Penon de Ifach

Today is multi-pitch day! C-Dawg, The Face, and I woke up early this morning to be the first ones to Pinon de Ifach, one of the highest sea cliffs in the region. Another one of Alicante's beautiful golden limestone behemoths, Penon rises over a thousand feet out of the sea. And we climbed to the top.

We parked next to a marina and hiked to the base of the cliff. It was strange to go from a city sidewalk to an approach trail. We got a lot of interesting looks walking through the marina loaded down with ropes and gear, helmeted and harnessed up. One group of ladies out for an early morning walk stopped us to ask what the heck we thought we were doing. C-Dawg pointed to the top of Penon and said, "We're going up that!". One of the ladies pointed to The Face (another shortie) and I and shook her head saying "Ellas? No."

"Yes, them too! Hearty American girls!" Thanks, C-Dawg.

We were lucky to be the first to the route, considering there were climbers sleeping on the sidewalk next to the approach, hoping to be the first ones up. We just beat them out, and as Colin lead our first pitch I talked with two guys from Chile who had camped out on a nearby helicopter pad, which seems even more precarious than the ascent itself. They told me that in spanish climbing shoes are called pie de gato, or cats shoes.

The view got better with every pitch. It was unbelievable from the top of the fifth pitch, where out anchor had us straddling a foot or so wide arete with all of Costa Blanca sprawling out beneath us. The cliff plummeted down on either side of us, and for the first time in my life I experienced some vertigo. As The Face is displaying, it was high and precarious. Notehow small the city in the background is. It was the most beautiful place I have everbeen in my life, and that statement doesn't come lightly.

After eight or nine pitches (we lost count) we reached the top. Mama and Papa G will be excited to hear that we found a family of cats that live up there. Not too shabby real estate for wild cats. We also realized we hadn't eaten anything since 7:30 that morning, and it was nearing 4 o'clock. I'm not one to miss an opportunity to eat, but we had been so absorbed in the climb it barely felt like time had passed. I had been offered a cookie by my new chilean friends when we met again on pitch 7. Great people, but did not fully understand the concept of gluten. We ate our lunches, enjoyed the view, snapped a picture for The Mountaineer, and hiked out. Spain is amazing in the way that you can climb anywhere and no one will try to stop you, and every inch of Costa Blanca begs to be explored. The hike out wound its way over the back of Penon, through a tunnel cut through the cliff, and emerges once again in the city.

Thanks to C-Dawg for the amazing day, every inch of the thousand or so feet we climbed was unforgettable. Rock on.