There was a major rock fall in this area back in 2009 that destroyed the left-hand side of the walls and now everything has gone.

Paul Cox climbing on Cocina Caliente – a small crag developed by climbers staying at the Olive Branch.

We are very pleased to announce that a new bolt fund has been set up in El Chorro to help support the local bolting activities.

This is a joint project between Rockfax and the Olive Branch in El Chorro. Funds from the sales of the Rockfax El Chorro book, and other donations from the Rockfax and Olive Branch web sites, will be directed towards this fund, as well as any money from donation tins in the Olive Branch.

The money will go to the Federación Andaluza de Montañismo who are a local organisation who look after bolting in the El Chorro area. Their work is mainly in maintaining fixed gear on routes but also for establishing some new routes.

If you have climbed, or planned to climb, in El Chorro please give generously.

You can reach the fund direct here, or through UKBoltFund.org, or from the Olive Branch site.

We are kicking off this project with a donation of £580 based on early sales of the book.

The road from El Chorro to the lakes above and Desplomilandia has been damaged – photos above. Currently the coaches for the Caminito del Rey are going through Alora to get to the top and this is also the way that climbers need to go if they want to climb at Desplomilandia.

The local opinion is that the road should be repaired by the end of November – just in time for the new El Chorro Rockfax.

Thanks to Susan Mitchell from Alimona Chica for this information and the photos.

During the summer of 2018 a climber on Kalymnos changed the names of some of the newer routes. At the time of writing, these routes only appear in the Rockfax guide and this has understandably caused some confusion. To make matters worse the names aren’t all new names and some of them have just been shuffled around. This means that you can arrive at the crag and think you are under one route when in fact you are under a different route. Although this shouldn’t cause too many problems there is one instance where the renamed route is much longer than its previous incarnation in the Rockfax, and one where it is quite a bit harder.

We have now produced a free PDF download which details these changes in two formats. Page 1 is a list of the changes and the other three pages are double page spreads covering the majority of the affected routes which can be inserted into your guidebook.

• Download the name change PDF here

Climbing at High Rocks has suspended climbing until further notice.

BMC UPDATE 
August 2018 update: climbing access to High Rocks is currently suspended. Discussions are ongoing with the landowner – please bear with us whilst we try to negotiate a solution

Page 144
Bare Blabaer P1 and 2 are more like 20m and 46m. P5 and p6 are not well protected.

Page 191
The positions Gollum and Smeagul are reversed, their positions should be swapped – as should the grades on the topo. Smeagul is route-line 9 and Gollum is route-line 10 – the descriptions are correct.

Page 204
Gaukerisset – the upper abseil point is right of the finish of the route. The lower abseil point has been moved and is now two bolts on the left side (looking down) of the gully

Page 244
Storsvaet is very poorly protected and not really a good beginner’s climb, at least on the sharp end.

Page 320 and 321
The two red number 3 route dots should be number 4s since they are showing the rough line of Englevinger which is properly described on the next page 322.

We have just made our second payments for the year 2017 to the various bolt funds and access projects that we support. It has been a record year and we are very pleased to have been able to offer significant support to the Portland Path Project, bolting in the Côte d’Azur,  Mallorca and South Wales and a single one-off donation to the Horseshoe Heroes campaign run by the BMC.

Rockfax’s involvement with the Portland Path Project has now reached the target amount of £2000 and, thanks to the great work of Marti Hallett and other local volunteers, there is now an much improved access path to reach the climbing on the Battleship crags on Portland. Obviously this work will continue as will work on maintaining the bolting on the routes of Dorset and Rockfax/UKClimbing remains committed to supporting this via donations from sales made direct from our web site which will now be channelled through the Dorset Bolt Fund.

The bolting work done in the Côte d’Azur and  Mallorca is carried out by locals and supported by sales of these new guidebooks. In South Wales we have directed funds towards the prolific Gary Gibson this time having already made some payments towards the local bolt fun.

Isolated Buttress at Harrison’s Rocks

Harrison’s Bridge Project

Our big book last year was the Southern Sandstone guidebook. At the time of publication we were aware of a local matter regarding the construction of a bridge to reach the top of the Isolated Pinnacle at Harrison’s Rocks. The old method of reaching the top involved using a huge block to cross the gap but this became unstable and was removed for safety reasons. This made the top quite difficult too reach so discussions were held locally about the idea of building a bridge. There are strong views either way on this. We understand fully the point of view that climbing is meant to be an activity where you deal with what nature presents to you – we shouldn’t make things easier just for convenience. Conversely there is also the point of view that we have an impact on the environment and a crags like Harrison’s already has belay bolts, steps and fences to help climbers carry out their activities and minimise impact as much as possible.

We didn’t want to get involved in this discussion so we didn’t mention it in the book. Local meetings have now taken place and the decision has been taken to build the bridge. In view of this, Rockfax is  happy to pledge support for this bridge. This isn’t an endorsement of one point of view or another, it is more an acknowledgement of the fact that funds will be needed and we are happy to help the BMC ACT in this if required.

Oddly it has never really been closed, and the short-lived permit system came and went around 10 years ago. The truth is that there is now more climbing available at El Chorro than ever before.

The Caminito with the old Camino below it.

The main change to the area has been the construction of the Caminito del Rey – a spectacular pathway through the upper and lower gorges which has become extremely popular amongst locals and tourists alike with over 1000 people walking it on most popular days. It has brought a major boost to the area. The Caminito del Rey is based on the old Camino del Rey which was the original path that was built for the king to view the construction work carried out back in 1905. It had fallen into disrepair although climbers used it back in the 1990s to get to the routes.

The new walkway is fixed above the old one and is totally solid and safe, however it has completely removed access to the routes in the actual gorge. This affects only 16 pages of the 200 page 2008 El Chorro Rockfaxand many of these routes weren’t the best anyway.

Paul Cox climbing on the excellent El Corral East

Outside the gorge though route development has been prolific with many new routes on existing sectors and full new walls being found. Places like El Corral East have some superb climbing and there are many more just like it.

The other factor that was off putting about access in El Chorro was the fact that you often needed to walk through the railway tunnels in order to get to some of the crags in the central open area of the gorge. This is still the case and, although signs discourage walking through the tunnels, it is still done by most climbers with no repercussions. There are alternative ways of getting to the central gorge as well without going through the tunnels.

The new Caminito going over the top of the train tunnel

So El Chorro can definitely be considered as a great venue for anyone considering winter sun destinations. There are many more routes than in the 2008 Rockfax guidebook and the new one looks like it will be at least twice as thick. The area is booming from the new tourism interest, although this doesn’t really affect any of the climbing except the parking in the village if you are looking for an aprés climb beer.

UKClimbing/Rockfax have just made a big single donation of £1000 to nudge it over the £10,000 mark. This money is in addition to the regular payments made from the sale proceeds of Rockfax guidebooks towards bolting.

The ‘Horseshoe Heroes’ campaign money is going to be used to re-equip the routes in Horseshoe Quarry on BMC land to make the crag as safe and amenable a place to climb as is reasonably possible for all experience levels. High quality stainless steel glue-in bolts will be used, giving great strength and longevity and all lower-offs will be standardised. (It is worth noting that this doesn’t mean that every route in Horseshoe will be rebolted since the walls on the far west end aren’t on BMC land).

The money raised will go towards the cost of materials (bolts, resin, Maillons, rings) and the rope access team who will install the bolts. The work has already started and the campaign isn’t dependent on reaching the £15K target (as some crowd-funding campaigns are) so keep donating since every pound will be put to good use!

Visit the Crowdfunder page.

Marti told UKC/Rockfax:

‘We did the path work on the same day as the recent re-bolting. The access to Battleship had been limited since the landslip a few winters ago and a lot of people – instead of using the long way in via the veranda – were using what I describe as the rope of death; a 20ft hand over hand down-climb of some old knotted rope over a chossy little cliff just right of the back cliff area.

‘The gully in the centre of Battleship has been used for access, but due to its steep mud slopes this was only possible in the best summer conditions. By adding stepping, soil stabilisation, netting and grass seeding it will hopefully become a safe access route all year round.’

He added:

‘There is still a bit more work to do on it and to the veranda route, so I am hoping to get a group down there next weekend to do some path work. All the materials are eco friendly, including untreated chestnut posts and jute stabilisation nets.’

In an interesting collaboration, the funds used for this path restoration have had significant support from Rockfax donations coming directly from the Dorset Bouldering book. The book, by Ben Stokes, was published in July 2015 and £1 from the first 1500 copies sold is being donated to the BMC Access Fund (ACT) and ring fenced for the work (article here). In the end we have channelled all donations made to the BMC ACT from the Rockfax web site, including online sales from other non-bolted areas, and point of sale donations made by people buying from the web site, towards this ring fenced money. Up to the end of June 2017 the total raised was £1492, which includes a £250 boost from the BMC. The target is £2000 which we hope to reach by the end of the year.

Thanks to Sam Parsons – AfterTheSend.com - for the photos.