The return to Ulassai – Week two

On a climbing trip, the rest days are meant to set you up for the next round of climbing. Unfortunately ours did not! The first week had been really successful and we had begun to get a feel for the rock and the general ambience in Ulassai, so we had high hopes for the second, and final, week of the trip.

On our rest day at the start of our second week, we decided to have a change of scene and went for a walk down by the coast. It was a beautiful day, 24^oC, sunny, and very light winds. The 10km route was lovely, it took us up some hills, past picturesque waterfalls, and back along the beach. It was a perfect combination of exertion, rest, and absorbing the scenery around us. Nothing eventful happened on the walk, and we returned to the car feeling happy but more tired than we had expected.

The next morning we woke up still feeling lethargic, and took our time getting out the door. There was no hurry as we were going to Lecorci, an east facing crag which needed the sun to go off before we could start climbing. After a 20 minute approach which felt harder than it should have done, we arrived at the crag. There were only three routes that we would consider warmup routes (graded below 6b), and these were clustered in a corner. At least two of them looked superb, but they were currently occupied by several birds, flying around and resting on the small ledges near the top of the routes. We dumped our sacks and had a closer look at the routes, and the birds, trying to ascertain if they were nesting (in autumn?), or simply there temporarily. At this point the birds started to drop grit and small stones on us, so we quickly decided that those routes were not for us that day and retreated round the corner.  We sat on a step and looked over the valley towards the town and reassessed our plans for the day. At this point I mentioned that I really didn’t have much energy, and I was happy just to belay. Jon turned to me, his face slightly grey, and said he wasn’t feeling great either. We decided to walk over to S’Assa Bella, another nearby sector which had an easy wall and a hard wall. When we had scoped it out the previous week the harder wall (grade 6c-8a routes) was packed with people, but the wall full of grade 5c-6b was quieter. We hoped to be able to get on a few 6a’s and see if we felt any better. Fortunately there was space for us, and we did three very pleasant and un-stressful routes. By the time we left at 2pm, our section of the crag was empty and there were about 20 people clustered around the 9 routes on the harder part of the wall.  We got back to the apartment, drank some tea, and tried to figure out what had gone wrong. Our best guess was dehydration. We did drink during our walk the day before, but quite possibly not enough. And on top of that we were both very hot during the night which could have added to the problem. We made sure we drank plenty of water that evening and went to bed hoping we would feel on form the next day.

The following morning we both felt much better and we decided to drive round to neighbouring Jerzu. The Palazzo d’Inverno sector is only a 7 minute drive away, but the setting felt very different to the Ulassai crags.  The trees were much closer to the base of the crag, so it felt like we were in the woods, whereas the Ulassai crags are more exposed. There are several different sectors at Palazzo and over the next 3 days we worked our way along the crag.  Much of the rock was similar to Ulassai, sustained, technical wall climbs, on small holds, but there were also routes with tufa’s, concretions, and cracks.

Jon’s quest to on-site more 7a’s took a bit of a hit on our first day at Palazzo. The first 7a he tried started on a high ledge. He clipped the first bolt from the ledge and pulled onto the wall, quickly climbing above the bolt and immediately getting into difficult territory, several moves before the next bolt. He was very aware that making one more move would mean any error would have him hitting the ledge and clattering down the rocky bank. He backed off and then tried again, but was still unable to commit. After three attempts he decided it was too dangerous and walked away. As he was reversing the route for the final time, he saw a foothold which may have made all the difference, and this highlights one of the differences between redpointing routes and on-sighting them. Jon could have used the clip-stick to clip the second bolt, making the whole sequence safe, but for him the challenge is in the ground up on-site approach. That is what gives him the most satisfaction as a climber.

The second 7a that looked good had a hard start leading to a good side-pull which led you into a groove up the wall. The good side pull was visible, it was right there, about 3m up. It just needed three moves to get to it. But those three moves proved impossible to work out. There were various options all of which got him to one move before the side-pull, but he could never move beyond that point. It didn’t help when one of the key holds broke off, leaving 25% of the original hold in place, a hard move had just got even harder. I am not sure how many downclimbs you can do and still call it an on-sight, but it is a moot point as Jon never managed to unlock the third move.  He retreated onto easier ground and  finished the day on Stravinski, a varied 6c with some very sharp rock at the top of it. I was still hoping to second a 6c on this trip, so I went up after him. This was my big mistake of the day. I could see that it was quite steep, but I didn’t realise just how steep, and how bad the holds were (for me at least). Having just belayed for an hour I had cooled down and was in no way ready for the battle that the route required, so I resorted to pulling myself up the rope in order to get the gear back. We left the crag after that, both feeling somewhat despondent.

We returned the next day, determined to put the disappointments of the previous two days behind us, and I had a plan of what I wanted to do. This went out the window immediately when another team were on the route I wanted to start on! We quickly found an alternative and were able to return to my planned route Cindy (6a+) for our second climb. This was an enjoyable route up a corner and across an exposed wall, with a variety of different holds and different climbing styles required. It felt hard for the grade and I was pleased to reach the top without falling, especially as the upper sections were catching the wind. We moved further down the crag after that and found a lovely sector which was more open, but ironically more sheltered from the wind. This is where we found some really enjoyable routes, a mixture of concretions and small crimps, usually following features in the rock.  Jon finished the day on a more positive note, ticking a 7a on his second attempt, just missing out on the on-sight when he misjudged “the good bit” of the hold.

Day 3 at Palazzo was our fourth day climbing in a row, and I was tired. Even though our days had not been long, and I was often only doing 3 or 4 routes in a day. The weather forecast had been mentioning rain, which is why we didn’t have a rest day, but that rain kept on being pushed back, and we now only had 3 days left. The first route of the day was a delightful 6a+ called Willy Coyote. It climbed a ramp with nothing but smears for our feet, and then stepped onto a vertical wall to finish on small crimps. I thoroughly enjoyed it, which was just as well as it was the only route I managed to climb clean that day! The 6b and 6b+ which followed asked too much of my dwindling energy and motivation. I really needed a break, not just a physical break, but a mental one as well. Jon was feeling this even more than me, he was constantly battling with conflicting forces. We only had 2 days left, rain was forecast, we were mentally drained by the demands of this style of climbing, but Jon doesn’t want to be sitting around the apartment when he could be climbing!

Ideally we would have then had a rest day and climbed on our last day, but it now looked certain that our last day would be a washout, so off we went for our final day of climbing at Ulassai.  

We decided to go to L’isola del Tesoro, another of the Jerzu crags, and I immediately spotted two nice looking routes, up a grey limestone wall covered in lots of small holds. Jon pulled onto the first route Leggende Metropolitane (6a+) and immediately started questioning the wisdom of that choice. Nothing was quite as straight forward as it looked. I had a great time on the route, it is the type of climbing I enjoy most, and with a top rope I am well protected on all the thin, sketchy moves.

After we had both successfully completed that route we went to scope out the other parts of the crag. However this was a west facing crag and it was coming into the sun much earlier than we had anticipated, so we retreated back and got on the neighbouring Mercanti In Fiera (6b+). Again I really enjoyed the intricate, delicate climbing, and was pleased to finish the trip with another 6b+ under my belt. No 6c for me on this trip, but I was pleased with how I was climbing after a summer with very little time on rock.

So whilst our second week in Ulassai may not have been everything we had hoped for, we still enjoyed our time there. It is undoubtably one of the best climbing locations we have visited. In the middle of the trip a wise friend said to us “sometimes you have to do less to do more”, and I think this applied on our trip. Jon and I have different requirements when it comes to resting, I work best with a 2 on, 2 off schedule, whereas Jon works best with a 3 on 1 off schedule. However at Ulassai, he thinks that he also needed a 2 day rest in the middle, a rest away from the whole climbing scene, because of the intensity of trying to on-sight everything with this style of climbing.

Simply put, the climbing at Ulassai is superb! This has been a trip we will remember for a long time, for the right reasons.

As a side note, one other feature that I noticed on this trip, was the number of female climbers on the very hard routes. It is the first time I have noticed the equal presence of men and women on the hardest grades at the crags we have visited.  I don’t know if this is due to the style of climbing here, or a reflection of the changing gender balance in the climbing community, but it was inspiring to see that so many of the best climbers at the crag were female.