Friday 20 March 2015

Tres Ponts — route closures

UK climber Steve Crowe (a regular visitor to Catalunya) has informed us that, due to the presence of a rare species of plant, three of the classic hard routes in Tres Ponts have been 'banned' by the authorities. These are: El Segre (8a), Els Inconformistes (8a+) and L'Alternativa (8a+).
Apparently "Signs at the crag detail the plant species and location. Bolts and perma-draws still in-situ for now."
If practices employed at Camarasa a few years ago (when two complete sectors were stripped of hangers and the bolt-studs hammered into the rock because of the presence of Petrocoptis Montsicciana) it seems likely that the affected routes in Tres Ponts will soon be stripped...

12 comments:

  1. Sorry, Off topic, but do you know where I can find the new version of the Lleida Climbs guidebook at a shop near Lleida or Balaguer? I'm staying in Vilanova de la Sal and have the first edition, but am looking for the 2nd without success. I tried Decathlon in Lleida, K2 in Tarragona when I was down there...and today I tried to find the shop Radical Sport in Balaguer (there is an advert for it in the first edition but it appears it no longer exists). Thanks!

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  2. Radical Sports in Balaguer has sadly gone out of business, but there are a couple of places even closer to Vilanova de la Sal where you can get hold of Lleida Climbs 2 — Camping la Noguera (Sant Llorenç de Montgai) and Bar Can Pere (Camarasa). Pete.

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  3. You can also get it in Abella de la conca at ethe eco refugio www.abellaclimb.com, and I think you can get it in the Onsight a new climbing shop in Lleida

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    1. Yes, you're right, I just mentioned Camping La Noguera and Bar Can Pere because those were the two places really close to where the guy was staying (in Vilanova de la Sal).

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  4. Re the closure of these routes, its been now about 1,5years that they have been closed and the first few bolts were removed at the time, so I dont think they will remove the higher fixed draws and bolts...

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  5. Hi, I'm going to Lleida area soon and I wonder if there are any good climbing shops? The one in Balaguer was a bit disappointing when I visited it in February.

    Thanks!

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  6. Hi There,
    There are hardly any climbing shops at all in Lleida province, let alone GOOD climbing shops!
    The shop in Balaguer (Radical Sport?) has gone out of business.
    There is a Decathlon and a WALA outlet in Lleida capital, which both stock a limited amount of climbing gear.
    There is also a new shop in the city called 'Onsight', which is run by dedicated climbers. Their website (http://www.onsightlleida.com/) isn't operational yet but they have a facebook page and I suppose you could contact them to ask about specific equipment.

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  7. Have been to tres ponts 3 days ago. We were shocked, a lot of the bolts an lower off's were rusty! Taking about the easier routes at the sektors "bon combat" and "the main cliff".
    They looked horrible

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  8. Thanks for your comments. As we say in the introduction to the guidebook, equipping / re-equipping routes in Catalunya is a completely unregulated activity and the condition of in-situ gear may change over time. That said, rust is not always an indication of unreliability (unless it's caused by Galvanic corrosion — mixing stainless and non-stainless bolts and hangers) but I will get in touch with the local guys and ask them for more information.

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  9. i like the climing sport and i will join the climbing courses. thank for sharing the more information of climbing sports and technique.

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