs to El Chorro before finding a barricaded road. The security guards stabbed back the way we came. We circled around and drove through another town to El Churro. Our outdated, skimpy guide did little to provide directions. We had to ask. Knowing a little Spanish proved helpful. Knowing more Spanish would have been ideal but we got to El Churro with a bit of charades. We could see the cliffs but we had no idea where the approach was. Communicating the directions between locals and deciding which path was best between Mary-Kate and I wa crucial in getting so far.
Mary-Kate hops the fence to escape the train station and find the climbing.
Go For It
The guide book described walking through train tunnels to the crags. We looked at the crags. We knew that a number of routes climbed out of a gorge on El Camino Rey, a section of boardwalks through the mountains and to access the gorge, you needed to walk through some train tunnels. After driving around, we found the trail to the tunnels and guessed which way to go. We went for it. We committed to a plan and headed in a direction. We were unsure but we were moving. Which lead us to our next learning lesson.
Know When To Go Back
After twenty minutes of walking on the rail road tracks, waiting to get run over by the Renfe train heading to Madrid, we decided to turn around. Though the book had said to walk through the tunnel, the long trek across the rail ways seemed excessive. We turned around and hopped the fence out of the rail way. When we walked up the hill, we found the climbing and lots of English speaking rock jocks with the guide book. Turning around in the tunnel proved to be ideal. Though we went the wrong way initially, we found the correct path.
A British climber heads up Visito Tejito at Poema de Roca.
Stay Psyched
We were very tired by the time we reached the crag. The wind started howling but we had made it. I wanted to head back to the hostel and relax. Mary-Kate stayed determined and decided we had to climb. While we both got heinously flash pumped on the steep Spanish limestone, we had found the way. The following day, we were way more prepared. We were able to speak with the climbers, find directions to the climbing shop, get food and find the hostel. Our tenacity paid off.
