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Batuka F8b ,Espadelles, Margalef, Spain Words by Lucy Creamer I thought I’d try and redpoint an f8a+. I had about 4-5 climbing days left, so enough time to get one done. Which was when I thought well why not try an f8b then? It was a bit of a gamble that I might completely waste the end of my trip by trying things that were too hard and not managing to do anything but at that point I was up for the challenge. It was time to step things up a bit!! One of the nicest parts of Espadelles had a great looking f8b called ‘Batuka’. I had seen someone else trying it and the bottom looked very bouldery, not my style I thought but what the hell! Well, I was right, it absolutely wasn’t my style. There were hardly any feet, I could barely hang the handholds; it just seemed beyond me….oh dear, was this a waste of time? If you don’t speculate you can’t accumulate, so I decided to do some speculating (Kodo gave me the nod, so I knew it was the right thing to do). My next go couldn’t have been more different. Not only could I hang and use the holds, I was linking moves. In fact it went so well that I nearly did this whole first section in a one go and it had turned out that this was the crux. Hmmm, this f8b was looking very possible, great! So no question of whether to carry on, the seed was fully sewn. I had a look at the rest of the route and it was tricky and pumpy but doable, so it was all in the first four bolts.
Unfortunately, there was a mono right at the start that was wet, so I was having to stuff tissue in it to dry it out, so it was unusable that day. Which was a bit of a worry, as this would add on some more hard moves right where I didn’t want them. Oh well, speculate to accumulate… The weather was brightening up a bit too which was nice and helping the spirits and the bones. I took a rest day and belayed Steini on his project for the day. Although he didn’t want to start climbing till the afternoon, so it was a very chilled out morning in the nearly sun. I decided to try and wash my hair in the river. It was way overdue, so I heated some water up on the stove and managed to clean the locks satisfactorily. The cave Steini’s route is in, is home to a few very hard routes so o it provided me with great entertainment all day watching people swinging around on mono’s in a horizontal roof- ow! Next day it was my turn again. I hadn’t slept well for some reason; I think I was very excited about getting back on the route although I hoped it wasn’t going to make me feel too bad. I found it hard to get going and once I started warming up, realised that I felt utterly rubbish. I felt very despondent as it seemed today was going to be a complete waste. There was no way I was going to be able to get close to redpointing the route. The crux moves felt like the living end again, I couldn’t link any and couldn’t for the life of me repeat them the way I had been doing them the other day. Oh dear, it looked like I’d been having a random strong day and the random strongness had all but disappeared. I’m sure a black cloud appeared above my head at this point, I was in a right grump. The only upside was that the wet mono was now only damp and pretty usable. Just another hard move to add to all the other hard moves that I couldn’t do.
After another long rest, I decided to give it a proper redpoint go. It didn’t work out. I was almost getting through the crux but it just felt sooo much harder than it had the other day, it was very annoying. Time was ticking on, so I planned to rest again for a good chunk and then I would have time for one last go. It was a pleasant day up there, lots of chitchat, some sun and great views, not a bad day at the office. The time had come to have my last go. Even though I knew I was under par, I was very determined to give it my best shot. So I pulled onto the mono and launched into the crux sequence- Nooooo, not again. I was off. I wasn’t even tired. I came down, huffed and puffed for a couple of minutes then had another go. I knew there was something left in my arms. Mono, launch, here we go again…Yessss! I’d got the hold. Oh my God, the next move felt way harder than normal, come on don’t blow it now and stop gripping so tightly!! I managed to do the next section to the shake out by the skin of my teeth but I was there. It was just a case of how long could I hang around shaking out and would I manage to recover enough to do the top half? I had time to mentally prepare myself for the next bit and make sure I knew what I was doing as I’d only sorted out the new sequence that morning. I got through it by the skin of my teeth, the elbows were definitely up by my ears but there was no way I was letting go until I’d clipped the belay and I didn’t! It was a great feeling to have done the route that day against the odds. I was utterly convinced that there was no way I was going to link sections let alone redpoint it. And it had only taken me two days, which was very satisfying. And even better, I still had two days left before I had to leave, so it hadn’t even been down to the wire, which is always ultra stressful. So elated and relaxed, I watched a beautiful sunset while I trotted back to the van. Food, music and dreams of ‘Batuka’ followed… |
