Cova de Juncosa is a small cave, hidden in the bushes next to the road in the flat and agricultural landscape, a place you would never expect a climbing area to be situated in. It was developed by Dani Andrada, a climber who bolted countless routes all over Catalonia and gave all of us plenty of absolutely classic routes. This inconspicuous cave caught Dani’s attention in 2008, and the first line he bolted is Tierra de Nadie (Nobody’s Land). He first ascended this line in 2009 and it remains the hardest and possibly the best route of the cave.
The problem with climbing in Margalef, where my main project is situated, is that it is almost exclusively about climbing on pockets. And the skin suffers a lot. My skin wasn’t good enough, and the conditions were not windy enough to give Perfecto Mundo a good try, so I opted for Cova de Juncosa instead. Climbing is very steep and athletic, holds are mostly very comfortable and skin-friendly. A great option to climb, get some training, and not to destroy my precious skin. When we arrived, I went straight to work on the moves of Tierra de Nadie 9a. It took me quite a lot of time to figure out the moves, it required a lot of body tension, precise heel hooks, toe hooks, and kneebars.
On my second try, it was a lot of fun. I barely made it through the first crux, took a good rest in the kneebar, fought through the humid section in the middle of the roof, took another kneebar-rest, and finished it off by making a great cross-over dyno into an amazing, glorious jug. One hour later, I also sent the longer version of it going out left, called Real Tierra de Nadie, being equally difficult. It was very refreshing to take a break from climbing in Margalef and got to climb in a different place. Props to Dani for bolting these routes, and regarding the grade, I must admit that using modern knee-pads makes a bit of a difference in these two routes, so I believe that the way Dani climbed, could be the upper-end of a 9a, with kneepads it will be probably on the lower-end of a 9a.
