Here you are in the biggest city in Spain and in less than an hours drive, you can be climbing on some granite boulders or limestone routes. Spain has some of the best climbing in the world but even if you don’t hit the best areas (Albarracin, Rodellar, Marguelif, etc), you can still find decent spots with terrific problems.
Erin toured us around some of her favorite spots near Madrid. Though she hadn’t been climbing much of late, as soccer was more of the current priority, she took us to the spots that she enjoyed close to home. Our first stop was Zarzalejo, a granite bouldering area north of Madrid. We first picked up Juan, one of her bouldering buddies from the local gym. He toured us around the area. The rock was sharp but many of the holds were conglomerate pieces that were “cemented” into the rock. We started at an easier area where we could all climb and then moved on to a more difficult area where Steve and Juan could really get down to business. After a few hours some of Juan’s other climbing friends joined us. We continued to climb for a couple more hours and then headed to El Escorial de San Lorenzo for dinner.
Five days later, we headed to Patones, yet another European limestone rock band, also north of Madrid. The rock was smooth but not completely featureless, as we were able to read the line prior to making movement. We arrived later than originally planned, but we still were able to do four or five routes. This was my first time using my full body harness, thanks to Stephanie. Not the most comfortable harness but no pressure on the belly, which is exactly what I need right now.
The next day, we headed back to El Escorial de San Lorenzo, which actually also had some Granite bouldering. Both Steve and Erin enjoyed the bouldering here. Unfortunately, much of the bouldering was just a little too hard for me at this point.
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