Marion and Darron's Easter Cragging in Spain

What a fantastic Easter holiday…!! The weather was glorious – plenty of sun with temperatures between 20 and 25 the whole time. We rented a great apartment in a lovely village north of Murcia very near the climbing area of Olihuela. Also within easy reach of Marin, Sax (both west of Alicante) and La Poncha (east of the city of Murcia).

Dave and Karen, who were staying in the Calpe area came to stay one night – we had a great evening and then the next day we got in a bit of climbing at La Poncha and a walk, part of which was a scramble along a ridge. It is certainly a place which needs further exploration on a future visit not only from a climbing perspective but also for walking.

It was quite incredible how few people we came across at the crags – 2 groups of Brits and a few Spanish parties so we ended up with a great choice of the best routes the area offers – within my grade of course…!!!

For me there were several personal highlights as ever encouraged and supported by Darron. I have done quite a bit of multi pitch climbing but have never climbed a face like the Derecha del Espolon before – looking at it from the car park was a daunting experience in itself. My palms were quite sweaty and I had not even begun the walk in…!!! The route is 600 feet long, tackled in four long pitches but even more daunting were the 5 abseils to reach the ground again after the climb. Darron felt it was about VS and certainly worth its 3 stars. It was fabulous and exhilarating and I am ready to tackle another on our next visit to Spain.

Black line is line of ascent & blue line of abseils










We would highly recommend the area and the apartment we were renting. There is certainly plenty of climbing and walking to occupy a couple of weeks holiday – and the coast and nature reserves are well within reach for rest days.

Marion