Something different

The last week has been different. That is the only way I can think off to describe it, and It all started with an old promise. 

My good friend Ole was in Barcelona for a weekend with his work, and I had agreed to come and pick him up in Barcelona and take him to Margalef for a day trip so he could try to finish his old project Aéroplastica (7c+). 

When I said yes to this I had completely forgotten how much driving was involved. I had also figured I would be done with my project and that a trip to Margalef would be nice.

It wasn´t before we reached Barcelona and reset the GPS that we realised just how much driving we would be in for.

Santa Linya to Barcelona it´s about 180 km and from Barcalona to Margalef it´s about the same. Basically 360-ish km in the sun on not always the greatest roads.

When we finally got to Margalef we only had about 2,5 hours before the route got into the sun.

Ragnhild joined Ole trying and fell 3 times trying to get into the crux pocket. Ole, looking stronger then ever, got passed his old crux three times, but got a bit unlucky and fell just before the jugs. 

Since I had unfinished business back in the cave, I rested, that is if driving all day and then hanging in the rope filming can be described as rest.    

"Ragnhild stabbing for the pocket on Aéroplastica"

Returning to Santa Linya the weather changed from fairly good spring conditions to boiling hot summer weather in a day. We tried getting up painfully early and get on the projects, but it was useless.

At 9 in the morning it was between 16-20 degrees (and no wind) and at 13 it was up to 29..  

"The constantly changing weather report"

Done climbing at 11-12 in the morning we suddenly had a lot of time to kill.

My brother Vemund was out for a visit, and bored of hanging in the house, we ran around outside all day exploring and playing around.

"Being all touristy in Camerasa"

"Looking for new climbing areas"

One day as we where chilling down at the beach I got an idea for a picture. Having forgotten my timelaps remote we only had the 10 sec self timer on the camera to play with, and thus a need to time the shot perfectly.

Basically the idea was for me to jump of Vemunds leg and strike a pose, while he at the same time tried to make it look like he was trowing me.

I must have jumped about 30 times before we finally got it right, but the final picture is up there as one of my favourite pictures of all time :)  

"Setting up for the jump, camera going off to early"

"Jumping, camera still going off to early"

"In flight, hitting the camera timing right, but with a bad pose"

"Landing, the camera going off to late"

"Then, finally, THE SHOT!"

Then on Magnus last day, with the heat still in effect and our motivation for the cave dwindling, we decided over the morning coffee to take a break and head up to Rodellar instead.

Now I could write a story from my point of view, but as it would be fairly similar to the one already written by Magnus, so I´ll just post a few pic´s and a link to his story:   

http://blog.norrona.com/2013/04/magnus-midtbo-onsighting-8c-in-rodellar/

One day in Rodellar

"Magnus swimming up the deep part of the river, the water a nice and chilly 10-ish degrees" 

"More swimming"

"The 120 kg max toy boat, somehow we got all 4 in this on the way back"

"Magnus in one of the nice not so deep parts of the river"

"Magnus onsighting Black Pearl part 1 (8a+), the line of Cosi in the background"

"Magnus onsighting Cosi Fan Tutte (8c+)"

"Me onsighting the 7b+ warmup route just before the sun hit the wall full on"

"Back in the boat"

"Scrambling around in one of the none boat friendly parts of the river"

I had a rest day before our trip to Rodellar, and when there everything tok longer then expected. I barely got time to do a warm up route before the sun hit the wall (30+ degrees) and I decided it was no point in even trying.
Sunburned, tired from a long day and having worked on photos way into the night. I woke the next day completely wasted at 7 as Magnus was getting ready to leave.
We got down to the cave at 9.30 but I had no energy and had to rest yet another day...
Then today, after getting up at 5.15 and dropping my brother of in Lleida, we got to the cave at 9 just as  the rain started. It got super humid and even though I was feeling completely rested and psyched to get back on the route, there was no point. Another rest day..  

"The current weather rapport"

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With the end of the trip rapidly approaching and the project still not completed, resting 4 days in a row feels like a bit of a gamble, but with colder weather coming in the next two days, I hope it will pay off.