Page 18 - 2018 AMA Summer

EXPEDITIONNEWS
EXERCISE COSTA CLIMBER
When in Spain...
by Sean Mackey
18 / ARMY MOUNTAINEER
While many units have visited the Costa Blanca region of Spain to sample the delightful rock climbing and mountains, the AMA haven’t been out for a number of years. When someone suggested a two week trip prior to Christmas I jumped at the chance of organising it.
Spain is the most mountainous region in Europe and has some of the best and most easily accessible sport climbing venues. Its limestone cliffs can be steep and intimidating on one hand but also slabby and technical on the other- in essence, it has something for everyone. Also, AMA member Rich Mayfield runs an amazing base in Finestrat that we could launch our days from. The itinerary was basically writing itself.
The Orange House is fun and comfortable accommodation for climbers and has a really good atmosphere with people from all over the world staying, making for a really good craic. Ten AMA members came along (myself included) and were a friendly bunch from all arms of the army. As with all AMA meets people’s aims did differ, but we managed to pair people up fairly well and mixed up groups on a daily basis. Many wanted log book days, experience instructing multi pitch climbing or indeed just wanted to climb until their arms fell off.
After arrival and a day of admin we made our way to Marin around an hours drive from Alicante. Along with roadside access and free parking, the routes ranged from 3 through to 7a and had a fair mix of multi pitch to single. Many individuals surprised themselves and pushed their grades on the first day on rock and also ticked off a few classic routes in the process. The Rockfax guidebook to the area is very comprehen- sive and gives easy to use topos for all. Unfortunately this momentum didn’t roll into the next day due to a wide weather front passing through and a solid day of rain and low cloud spoiling all the fun.
After the weather cleared our well rested (and well fed and watered) group moved to Sierra de Toix. Al Mason and Jamie Waddington successfully found their way up ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ 5a pushing the JSMTC group along from the rear. This is a fine route that wanders around the sea cliff and finds an easy line through the steep and imposing sea cliffs. Meanwhile,