The next day looked a little dull as we walked into the restaurant for breakfast. So we were happy to prolong the morning’s repast. After muesli, fruit, nuts and yoghurt there is a lady who cooks the loveliest of omelettes.  Dallied over croissant and coffee. Pocketed a roll and banana for lunch!

Breakfast

After yesterday’s dampness we decided on going back to Arico for some more open gorge climbing. Now we know the area we were able to make straight for a decent sector on the right in the morning sun – Sus Villa. Climbed a couple of straight forward V’s to begin the day. Both were fairly steep but on good positive pockets in lovely volcanic rock.

No hay colega sin taco. V

• By now Dave was wanting something harder so we crossed to the other side of the gorge to Sector Vivac. To start we climbed a lovely slabby piece of rock  at about 5+  –  this was a combination using the easiest parts of two 6b routes up a steep buttress and gave a  very satisfying route.

  

• We followed this with a couple of excellent 6a’s – one was curiously called ‘Sick English’

Sick English 6a

The day had changed and there was rain in the air – so back down to the sunny coast for a swim before dinner.

Friday promised better weather and we headed up to a new area, EL RIO, another gorge but more open. The walk in was short and soon we were looking down at the rocks. The reservoir below was empty.

El Rio Gorge

As we walked in the cliffs to our right looked very impressive and frightening, giving mainly high 6’s and 7 climbs. But the volcanic rock looked superbly sculptured.

El Rio

Bypassing this desperate area we made our way on the path up the gorge to sector El Acebuche  and climbed three pleasant Vs on a quarried like wall. Another pair of climbers arrived – a Dutch lady and her Swiss partner. Then a Canadian girl whom we had met yesterday turned up alone. This was typical of the  multinational ambience of the climbing in Tenerife.

Rod on Las Cazoletas V

Held the rope for Terrie, the Canadian girl, as she cruised a couple of 6a+s.  She was escaping the Canadian winter  by travelling in southern Europe and climbing where ever she found herself. Good for her!

Found the guide book a bit difficult to follow as it kept changing the orientation of the route numbers as shown on the topo. This was a criticism of all the areas in the book, probably needed better editing. But the guide always got us to the crag and the numbered photos were good, so no big problem.

Finished the day on a good 6a, La encrucjada. A new route downloaded from the web before we arrived.

La encrucijada 6a

Walked out quite satisfied with the day’s climbing just as showers blew in.

No problem at the coast, the sun was shining for the usual refreshing swim back at the hotel pool. Realised how close the planes are when coming into land above the hotel.

Enjoyed a local Tenerife wine with our evening meal. Perfect end to the day.