Sunday 28 October 2007

Due South


A chance to visit Gran Canaria was too good to miss - I am working on the Lofoten guidebook with local mountain guide Thorbjørn Enevold, and he ‘winters’ down in the Canaries, it was either he came to Sheffield or we headed south - so no contest really! The journey from Sheffield to Manchester airport was pretty grim - pity the poor sods who commute daily - and the plane was full of screaming kids - though as we approached the island the view out of the window of the sunset over Gran Canaria and Tenerife made it worthwhile.

Beers on the terrace at midnight (22 degrees) and an air conditioned room was followed by a late start and a ride up into the hills. The roads are extremely tortuous as they climb through the huge areas scorched by last year’s fires. By the time we reached 5000′ feet it had cooled markedly so we hiked up to the foot of the Roque Nubio - a huge monolith of volcanic rock that was certainly living up to its name, it disappeared into the mist on occasions - at sixteen degrees and even some spots of rain, it almost felt like the Peak. There are some decent looking routes up there though much of the rock is a bit suspect - mind you to make up for it many of the bolts are pretty beefy! The easiest looking way up is the German Route up the right-hand arete in the photo, which is fully bolted with big fat glue-in bolts, it looked a bit like an aid route.



We zigzagged back down to the coast, had a quick trip to the Super Market and then back for a late tea - it had certainly been a change from the usual Friday set-up.

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