Getting slabbed around in La Pedriza
After quite a few successful multi pitch climbs on Mallorca Toby and I decided to try our luck on the granite slabs and cracks of La Pedriza north of Madrid. What followed was a week of hard work, run outs, being put in our place - and good memories.
A week of hard granite, monster approaches and getting humbled
La Pedriza is a rather small part of the Sierra de Guadarrama that is littered with uncountable granite peaks, slabs and boulders. It is known for its sandbagged climbs, long run outs and rather difficult approaches. Spoiler: all true! Looking ahead to what’s to come we arrived in the small village of Manzanares el Real via Madrid in June and set up our basecamp in an AirBnB just a few minutes from La Pedriza trailhead.
Right on our first bigger climb we quickly learned that nothing here comes easy. The first rumor that got confirmed while getting to the base of a route on Placas de Halcon was that approaches here always contain some form of block hopping, bushwhacking and general scrambling. Quickly thereafter the second confirmation came by almost being shut down by a crux rated 6a (feeling more like 6b). Still we made it up the route and back down safely.
Being both humbled and spured on by this experience the next objective was a longish route on Peña Sirio. This time the approach turned into a solid 1,5 hour hike plus scramble only to be greeted by a sign telling us that climbing on Sirio is not permitted in June. After picking up our spirits we set our sights on another crag that looked close by on the map. And as nothing comes easy, close by meant another 1 hour of scrambling including an impromptu chimney climb to even get there.
The climbing we found on that wall can only be described as hard as nails - and we still have no idea what route we did.
Still not beaten into submission, our next target was El Yelmo. The centerpiece of the whole area with its big and blank south face. The day started with a long approach hike bringing us up from 1000MASL to 1600 and to the base of the wall. The climb (rated 6a) itself was hard for the grade given but we had adjusted our selection at this point to account for the sandbagging. After making it up and back down the normal route of Yelmo we added on a few sport climbs in the area to make all the hassle worthwhile.
With the weather starting to look unstable and us being a bit worn down from the days before on day 5 we climbed almost all routes on an easy slab with a moderate approach. Why we went to the initiation sector after getting beaten up for a few days and not in the beginning is beyond me!
After climbing what felt like kilometers of slabs, day 6 was dedicated to the cracks. The fact that getting to the sector was a sweaty bushwhacking ordeal felt par for the course already. The climbing however was good and who would have guessed: hard.
Our final climb brought us back to the Placas de Halcon we had visited early on in the trip. Either the conditions were better or we had gotten used to the idiosyncrasies of this area but the climb felt like La Pedriza was extending a peace offer to us. And with a few days of distance I am willing to take that olive branch.
Adventurers: Toby and Bengt