Africa

Africa is an amazing route that brings you directly to the summit of Pared de Caiat with views of the Mediterranean. It is fully bolted with stainless steel hardware and equipped for rappel. 

Pitch 1: The crux! A pretty stiff warm up and the hardest pitch of the whole route. The climbing right off the ground isn't too bad but you'll find the crux pretty quickly. After, the pitch eases up but it's still a long way to the anchor. There is an anchor midway up this pitch, resist the urge to belay here, the next one is a better belay spot and the climbing in between is fairly easy. I would recommend taking the time to warm up on the ground before starting, my partner and I both got seriously flash pumped on this pitch. ~7a+

Pitch 2: This is the only 'easy' pitch on the lower wall, but still no gimme! Head up and right, following the bolt line. Use the anchor on the left side of the big ledge. 6b

Pitch 3: This is the beginning of a stretch of 3 amazing 7a pitches in a row. Follow the bolts up the steep wall onto the slab above. Bouldery, sustained and awesome. 7a

Pitch 4: Noted as 'diedro technico' on the topo, this pitch is much different than the last. Head up the crack into the dihedral where the crack closes. A bit of stemming, smearing and some Houdini magic will get you through. The upper half of the pitch changes character, getting much steeper and exposed. (Not quite as hard as the other 7a pitches, if you are good at stemming). Belay on top of the little pillar. 7a

Pitch 5: The last of the hard ones! Head straight up from the belay and follow the bolts to the top of the lower face. Really fun, engaging face climbing. Reminiscent of some of the face climbs at Smith Rock. 7a

From here, put on your approach shoes and head up and left across 'le jardin' to the base of the upper wall. The next pitch is much lower angle so it can be hard to find but just orient yourself below the big roof near the top and look for bolts. 

Pitches 6-9: The upper wall changes character quite a bit from the opening pitches. The angle is less and the rock is of a slightly different quality but the climbing is still really fun and engaging. The grades in order are 4+, 6b, 5+, and 6b+. Each is about 30 meters and more or less straight up the wall. On the 5+ pitch, the entire area is composed of concernly detached rock but seems to be secure. Nothing too bad and the only pitch like it on the whole way, just a heads up. 

Pitch 10: Not as hard as the lower 7a pitches but after everything it can be the 'red point' crux of the whole day. Head up the slab from the belay searching for positive edges to the base of the roof. Boulder up and over lip, with the anchor just above. Airy! 6c

Pitch 11: The last pitch and not as easy as you would like. Follow the bolt line through a couple of steeper sections with some improbable climbing and interesting sequences. It ain't over til it's over! Interestingly, the hangers on the top anchor were missing. I just climbed over the top of the ridge and body-belayed my partner to the top. Not ideal but it works. Once on top take in the amazing views of the surrounding Rif mountains and the Mediterranean in the distance.  

A couple notes on the approach and considerations for style.

- For the first 5 pitches, we had the leader tag a line and haul the pack so that both climbers can climb unencumbered on the harder pitches, this seemed to work really well and improved rappelling as well. 

- Once we arrived at 'le jardin', we stashed the pack. We clipped shoes to the harnesses and tagged the extra line with us for rappelling. 

- The approach takes ~ 1 hour from the pull off to the base of the route. We left the car at 7am and were at the base by 8am. It's fairly easy to follow but the are a few sections where the trail breaks down and it would be easy to get off trail. It's also somewhat overgrown, so a pro move would be bringing a machete or garden clippers and cleaning it up for future parties. 

- On the last pitch, the anchor was missing hangers. For rappelling (or to belay if you wish), we found a fin of rock climbers left of the anchor with a large hole in it. The fin is rather thick and secure and the rock is smooth. We just threaded our rope directly through the hole and rapped off of that. The rope pulled smooth. If you were so inclined, a couple hangers with rap rings would be nice (12mm I believe) or you could build an anchor with cordelette through the hole in the fin. 

From Cafe Rueda, head down the road to the northwest. Follow the switchbacks until the road straightens out and park at the first large pull off. It is directly below the wall, more or less. Follow the trail down to the river and cross on rocks. You should be able to find a path here and follow it uphill. If you ever loose it, you can see the wall the entire time so just head toward it and you should find the path again. 

Fully Bolted, bring at least 20 draws