The Costa Blanca, Spain

The bright lights of Benidorm and Alicante are probably not what most climbers dream of when planning a trip away! That said they do offer cheap flights from the UK, warm winter sun and a short hire car journey into some beautiful limestone mountains.

Here is an account of a trip in December 2006 with regular clients Simon & Claire:

We arrived Friday lunchtime and went straight to Sella to ease ourselves into the climbing. It was a Spanish bank holiday so the crag was busy and the weather was not unlike one of our bank holidays, a little overcast.
Having checked into our accommodation the forecast for the weekend did not look great. Saturday looked fine but Sunday and Monday were forecast to be wet and windy. Our aim was to climb Puig Campagna via Espolen Central. A 13 pitch HS mountain route to 1700m ish.
We decided on an early start for Saturday and 7:30am saw us at the foot of the route as the sun started to rise. We moved quickly and had all 13 pitches under our belt by 12:00pm and had lunch on the top. The descent was not rushed and we were back in Finestrat for 3:30pm having had an awesome day of warm sunshine and cloudless skies!
Sunday dawned bright and clear and so we headed to Calpe to enjoy multipitch sport routes a about grade 5 by the Mediterranean. The sun shone all day and Claire even indulged in a bit of sun-bathing. Monday morning was spent back at Sella before catching a flight home just as rain clouds beckoned.

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