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Best time of year for Font (appreciate that it's a bit of a lottery) (Read 1512 times)

cha1n

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Hey

On a long road trip and currently based in the Barcelona area and am trying my best to avoid tying onto a rope. I know I could drive down to Albarracin but I can't be assed to do the 7 hour drive to get back there as I have to drive back into France soon anyway.

Will early Feb be likely to be a washout? People have been recommending that I wait for late Feb and the whole of March as weather is usually better. What do the UKB collective think in their wisdom? Any other areas I might not know about that are North(ish) of Barcelona instead of south? I appreciate that Targasonne might be a contender but I spend a month there recently so am not to psyched to go back so soon.

Thanks!

ghisino

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it depends on what you are looking for.

Jan and feb usually have the best sending conditions of the year, but also more wet (unclimbable) days.
Some areas and problems might be wet or in sub-optional conditions throughout this whole period due to morning fog and humidity staying trapped in the bottom of the valleys.
This time is your best bet for projecting problems at your limit and located near the top of the hills (for instance, if your limit is around 7c-8a, this is the time to get on the big five @rempart)

March and especially april usually have a more mixed weather and more wind.
You will have quite a lot of suboptimal yet still climbable days with short rain spells that could dry out relatively quickly.
You might have better chances on shady, less elevated problems/areas.
Yet condensation might be even more of an issue on non-windy days, due to the higher temperature difference between night and day.
Overall it is a better choice if you want more climbable days; yet finding perfect sending conditions will be bit more tricky- good knowledge of the various areas' micro-climates and luck will make the difference.

Evil

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Could try Santa Gadea? I don't know much about it other than some friends have been and it's in north west Spain so not as far too drive back from (depending on where in France you need to go back to).

fried

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Basically, what Ghisino said should automatically appear whenever someone asks for conditions reports for Font.
Where are you going in France? Any thoughts on Brittany?

cha1n

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Thanks for the replies everyone.

Our next big stop on the trip is Font, so it's basically the next destination. The motorhome is currently parked at Barcelona airport parking whilst we've nipped home for 2 weeks for xmas.

I've been doing some research and there is some bouldering in the Barcelona/Lleida area... They don't look spectacular but might carry me over to Feb before hitting Font. It sounds like it's worth getting to Font earlier if the weather is changeable. The last thing I want is to be in Font for 1 month and only get to climb 1-2 weeks out of it.

Keen to try the Rempart 7C's when I get there though!

SA Chris

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You could plot amount of rainfall per month vs average monthly temp and cross reference agains grade you want to climb to determine optimum time to get there.

Or just bear in mind we live in Europe, where we get weather not climate, and it's a lottery.

 

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