Sao Miguel

One of the most important works of European medieval cartography is the Catalan Atlas from 1375. It states an archipelago far out in the Atlantic, which apparently was known to sailors prior to the edition of any map of that region, but which wasn't officially discovered until the 20's or 30's of the 15th century. Back in that time, the discovery of some new spot basically meant to take possession of it, and regardless of who might have been the real discoverer, he planted a Portuguese flag on the different islands of said archipelago.

Lagoa do Congro

Nowadays, the islands I'm talking about are known as the Azores and there are nine of them. From the biggest to the smallest, their names are Sao Miguel, Pico, Terceira, Sao Jorge, Faial, Flores, Santa Maria, Graciosa and Corvo, and it's precisely Sao Miguel where Elisabet and me spent a week last month. Summer vacations we call it.

Hydrangea

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Jazz in Gasteiz

Tarantula attack in Bilbo

 After our first visit in 2009, last week, Lisa and me joined the Jazz Festival in Gasteiz (Gasteiz is Basc - in Spanish it's Vitoria) for the second time, but since it's forbidden to take photos or recordings during the concerts, I don't have any visual or audial material to share. I will spread in some photos of Bilbo (Spanish: Bilbao) and Gasteiz instead. 

In order not to stress our economy too much, we had decided to only spent 2 nights in Gasteiz: Wednesday/Thursday and Thursday/Friday, hence we joined the concerts on Wednesday and Thursday only. Sure you wanna read on?

Balaitús - 3144m

Left: the Costillerou ridge - right: Devil's ridge

Last week, Xavi and me did some mountaineering in the Balaitús area, the most western zone of the Pyrenees where 3000m summits are to be found. Our idea was to do as many of those summits as possible and we even foresaw to try us at a ridge that includes the Torre de Costillerou, which has the fame to be the most difficult 3000m summit of the whole Pyrenees. But as always, it turned out that there's a gap between what we'd like to do and what we're actually capable of ... click here to read on

Aresta Brucs at La Saca Gran

Me and my buddies on top La Saca Gran

I think it's the first time that Xavi and me went climbing and everything turned out well: we found our way without getting lost, easily made out our climbing route, got to the summit without encountering major difficulties, got down again without getting killed and, most important, were able to recover the ropes without them getting entangled or stuck ..... even the weather conditions were ideal, so why don't you click here and read on?

Matarodona - The Flag

In late May I took a day off and together with Elisabet and Frida we went hiking. Again, it was Matarodona what most lured us, for there's a flag flying on a rock above the estate that Elisabet (and Frida) only knew from a distance.

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Up to Mata-rodona

Elisabet had never been to Mata-rodona, so the 1st of May was a nice day for going there. We took Frida (the dog) with us and made most of the rather boring earth road by car.

At Mata-rodona

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The Pharaoh's vicinity

In the eye of the Pharaoh

Xavi and me had foreseen a combined activity consisting of struggling our way up one of Montserrat's gorges, denominated Torrent de les Grutes, do some climbing then and return to the car by rapelling down another canyon, but somehow we got lost as soon as we left the car behind. 
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Advantages of having a singing girlfriend

After a quite successful gig at Bar l'Embruix in Navàs the Saturday before, last week, Coll@ge (which is Elisabet and Xevi) gave two concerts in the stunning city of Ciutadella, located on the beautiful Balearic island of Menorca. For me, too, a nice opportunity to have some short Easter holidays there. Our plane left at 7 o'clock, meaning that our vacations started with a pretty unrelaxing wake up call at 4.30 am.

Had he known he would lose the flight, I'm sure Xevi would have spent some more hours in bed. Unfortunately he didn't. 
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Attempt of La Panxa del Bisbe

 On Sunday, Xavi and me wanted to try us at La Panxa del Bisbe. As usual we consulted Escalatroncs in order to find a suitable route. The one we decided to make is a well equipped line called "Buriles Rojos", which is 140m long and consists of 4 pitches.

Line description from Escalatroncs

 Click here to read on, but be aware that we only made it to first belay station.

Coll@ge is playing at my house (MY HOUSE)

Recently, Elisabet has started two new musical projects. In both cases the groups already had existed before, so that it can be said they are not actually her projects. She rather was invited to join them.

Coll@ge playing at my house

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La Miranda de Can Jorba

After two intents that unfortunately had to be scrubbed due to adverse meteorologic conditions, on Sunday Xavi and me finally were out for a climb on Montserrat's sunbathed southside. The previous days had been bitterly cold, on Saturday we even had some snow, and although the tempereature wasn't what I'd call warm, the sun made the climbing enjoyable.

Xavi on top La Miranda de Can Jorba

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Happy New 2013 (same procedure as last year)

The same procedure as every year...
...hence just a little bit of history repeating
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Canal del Ninet / Ot el Bruixot at La Filigrana

El Ninet looking down upon the canyon

El Ninet is a rather small crag in Montserrat, but due to its location at the verge of the mountain's north face it's widely visible and because of its overhanging appearance it's a quite famous feat. El Ninet also gives name to a sort of canyon / chimney, which allows even non-climbers to conquer the otherwise prohibitively steep rock wall, that can be seen when looking at Montserrat from the North. This canyon leads straight to the upper part of the Agulles sector, where numerous spires formed of conglomerate rock offer countless climbing routes. Today, Xavi and me tried us at "La Canal Del Ninet" and since we wanted to make the most of our day, our plan also foresaw to climb a very special rock column we had made out during a previous trip - La Filigrana.

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Om Mani Padme Hum at Agulla de l'Arbret

The weather forecast was far from encouraging, reason why Xavi and me scratched a trip to the Pyrenees in favor of a climb in Montserrat. During our last climb there, we had made out a promising rock called "L'Agulla de l'Arbret" which translates to "Little Tree's Needle" and since then a suitable route was found in the very recommendable blog "Escalatroncs".

Line description from escalatroncs

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Miranda de les Boïgues

On top the Miranda de les Boïgues

Today, after a two months lasting abstinence, Xavi and me finally have found the time to do some climbing. Our initial idea was to do "La Agulla de Can Jorba" on the far side of Montserrat, but since I didn't buy a 60m alpine rope the day before, we had to change plans in favour of a route possible to climb with our shorter rope measuring 47m only. A glance in my climbing book which focusses on the area called "Agulles" revealed that "La Miranda de les Boïgues" would do as a proper alternative.
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