Costa Brava Rock climbing, Scrambling and walking Dec 2013

Click here for a video of the Bernia ridge https://vimeo.com/81102401  and scroll down for photos.

I got the chance to recce a fantastic area of the Costa Brava over the last few days, a simple 2 hour flight from Manchester and I was sat enjoying the panoramic views over Calpe down toward the sea from the very nice villa balcony, the rain stopped climbing on the first day, but still allowed us to get out and about and investigate the different crags in the area, Monday was due to be fine, so we decided on heading to the awesome Bernia Ridge! this is a serious ridge line and is classed as a grade 3 scramble, the walk in only took around an hour and then we headed up 3000 feet onto one of the most amazing ridge lines I have ever seen!! the ridge stretches around 4km and includes a couple of abseils and one roped up VS climb along its length,  you really have to concentrate on a ridge like this, and is very exposed in most places , but the superb 360 views took my breath away!! the ridge took us around 6 hours, with a great Scree run to decend.

The next day I wanted to get some climbing done, so we headed for the Toix area for some sport climbing, the wind was quite strong but stayed dry thankfully, the amount of routes just on this one crag is literally mind blowing!! you could spend a month in this one area and still not get everything ticked, the limestone crags are mostly bolted (with a few trad routes available) with great belay/abseil bolts at the top of the routes, it made a nice change to climb with minimal gear and we cruised a few great routes up to 6a grade, the highlight was trying to throw our abseil ropes down in 40mph gusts! very funny indeed, cheers Colin.

We were a little unlucky with the weather, especially as the few days after our return to the UK are forecasted to be fine and sunny!! but it is December I suppose!

This was a very quick trip,(3 days) but i still got the chance to scramble the Awesome Bernia ridge, climb some great routes and enjoy the superb views the area has to offer, I must thank Mark and Kate for inviting me over, and being fantastic hosts, I would of loved to stay a month!!

We are planning to arrange a trip back to Calpe in either Spring or Autumn 2014, which you could join us on, so if you fancy a holiday with some great Rock Climbing, Scrambling and walking in the Costa Brava, (we would arrange everything except your flights) then please get in touch for info, the costs are yet to be finalised, but would include 5 days Climbing, Scrambling and walking with an English guide/instructor, shared villa accommodation, lifts to the various venues, and technical equipment hire, Please keep your eye on the Facebook page and our website www.mountainguides.co.uk. for details.