[Fiend]

Any ideas??

I want somewhere that has:

Reliable dry weather in November/December.

A decent choice around F6a - F6c

Reasonably accessible for the non-foreign-language-speaking English tourist, easy accomadation.

Good technical climbing on nice rock, not a series of homogenous 25m stamina-thons on choss. Climbing like the stuff at Buoux, Mouries, Villanova De Prades, Siurana, Montesa, La Panocha would be good. Stuff like Orgon, Orpierre,  etc would not be good.

Non-limestone would good if possible.

....thoughts??

[AndyR]

Tenerife.

[SA Chris]

Non-limestone would good if possible.

I assume this means "would BE good"?

So, sunny sport routes, in Europe, on something other than limestone?

Hmmm

La Pedriza is granite, how keen are you on slabbing with that foot of yours?
Riglos and Monserrat are Conglomerate, I believe.
Is Todra Gorge in Morocco sandstone? Not sure on that one.

What is Sardinia?

Otherwise slim pickings I think.

[Bonjoy]

You can rule out Riglos and Monserat if you you aren't into homogenous staminathons.
 Sardinia probably a good bet, granite and lime, reliable weather.

[dobbin]

Montserrat is a fairly awesome place, but not for the faint hearted. It is conglomerate made up of what I remember as very smooth pebbles and crumbly cement!

Some of the time you are holding a protruding pebble, some of the time you have a pebble scar. Worryingly you will be clipping a bolt placed in a pebble right next to a pebble scar.

has anyone said mallorca? despite being limestone it is good.

[Bonjoy]

What do you mean despite!? It's good BECAUSE it's limestone.

[SA Chris]

Montserrat is a fairly awesome place, but not for the faint hearted. It is conglomerate made up of what I remember as very smooth pebbles and crumbly cement!

Riglos is the same, only more so. The only place I've climbed on conglomerate was in Utah, and after initial concern, the stuff proved to be totally solid. Maybe the Spanish stuff is different.

[AndyR]

Can I say tenerife again?
Guaranteed weather, mixture of volcanic tuff (similar to Smith Rock or ORG) and granite (nicely weathered - hydrothermally actually due to being in a caldera) - some stonking climbing, and plenty of places to stay.

[sloper] Only problem is avoiding the white trash at place of residence - you'll enjoy it if you read the sun - difficult to get hold of a copy of the Guardian - an advantage if you wear 'sportswear' and enjoy football. I believe places like this can be avoided if you have a proper look on the web and don't just book a package deal.[/sloper]

[Bubba]

The conglomerate in Montserrat is solid. Been there a couple of times and never found anything loose.

[dobbin]

I love it being limestone, Limestone is gods own rock, I think however Fiend started the thread with a comment about ideally non-limestone crags (wierdo).

Bubs, if you say its solid, its good enough for me (and a weight belt).  :wink:

[Fiend]

Thanks for the replies. Unfortunately I won't be putting them into use before the new year.

Sardinia and Tenerife sound good to me from that. The conglomerate stuff does look good too, I know it's all the same but I can imagine it being a good onsight challenge.

The reason I'm asking for non-limestone, is that although I've really enjoyed climbing on Euro limestone, I do find most of it is steadily positive cranking, and I'd like to try something a bit more committing and trad-relevant. Granite sounds good - and sandstone sounds great (although I can't think of any that would be good in winter).