Chulilla seen from the opposite side of the gorge.
This weekend the Costa Vertical team and friends took a trip up north to Chulilla. It is located about an hour inland from Valencia along the CV-35, and 2.5 hours from Finestrat.
One of the bridges that cross the Rio Turia
The first day there we took a walk from the Dam down through the gorge to the village to get a feel for the area. The gorge is impressive with towering walls on both sides up to 80m above a meandering river that runs through the bottom. There is a very well way-marked path through the gorge to the village, this crosses the river a number of times via bridges. This path was originally used by the villagers to get to the dam to work on its construction.
To walk the path from the Dam to the village takes about a hour, and there are information boards along the route giving details of the gorge’s wildlife and some of the ruins, including the horizontal water wheel.
Sector Oasis
After our gentle stroll, we headed up to Sector Oasis to sample the delights and to get a feel for the climbing. This sector has routes from 6a+ to 8a, and in common with most of the sectors up to 40m in length. As this sector is in the shade most of the day and because of the quality of its routes it tends to be busy. We did a selection of them up to 6c+.
On the second day we split up with half going back to Oasis and the remainder going to Sector Miguel Gomez. This is a small sector with routes from 4 to 6b and up to 20m in length. It is in the shade until mid afternoon and directly by the river.
Day 3 saw us at Las Lamentaciones. This crag is on the opposite side of the gorge to the village and and its right hand side comes into the shade early afternoon. This was a good day with a couple of 7a on-sights and some enjoyable routes in the mid 6’s.
Our final day in Chulilla found us at the Sexshop (sector that is). This is accessed from the village as is Las Lamentaciones. The routes here range from 5+ to 7b+, the obvious feature on this wall is the multi-pitch Diagonal, which is two pitches of 6b climbing.
Kris heading to the chains.
Throughout the trip we popped into Chulilla each evening to gain refreshment at the local bars. As it was a weekend, the village nearly doubles its population so it was very busy, as was the crag. The village has a very good bakery and a reasonably well stocked market, plus a Tabacos which sells the guide book for the area. Although this was out of print for our visit, but they still had photo copies of the main areas for sale.
The team all had a great time in Chuilla and many promises were made to return in the near future.