The event in international climbing of 2012 is approaching, and will be held on Kalymnos, one of the world’s most popular climbing destinations.

The beautiful Greek island will be the stage  for the first The North Face Kalymnos Climbing Festival, an event which will bring many of the world’s top climbers together from the 26th to the 30th of September.

What can we say about our trip to Indian Creek? Where words fail us, perhaps all we can say is that it has been brilliant!

The land of the Anazazi Native Americans, keeps within its rocks thousands of fissures and cracks of all shapes and sizes.

This was our second trip, our first being in 2004 when we took part in the Spanish TV series  Al Filo de lo Imposible (On the Edge of the Impossible), but on that occasion we were only there for three days, and climbed one route each. We just had time to get to know the place, and appreciate that we had to return. Since then we have made some great ascents on granite all around the world, but we haven’t really ever mastered the techniques required for this type of crack climbing. Not that we are specialists after this trip, but we feel that after twenty days in this place we have learnt more than in many years of travel.
For us this trip represented an opportunity to train for our upcoming spring/summer expedition, but we were lucky enough to coincide with loads of Catalans which meant we also had a whale of a time. With such a great ambience, it was easy to motivate ourselves to really get the most out of the trip.

We have climbed sixteen of the twenty one days, and the hardest part was to overcome the mental and physical wear of climbing between six and ten pitches every day. The first few days we were scarcely human beings, and whilst our Catalan friends whiled away the evenings around the camp fire, we retreated to bed. It was also very difficult to find routes that are, in theory, well within our grade extremely challenging.

The key to Indian Creek is to forget about the grade (we are talking about 7as here) and focus on improving every day. Here, humility and patience are virtues that can forge great climbers. The alternative - to become frustrated and to throw in the towel, is easily done, especially when your hands and feet hurt on every route.

As well as being patient, we were fortunate to count on a great teacher. Joseba Larra (also from Álava) was out there for his eighth season, and with him by our side everything was much easier.

With Creek Pasture as our “base camp”, we did three days of climbing, and one day of rest, or two on, one off if we were really done for. On our off days we went to Moab, the US capital of mountain biking. On a number of occasions the locals asked us about the cyclists of Team Euskaltel.

Moab is also famous as the entry point to the Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. The first being known for its arches and amazing structures sculpted by nature, and the second, unsurprisingly, for its canyons into one of which disappeared Thelma and Louise no less, at the end of the eponymous and very famous film.

But returning to climbing, of all the things we have done the best would have to be the “splitters”- perfect fissures in the rock in the middle of a slab, as it is the only type of fissure not seen in Europe. Of these we would highlight several- Supercrack, Generic Crack, and Scarface.

Make no mistake- climbing these routes is as essential as a visit to Indian Creek itself.

Taking advantage of the nice photo gallery I have, I thought I would share these two ascents from the end of my sport climbing season in the Basque Country and Majorca.

First off with a yellow hat in Eulate, where I ‘scent Bihurri 8b, a nice 25-metre slightly overhanging slab. It is a route on yellow and orange rock where slopers, crimps, and small holes predominate. This crag in Navarre, just 45 minutes from Vitoria, has become one of our favourites for passing the winter months. There are great routes here, and the surroundings are among the nicest in the Basque Country.

And with the grey hat- a 7c+ I on-sighted in the Sierra de la Tramuntana in Majorca. this is a “secret” 40m route on exceptional limestone. The photos are of me and Chino Grande on the first part (7c+) and the second (8a+).

Photo Eulate: Jabi Baraiazarra.

Photos Mallorca: Jesús Fernandez.

We are returning to the USA on what must be about our tenth trip. Away from what you see in the movies the US is a fascinating and wild country unlike any other in the world. When people ask us about an expedition which is truly different, which surprises, and never disappoints we always think of the western United States. Its motels, cowboy bars, interminable straights of highway, its national parks, rattlesnakes, bears… No matter how many times you have seen it on the big screen it never ceases to amaze.

But as well as all that what has always inspired us to take the trip across the pond has been its rock, and above all its cracks. Once again we are off in pursuit of them, and what better place than Indian Creek where, as a friend once said “the rock is red and the cracks are perfect”.

There is no better place in the US to practice this technique. We have only been there once before- in 2004 we filmed an episode of “Al filo del imposible” for the Spanish TV channel TVE. We were only there for three days and we realized there was still a great deal to learn about this special discipline within climbing, despite just having made the first Spanish ascent of The Nose in this very style.

So the time has come to better ourselves a little. A climber never ceases to learn throughout his life, and with that maxim we will try to polish our technique in Utah, with a view to the difficult expedition we have planned for the summer.

For better or worse, the vast majority of the world’s great mountains are granite, and cracks and self-protection are the only way to climb them. So well have to put limestone climbing to one side, grab our cams, and head into the unknown. Free climbing at its most authentic awaits us in the western USA!