More thoughts on climbing at Reguchillo.
Reguchillo is a very good crag and well worth a visit especially in the depths of winter. It gets the sun between around 12 and 4 in January and feels too warm then if the temperature is above about 16C. When the sun is off the crag the perceived temperature plummets so there is a 2.5 hour window in the late afternoon for a couple of redpoint goes before it gets dark. In theory you could start early too.
Vans are currently tolerated at the parking spot. You could walk to the parking spot from some parts of Jaén. The crag is 2 - 30 minutes walk from here.
There are around 800 routes and scope for many more. Other than at new year there were typically 8-10 people at the whole crag. The best climbing is 30-40m slightly or moderately overhanging in the 7s and low 8s, a mix of tufa wrangling and real holds. Grades are mostly reasonable, occasionally a bit erratic in the 6s. It’s quite similar to Chulillia with, at a guess, 30% of the routes and less than 5% of the climbers. Between us we spent 4 weeks there and saw no other Brits. Well worth considering as an alternative to the usual suspects.
Jaén is a very pleasant town with the usual amenities including
a great little climbing shop. It proclaims itself as the world capital of olive oil which probably isn’t hyperbole. ~70% of Spain's output comes from Andalusia, 600-700k tonnes a year, about the same amount as the next 3 biggest producers - Italy, Greece and Turkey - combined. The landscape s not the traditional terraced olive groves but farming by GPS:
1000s of trees at precise intervals for miles and miles. It’s hard not to wonder about the prospects of this monoculture given the warming climate.
Andalusia is a wonderful part of the world for art and architecture. As well as the famous sites of the Granada and Cordoba, the renaissance towns Úbeda and Baeza are well worth a visit. In Jaén itself the spectacular Spanish baroque cathedral dominates the town physically, the Arab baths are more discrete.
