This month Mark Harrap and his son, Thomas Harrap, went to the south of Spain to enjoy some sun and sport climbing.

Sport climbing is an outdoor form of climbing where a climber ascends a climb and attaches pieces of protection to bolts and puts the rope through these pieces of protection. The trip began at 4:30 AM on Sunday the 11th of February when the pair had to drag themselves from their beds to get to Gatwick Airport. With only a two-hour flight to Alicante airport the two of them were in the Spanish sun before lunch time. The father and son were staying in the Orange House Finestrat, which is accommodation for climbers and is run by climbers, after a brief check in the pair collected their climbing gear and headed to Echo Valley.

Echo Valley Is a popular spot for beginner climbers so was perfect for the first day and warming the two up for the rest of their trip. The climbs there vary in grade from very easy to quite challenging and further up the valley there are opportunities for multi pitch Trad and Sport climbing. The next day the two were heading to Sierra-De-Toix which is a strip of climbing with terrific sea views. On the third day, the pair went to Guadalest a very beautiful but chilly area where they are some long routes up to twenty-five metres to explore. On the final day, the comrades attempted most of the climbs in Elda, a small-town west of Alicante, before returning to the airport to go home.

Thomas said it was “the most terrific trip he had ever been on.”