Chorro Time
December was a month of great weather contrast for me. The first half blessed with immaculate sunny conditions down in El Chorro, Andalucia, and the rest of the time cold and very wet back in England. El Chorro was a fantastic trip made even better by the find of some superb accommodation close to the busy little town of Alora at Finca Los Llanos. The English owners, Alan and Helen, made us extremely welcome and I am very much looking forward to a return visit in the very near future.
El Chorro itself was pretty busy with much of the accommodation full even though the rumour mill has written it down due to the access through the tunnels being policed. As it turns out access to all the climbing is still on and the free MicroGuide I have put together gives the latest state of affairs and some useful info on approaches. A vast amount of new climbs have been opened up since the last Rockfax came out in 2001 and we will have the new Rockfax book, dedicated solely to El Chorro and its surrounds, out for this coming xmas.
One of the better spots for new lines is at Sector Sombre at Desplomilandia which now sports a wall of 30m+ lines catering for all from 6a to 8a.
Back at home the motivation gained from the Spanish trip soon evaporated after a few soggy trips to Portland normally fairly reliable at this time of year. So it has been indoors for some training at Bristol and the newish wall - The Mill at South Molton in mid Devon.
January 26th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Hi mark
Glad to hear that El chorro guide will be updated this year. Access via the tunnels seems to vary. Last Easter the police were turning people away although he did suggest coming before 10am and retuning after 6 as he wouldn’t be there then!
We have house at Montejaque where there is good climbing nearby although we can’t track down topo’s. 5 mins drive away is benaojan which is on Desnivel website.
Grazalema has a newish sector with perfect pockets from 5a to 6b+, well left of the hard overhanging sector.
Martyn (Kendal)
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:14 pm
G’Day Mark,
Good fun reading your Chorro time blog, it brought back very fond memories. Tommo, Damien, Nat and myself will be back out in December as it seems we can’t get enough of the place. Hopefully staying at Alan and Helens…speaking of which its good to see the most important member of the Alora team on the website….Lola
Looking forward to the updated guide, hope our comments helped you out and I’ll be completed chuffed if “Barking y Baking” makes it into the guide.
Have a good one and maybe see you later on in the sun.
Spilla