Climbing in Europe, December - January, need advice and partners!

I am traveling to Sweden in December on family business and have the time to travel to more southern climbing destinations in Europe. So far I've looked at Greece (Kalymnos) and Spain climbing. Both look like they could be a bit wet in December-January. Anybody have advice or opinions on where one should go to find dry rock and friendly climbing partners? Or maybe you're looking for a combing partner for that time? I lead 10b sport and up to 5.7 trad, but would prefer not bringing the rack with me.
Thanks!

http://theorangehouse.co.uk/

Try the above link. Although it's a UK link, it's for climbing /accommodation in Spain. It gets nothing but superb reviews.

Hope it helps.

Do you plan to have a car?

regarding Orange House (at El Chorro) there's lots of buzz on that with UK climbers (who often search for some place with good odds of getting out of their own rainy-ness). And where they don't need to rent a car (and keep remembering to drive it on the Right side of the road). So likely it's good place to meet English-speaking climbers.

The new buzz for cool weather rock-climbing is for western Sicily.

France is my choice if you have a car and you're not stuck on just climbing all the time. Because it's got amazing S-facing seaside climbing, but also serious alpine moutains a couple of hours way. Great backcountry ski mountaineering and lift-served downhill skiing. And if it's rainy by the sea it's likely snowing in the high mountains -- so just drive to which one you want.

Also great road-biking. Less known is that France in Savoie has really great groomed-track cross-country skiing with some trail networks that surpass Sweden and Norway for fun design.

Also SE France has the best seaside (non-roped) rock scrambling and hiking and trail-running -- and some amazing long seaside traverses [ photos ] that can be done with a short rope for a few sections (or solo). I've put English-language topos for some of those up on the French equivalent of MP.

Partners: Despite not speaking much French, I've done fairly well finding partners on CampToCamp -- seems like about a third of my responses to French-speakers posting for partners gets a positive response - (I seem to do better down south, perhaps because lots of French and French-section Swiss climbers in cold weather are escaping to there without their normal partners available).

Ken

http://www.climbariege.co.uk/

+1 for France too - did two weeks there last year and the place is falling over with crags. Plenty of sport too so no massive rack required! Again, UKC has a good database of climbs, and all the locals in the area I climbed were brilliant.

SvetaY wrote:... Both look like they could be a bit wet in December-January. Anybody have advice or opinions on where one should go to find dry rock and friendly climbing partners?

If you're serious about finding dry rock (as I am) ...
having a car (and the will to drive it several hours) can make a big difference.
If the local forecast is not looking dry where I am, I just check the Wx model maps for precip around Europe, and see which direction to drive.

Like in the western Mediterranean you've got fast roads connecting the coastal areas Spain and France and Italy. So you can range W - E between Barcelona, and Marseille/Toulon, and Nice, and Finale Ligure. Each with famously great climbing available.
Especially if you get the latest local guidebooks (instead of relying on the American tick-lists to deliver you to old-classic polished rock). For the very latest stuff getting cleaned and bolted of course need to know the right local "beta" websites.
In France around Marseille-Aix there are also two fast interstates going S - N to get you quick to several more lifetimes of inland climbing (or skiing).

The recent RockFax guides are rather useful as an English-language "select" intro to great climbing unknown to the American websites and magazines. But even that is just "scratching the surface" compared to the new French-language guidebooks and websites. The amount of fun climbable rock at 5.10a and higher around SE France (both sea and inland) is beyond imagination. (and with a little extra digging there is fun stuff at lower grades).

Ken

Hey, thanks for the advice, y'alls!