La gran il·lusió

Alex came visiting from Toulouse, and wanted to do a multi pitch. I asked J for some recommendations in Montserrat as that is fairly close from home (≈40 min). Cavall Bernat and Paret de l'Aeri were mentioned.

Cavall Bernat visible from the parking of Eremita de St. Cecillia

As Alex has climbed about four days this year, we decided on Cavall Bernat. A brief check in Luichy's  guidebook and a quick browsing through of some blogpost lead us to decide on La gran il.lusió.

The weather did not exactly cooperate, but we figured that if we climbed with doubles we could always rap off. This came in handy as I started to get reflux near the belay of the third pitch. By the time Alex joined me on the belay I had vomited twice.

Me on P2, before projectile vomiting commenced

Alex near the 3rd belay. I tried to vomit towards skiers right.

When J came back from Madrid I passed on my Novovirus to her. Next weekend we felt better, but J was probably not strong enough for attempt on her project, so I convinced her to join me up La gran il·lusió even though she thinks that bouldering is better for strength devlopment.

The base of the route was still in full sun when we arrived at 12 pm, something I was blissfully unaware of since me and Alex started up in the clouds. We took our time and entered into the shade on pitch 4.

Cavall Bernat forms a needle that tops out farily high in the massive (1111 m) and is infamous for being windy and cold. J had two sweaters and a wind jacket, which felt like total overkill at the base, but great on belay 4.

Julia just above the roof of pitch five. The pillar starts to feel like a mini big wall

Pitch notes:

P1 5b, 40 m. Splendid slab climbing. The FA party tried to find the absolutely easiest way up, so the line of bolt is not straight. At least four shoulder length slings to keep the drag in check.

P2 5b, 40 m. More of same, but slightly straighter.

P3 6b, 45 m. Says 6a+ in the guidebook, but something must have broken. A hard move near the belay. At least five shoulder length slings to lower drag. 15 bolts on the pitch.

P4 6b, 33 m. Great sustained climbing on vertical terrain. Gets close to its neighbouring route Punsola Reniu before moving back left. 

P5 7a+ 30 m. A slab up to the steep section, bolted for aid-climbing convenience. The steep section requires some conviction and quick thinking (or margin). After the crux there is a lovely section on great rock.

P6 6c, 20 m. The best pitch. A long sustained section on slightly overhanging rock leads to a comfortable belay before the last, very short pitch.

P7 7a, 15 m. Despite being short, I would not link this with the previous pitch unless I had a lot of margin. Graded 6c+ in the guidebook but felt like 7-something for us at the end of the route. Belay on two rusted bolts on the false summit. Untie and scramble to the top, or keep tied in and do a last, unprotected 3b to the top.

Approach: 

Park at the small church of Santa Cecília de Montserrat. From the church walk a few meters towards Monistrol, cross the road and take a foot path up to the path to Monistrol (CR, red and white). Walk from some 45 min on mostly flat terrain, until you get to the run-off right under the east face of Cavall Bernat, signposted "Canal del Cavall Bernat" with warnings in three languages. Hike up to the colouir to the base of the pillar with a move or two of 3a (? I did not need to use my hands when it was dry, so technically 2+?). Scramble up the dihedral with trees and bushes and find a bolt on a comfortable ledge to the right of the dihedral.

Screenshot Google Earth with some, hopefully, helpful scribbles by yours truly

Descent:

Rap near the Virgin Mary down the other side of the pillar, about 20 m down to a ledge. Find a bolted rap station on climbers left. Rap down the corner forming the Normal route. At least 40 m down to down-climbable terrain, but we spied an intermediate anchor, and according to guidebook, it is possible to break the rap in two with 60 m of rope. (We had 120 m of rope, so not tested). Follow a clearly visible path to the top of the Canal and scramble down this. We did one rap with a total of 60 m rope and downclimbed the rest.

Gear: 

• At least 60 m rope (for the decent). Doubles allow you to escape down the route, all belays except the last equipped for rapell. 
• 15 draws for pitch 3 + something for the belay. If climbing on single/twin at least 5 out the 15 draws should be extendable alpine draws.
• A windbreaker, and maybe a sweater, even in late spring. It gets cold when the wind picks up, which is apperently always does.

Orientation: The base of the route is on an east-facing slab. In the sun until about 3pm in the summer. The steeper top part is east-north-east facing and gets into the shade at around noon or slightly later in the summer.

Guidebooks: I am aware of the following two guidebooks for the north side of the range

• Monserrat, Guia D'Escalades del Vessant Nord (Catalan, 2003)
• Montserrat Vertiente Norte (Spanish, 2007) (This is the one I have)

Route history: FA 10 Septembre 1988 by Miki Capella and Xavier Martin. Rebolted by David Tarrago.

The 1937 war drama La grande illusion by French director Jean Renoir is considered as one of the greatest films ever made. La gran il·lusió in translation to Catalan.

Other routes: The route just to its right, Punsola Reniu (6c+ > 6a), is an extremely popular classic. J did it 15 years ago and says it's great. The obvious dihedral is Puigmal (7b+>5c, but mostly climbed as 6b A0)m which requires a set of wires and a set of cams up to camalot #4. Both of these two routes are in the select guidebook "Las 100 mejoras Escaladas de Cataluña", so expect crowds if choosing these!

Brutal wind on top. No time for a top selfie.

Globeros en Alaska 7a>6b 250m. Mont-rebei

Sometimes sport climbing really gets to me. Falling over and over on the same route wears me down. Then it's time to do some climbing where falling is either not an option or at least not a splendid idea.

Pared de Catalonia from the Parking.

Recently I've spent some time failing very badly on a route in Bruixes that in my imagination should be well within my abilities, and getting a bit down-hearted in the process (ridiculous, I know!) My friend Javier Aranda / INUIT The mountain experience suggested Globeros en Alaska (Balloonist in Alaska) in Montrebei north of Lleida as a remedy.

Globeros en Alaska was put up by Alberto Salvado and friends 8-9 years ago. Alberto Salvado is one of the most fanatic new routers in Catalonia, with many new multi-pitch routes all over the region.

Montrebei consist of two large walls on each side of the river: Pared de Catalonia on the east bank of the river Noguera, and Pared de Aragon on the west. The walls are between 200-500 m tall mostly of limestone with some sand-stone bands. Pictured above is the upper east side of Pared de Catalonia

Notes on the pitches
From the parking lot (possible camping, but no running water) an easy 10 min hike lead to the first pitch of the route. Some face climbing past two bolts lead to a dihedral with a loose pillar in the middle: stem and place no gear behind the pillar (5+). There's a bolt halfway up.

Pitch 1. 6b. Photo Javier Aranda

The second pitch was mine, a nice pitch on good solid limestone. I did a fairly hard pull above a piton (6c?) but there was apparently easier climbing out right. Belay in a bolt and a joke piton.

Start of pitch 2. Photo Javier Aranda

 The third pitch started with some nice slab climbing. That's all I can remember. It was Javi's pitch anyway.

Pitch 3. Photo Javi. The heavy-handed fake blur is all me though

The forth pitch is the major pitch of the route, which Javi very generously handed to me. Mostly fixed gear (bolts and pitons—most of the pitons were in good condition) and one or two cams. A rising rightwards traverse lead to a small crux at an overlap, where some very good hearted climber had extended a bolt with a piece of fixed rope. Again, I had to do a tricky pull (7a+), and this time I managed to fool Javi into doing it with the same sequence (climbing with a backpack). Javi had to rest a bit and promptly found a better sequence to the left, which probably makes the climbing easier (7a). A steep sustained crack with lots of technical footwork followed, up to a bolted belay.

Me on pitch 4. About to do something daft as per usual. Photo: Javier

Me on the top of pitch 4.

 Pitch 5 started up a diagonal crack on some gear that I think is fairly solid. Then there's a fairly scary runout to a bolt, especially if you're short and have to clip in the middle of the crux as my poor guide for the day... (6b+ or so). Easier but quite runout climbing follows. There were two fixed threads that should be replaced. Bring some extra 6 mm cord if the threads are still not replaced.

At the top of the pitch there was some quite steep and loose traversing to get to the belay. Nothing too  bad, but be careful!

Javier Aranda past the crux of pitch 5.

Me following the 5th pitch. Not too inspiring rock on this pitch. Photo: Javier

Pitch 6 was the second best pitch of the route and again Javi gave it to me. It started with some quite cool face climbing past two bolts to a short bit of expo climbing (6b, I fiddled in some mediocre gear) on very solid rock. The top of the pitch had a quite cool boulder problem that is possible harder than the original grade of the route suggest (6c+ according to the openers).

Javi follows pitch 6

The last pitch is quite long (50 m) and starts up steep terrain to a roof with loose rock (one bolt), after that its quite enjoyable slabby lime stone climbing to the top of the wall.

Javi starting the last pitch

Javi on top. Pared de Aragon in the background.

Getting off the climb just before the storm moves in, like a boss! Photo: Javier

Topo, stolen from the internet.

Gear
We had half a set of wires (up to DMM #4 or 5 I think) and one set of camalots from blue (#0.3) to blue (#3). I don't think we placed the large blue. 15 draws should definitely be enough. Most routes in Montrebei has less fixed gear than this route, so would need a normal mountain rack and possibly a 3-4 pitons for the more heady routes.

Getting there
Montrebei is located north of Lleida, close to Tremp and the well known climbing area Terradets. I've dropped a needle on the parking for Pared de Catalonia on 27crags. More info can be found on Camp to Camp (french) or UK Climbing (english).

Guidebook
There's an old guidebook for the area: Montsec Oueste by L.Alfonso, X.Buxó (1998). Luichy is working on a new guidebook and for now, the best option is to look on his website and to search topos (croquis) on the Spanish blogosphere.