Montserrat is an easy one hour train ride from Barcelona and I would highly recommend it to anyone with an extra day to kill. Whether you're an experienced rock climber with gear, or a 70-years-young grandmother in search of an amazing hike, you'll love this place.

Yesterday Ben and I got up early and charged to Plaza Espana to catch the train to Montserrat. We had seen photos of the area which rises out of Catalunya thousands of feet with rock towers that look like the drip castles you'd make as a kid at the beach. We packed some sandwich materials and our rock climbing shoes. I wasn't sure how much climbing we'd be able to do without ropes, because in the pics I saw there were tons of big walls, but I was confident that we could get into something cool if we poked around enough.

As we wound our way up the mountain, I got butterflies in my stomach just looking out the window of the train. Some of the isolated rock spires rise hundreds of feet, straight out of the mountain. A passionate climber could explore this place for weeks and never climb the same route twice.

Most people who visit Montserrat are tourists coming to see the monastery, which was rebuilt less than a hundred years ago. Although its placement high on the mountain is spectacular, we were less interested in the indoor tour, and more interested in the mountains themselves. We set off up the mountain, not knowing exactly, where we were going. The top seemed like a good place to start, so we set our route on the summit of the mountain which can be reached on a trail. The hundreds of stairs felt good on the legs since we haven't been getting much exercise in Spain.

In the forest the flies were really bad and you had to have the windshield wipers on full tilt to keep them out of you eyes and mouth. We were deep in the forest when Ben jumped back, startled by something next to us in the trees. Holy shit! Wild boar! He pointed to the forest as the boar--which had to weigh at least a hundred pounds--charged up the ravine and disappeared into the darkness. It was no hogzilla, but I was beginning to feel like we were in the "Lord of the Flies."

Once we reached the top an hour later, there was a nice breeze and we perched out on a cliff for lunch where the flies couldn't bother us. We made bomb sandows with salami, cheese, Dijon mustard, a fresh baguette and a red bell pepper. (NOTE: Bell peppers are without a doubt, the most underutilized sandwich condiment--especially for backpacking--try it out, thank me later)

Although we had reached the top, the trail had wound its way around all the good stuff. The rock spires were isolated and difficult to get to. Most seemed hopelessly inaccessible, due to natural barriers of big rock walls, or dense brush. We tried straying from the path a couple times on the way up and got closed out both times and had to turn around.

On the way down we came across a steep ravine that sat at the very base of a large group of spires. These rock towers, which were clustered together and resembled fingers, were the ones we had had our eyes on all day. This was our best shot and we started up the ravine. About two hundred yards up, the ravine turned into a rock wall and it was time to switch out the Nike's for climbing shoes. Polansky led the way and very carefully, we began to climb up this steep section of Limestone. There were tons of holds and taking it slow, we both felt very confident on the wall. At the top of this wall, there was a short bushwhacking section, then another wall, them more bushes. It continued like this for 45 minutes and we were making solid progress when it started to sprinkle which was not a good thing. I was really hoping the walls didn't get too wet for the climb back down and there was a minute where we evaluated if it was a good idea to continue. We knew we were close and pushed on. The rain subsided and I felt like we had to be approaching the top of the fingers.

Sure enough, we came over the last false summit and bagged the top of the tallest spire in the fingers. We took some pics and took a moment to appreciate the beauty of the country below and the silence, just sitting up there in the breeze.

By now the rain was coming back and getting down safely was the thing to focus on. Climbing down without ropes is actually a lot trickier and more dangerous than climbing up, but we went slow and helped each other to find the best holds. I reached the bottom first and Polansky was climbing down the last section when one of the holds he had grabbed pulled right out of the wall and I could hear the baseball-sized rock barrelling down the Limestone towards me. I ducked and covered my head and luckily it missed me. Falling rocks scare me more than anything else in the sport of rock climbing.

We continued back down to the monastery and I crashed out on the train ride back to Barcelona. After a kebab by the spot I collapsed on the couch for a siesta before we had to go meet new friends for drinks. It was a long day, but great to get some adventure in our blood, in a trip that has been heavy on the urban environment.

Practical Information:

To get to Montserrat, just head via the metro to the Plaza de Espana metro stop. The train you want leaves from here and costs 16 Euros. Ask anyone working in the metro and they'll make sure you get the right ticket.