Several years back I had a quick early season visit to the old skool climbing mecca that is Siurana. I’m off back there this week, to get some new images, (hopefully) mop-up some outstanding business and to check-out some of new nu skool venues. Whilst packing, I pondered the changes that had occurred since my last visit...
For starters, this trip I’m packing digi cam kit and not film cams. I’m packing a bag-full of chargers too, flash cards instead of films and a photo-bank for downloading images rather than a bag for ‘used’ film cans. I’m guessing too that my laptop will get thrown in as well. Conclusion #1, digi ain’t as simple as film.
That said, I am taking a film camera, a Rioch GR1S which is my film-based compact. I’m not a die-hard, stuck in the mud traditionalist, but old habits, and ace kit, is hard to beat. I know I could do with a decent digi compact but there’s still some film left in the fridge and it seems rude not to pack the GR1S. Sadly though that more clobber for a separate system – doh! Conclusion #2, note to self, stick with the programme buddy and stop mixing kit.
The next change is that I’m packing a 9.5mm single rope and a GriGri II. Climbing kit is always changing, getting lighter and better. Ditto the low-cost airlines, themselves a major innovation a decade or so back, are forever moving forward and now I’ve already ‘booked-in’ for my flight on-line. Conclusion #3, successful organisations invest in R&D and/or drive innovation to secure competitive advantage/market share.
Finally, I’m packing Lleida Climbs, Pod’s new all-singing, all-dancing self-published Catalunya guidebook. Conclusion #4, new players in climbing, as with life, are coming on-line all the time.
Packing done, I’m left wondering how it’s going to feel pulling off the deck at Campi Qui Pugui onto the initial wall on that well-known, ‘must-do’ route that I tried on my first Siurana trip. I’m wondering too if any rock stars will be there – last time a certain Rich Simpson was working on A Muerte. Conclusion #5, times change...
Al Murray on the magic walls of Raco de Misa – a then nu skool venue just over the way from Siurana…
