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Watch Jon Cardwell on Hard Spain Sport Routes

After seven years, Jon Cardwell returned to Siurana and Oliana to get project some hard Spanish sport routes, including La Rambla 5.15 and Papichulo 5.15.

“It’s easy to summarize my feelings on returning to Spain,” said Cardwell. “The first thoughts are climbing everyday ‘a muerte’, to the death, as they say.

“Which isn’t to say it’s a bad thing, yet a responsibility you acquire as soon as you set foot into crags like Oliana, Siurana, Margalef and dozens of others. The climbers here, both international and Spanish are fanaticos, they love every moment at the crags, and each try is as if it’s their last; blood from the fingers and muscles fatiguing.

“The energy is infections, and its every bit as inviting as I remember it; my last visit to Spain was a daunting seven years ago when I spent over six months at various areas, I still remember it like it was last season.”

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