Lleida Meet Report

A spring break in the sun in Spain at Easter when people back in the UK had winter rain and snow.

We were a small group, Andy, Astrid, Phillipa, Mette, Gabrielle, Matilda and me, and then joined by Bryn, Neville. Brenda, Ray, Fruit and Lorna popped out of the woodwork later in the week. We stayed at the delightful campsite at La Noguera which swelled with the hoards from Barcelona over the Easter weekend, but emptied to a whisper the following week. We crammed 2 families into a shoe box and the others largely found accommodation with wheels, (I am looking forward to joining camper van brigade). We climbed on a variety on crags ranging up to an hours drive away but probably the best was on our door step at Camarasa and St. Llorenc. We visited Cubells, Alos de Balaguer, Abella de la Conca, Coll de Nargo and Villanova de Meia and felt we had barely scratched the surface. Largely we did single pitch routes up to grade V+ (grading is tough), there is just so much rock! The Roca Spain guide has another 40 crags in the NE region and twice as many routes as the Lleida guide. Excellent food, walking and cycling..my retirement plans are sorted. The 300m walls on Tarradets and Villanova look particularly exciting and a whole meet could be based around these locations alone.

In conclusion, great as a taster trip, lots more to go at now we have sorted out the logistics but to get the most out of Lleida I recommend being able to climb solid 6a+ and or staying to the north end of the guide around Tremp.

Harry Moss