Page 24 - 2020 AMA Summer

EXPEDITIONNEWS
Kris on Aniversario 5c
EX COSTA CLIMBER 2020
By Arthur Daley
It was early 2019 when Ryan Lang ask me if I’d organise the AMA’s annual trip to Spain in 2020. I jumped at the chance
as I’d be leaving the Army mid-2020 and saw this as an opportunity to do one final trip before entering civilian life. So, the task was at hand to make this trip as memorable as possible with some
awesome climbing thrown in.
Firstly, I decided to make a break from the norm and avoid staying at the Orange House and Finestrat. Not that I have anything against the Orange House as a venue but I wanted to be based in Calpe, closer to the climbing and book accom- modation that we’d have the sole use of. I managed to find an amazing place called Villa Lina in Calpe that slept 22 with 11 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, free Wi-Fi and a pool. All for less than the Orange House would
have cost.
The next question would be how many to take. I eventually settled with 10 as an acceptable number. This would not crowd the venues or provide group management issues that you might get with a larger
number. In hindsight this proved an odd number. With 3 RCIs 9 would have been easier to manage or 12 with 4 RCIs. But 10 was the number I’d settled on, so it was with great excitement that the group met for the first time at the Jet2 check-in desk at 5am in Manchester Airport.
After a reasonably short flight, we arrived at Alicante Airport and collected our baggage. Hire cars had been booked through Centura with premium option, no deposit, no excess and with an additional driver. This worked out cheaper and easier than using the military Clarity system as they wanted us to collect from the train station. Additional drivers were picked based on who’s bag came out first. With hire cars collected and bags loaded we drove the hour or so to Calpe to collect the villa keys. Plus Holidays office is located in Calpe centre and parking was a nightmare. Road rage was close to making an appearance when a Spanish drive came right up behind me as I was trying to parallel park in the only available space. I survived this and parked, eventually. Keys were collected and off we went to find the villa.
We decided, with some persuasion from Ryan, to dump our kit and get straight round to Sierra de Toix to shake out and get some climbing done. This proved invaluable as it allowed the RCIs, me, Ryan and Richard to see the group tie in, belay, and climb. With a good under- standing of the group a plan for the week started to form.
The first real climbing day saw the group going back to Toix. This time those
Road rage was close to making an appearance when a Spanish driver came right up behind
me as I was trying to parallel park
24 / ARMY MOUNTAINEER