On the Road.
Report of the Barracuda autumn 2004 test tour

One month the time spent, almost six thousand the kilometers driven with La Sportiva van, because, as Kerouac said, “the road is life” (Jack Kerouac, 1922-1969, one of the fathers of the beat generation and author of On the road in 1957, ndr). Many and many meters of limestone climbed with old and new friends, a few who had started with me, others found, or better said found again, along the trip called “Barracuda autumn 2004 test tour”, in homage to the new climbing shoes made available to the climbers interested in testing them. It has been a beautiful story, experienced among Italy, France and Spain, from November 13 to December 5, 2004. Here below a short report of the travel.
Fabio Albertoni

13-14 November 2004
Start. Thousand three hundred kilometers to drive for Barbara, Leila and myself, to reach Cornudella De Montsant, center of the two most famous Spanish climbing areas, Montsant e Siurana.

15-16 November 2004
The “Barracuda test tour 2004” starts.
We are under the famous Raco De Misa crag. A warm sun lets us desire to climb, even more because we are the only climbers in the entire sector, with the exception of a couple of friends already here for a few days. Therefore we are the first to take advantage of this nice opportunity given by La Sportiva, testing the new Barracuda climbing shoes.
Montsant is a climbing area characterized by a totally different rock from the nearby Siurana. In fact it is a nicely solid conglomerate, very long routes, a lot of endurance on overhangs, with often sharp pockets.

17 November 2004
Nine hundred kilometers further and we have reached our destination. El Chorro, Andalucia, north of Malaga. This enchanted place is the neuralgic center of a series of crags spread along a vertical and wild canyon, bordered by a railway on which you are obliged to walk (tunnels and bridges included) to reach the various sectors, many of them exposed to the warm Spanish sun… We have twenty, twenty-five degrees during the day!

18-19-20 November 2004
Base camp in the comfortable camping place of the village. From here you can directly start on foot to almost every sector. The first climbers made curious by the La Sportiva van arrive. They are expecting to see top climbers, that isn’t certainly my case, but are more than happy to have the possibility to test the shoes for free.
I organize a simple procedure. In the morning the climbers who want can take the shoes, and then give them back in the evening, always in the camping place. The rumors spread very fast and for the ten following days there is a continuous coming and going of Barracuda official testers at our place! First day in a small sector near the railway, Albercones. We still feel the tiredness of the travel and we don’t want to exaggerate with the approach. Medium-easy routes on a beautiful wall with very structured rock located exactly above the camping place.
On the second and third day instead we change, and go to the more famous Poema De Roca.
The difficulty of the routes increases. Here you climb inside a big overhanging cave, protected from the wind. It is the warmest sector of the entire El Chorro. Shorts and naked upper body oblige the strongest ones to wait for the shadow to try the hardest route! Incredible… And we are almost in December! Absolutely a must the most famous 7a of the area, that gives the name to the entire sector: Poema De Roca.

21 November 2004
First true rest day. But not for the test. This morning near the van we meet a group of Slovenian climbers, who I have already seen in Arco. One of them will tell me that he has made his first 7c on sight with the Barracuda.
We decide to visit Antequera, first real little town thirty kilometers away from El Chorro. We have badly calculated the timing and it is Sunday! Everything closed. That’s just too bad!

22 November 2004
It is the moment of Makinodromo, the most beautiful and celebrated sector of the entire canyon, with a route above all, Lourdes, 8a, that many little strong men come to try on sight, because of its characteristics. A forty-five degree overhang for this thirty-meter line along huge tufas that allow two no-hand rests: fantastic!
On the left part of the wall reigns the high difficulty, routes from 7c to 8c, and on the right one there are the pitches for everybody, with sensational thirty-meter long travels, that require endurance climbing on tufas, pockets and roofs!
I make my first 7b on sight! This is not one of the performances we are used to read about on the specialized magazines, but for me it means a lot.

23 November 2004
Escalera Arabe. This morning we start with a group of English climbers who recommended us this sector, located in the Frontales Atlas area, the same of Poema De Roca. The approach is very short, because you can reach the crag with the van on a dirty road. Beautiful super technical face climbing, Verdon style, and a few shorter and overhanging very bouldery routes.

24-25 November 2004
Rest day. We go to Malaga. We decide to go there with the famous little train that passes through El Chorro.
Shopping, chaos, traffic, sirens and horns. I am not used to it anymore and I get more tired than during a normal climbing day. The next morning we will remain in the camping place to recover the energy spent during the “rest day”!

26-27 November 2004
For the last two days in El Chorro, we must climb in the best sectors, therefore we go back to the Makinodromo, and then, to finish, to Poema De Roca, to try again a few projects that unfortunately will remain such!
In the evening the meeting is at our van. All climbers came to say good-bye and to give back the Barracuda used during our sojourn.

28 November 2004
Another nine hundred kilometers. Another day of travel. This time I am alone, the girls who were with me decide to continue their holiday with more sight-seeing and less climbing. We will meet again in Arco.

29-30 November 2004
Siurana. Temple of the crimps. A little medieval village high up on a promontory that dominates the entire valley, immersed in a wild nature and walls to climb everywhere. A hut and a camping place open the entire year, managed by climbers, create a little paradise for climbers, particularly English and American, who meet here regularly every winter.
The La Sportiva van is received with the usual curiosity, and so it isn’t difficult to find climbing partners. I will stay with a group of French guys in these two Barracuda testing days. There are also two alpine guides with them, who are very satisfied with the shoes, so much that when I leave they ask me to buy them, although they are used!
In the evening everybody goes to the bar of the camping place, where I am introduced to Toni Arbonés, very strong local, manager of the hut, the one who equipped a lot of routes here in Siurana and author of the new climbing guidebook. At once he invites me to participate to a real climbing meeting that he is organizing for the next spring and to which I will try to go. In fact two days are not enough for this place, but the test tour goes on and I have to leave already. …Destination Buoux.

1 December 2004
Bad weather arrives. Better so, it is easier to leave.
In the evening I arrive in Apt, together with the clouds that I dragged with me from Spain. I start to look for a camping place. They are all closed, therefore I choose a more comfortable gites d’etape (little local hut) exactly in the village of Buoux. In the evening a big thunderstorm doesn’t promise anything good.

2 December 2004
I get up in the morning, sure that I will not be able to climb after all this rain, instead I notice with surprise that everything is dry. Just a small problem, there is nobody at the crag. I explore the whole lenght of the wall but for today I must be satisfied with looking at the routes. I think that the bad weather is to blame for it and trust that tomorrow will be better.

3 December 2004
And in fact it is like this. The sun shines. A good breakfast, I prepare the backpack and I go climbing, finally I will put my Barracuda on the rock of Buoux.
But I am obliged to change my mind at once. Despite the spring climate, in this crag with more than five hundred pitches available, also today there is nobody here. Not in fashion anymore? May be.
I must find a solution. I don’t want to lose more time, the fingertips tickle and the holiday is finishing. I call some friends in Genoa. Tomorrow we are meeting in Finale Ligure. I go back to Italy.

04-05 December 2004
I haven’t been climbing only for three days but it seems already an eternity to me. Therefore in the morning, when Luca and Pepe tell me where we are going, I am excited. Today they bring me to Terminal, one of the by now famous crags near Albenga. Edges, tufas and never too exaggerated overhangs are the stage for these last two days of holiday. Last moments to test the Barracuda…. And then let’s go, everybody with the same shoes on! So evident that some guys hanging around ask if there was a promotional sale of La Sportiva somewhere! Two very fast days. Like the rest of the trip. It’s time to go back home, to Arco.
Fabio Albertoni