Oliana almost "rebuilt"

Oliana is one of the most famous hard-end crags in the world. Last June, a wildfire partly destroyed the wall and most of the fixed gear. Svana Bjarnason has led the restoration work including getting sponsors and also running a crowfunding campaign.

"As the village, the local organizations and brands hadn't really planned to do anything with the crag, my friends and I (more or less a group of 12 people) decided to try and take care of it. I put up crowdfunding to get a bit of money for all the work and contacted some brands to try to get some gear. We properly started working at the crag at the end of November. Since then we’ve all been working hard to try and “rebuild” the crag, try to make it a safer place and try to get the routes back to their initial state. Our to-do list was/is quite large:
- Take off burnt quickdraws and place new steel ones
- Check bolts (rebolt if needed)
- Check routes safety (flakes breaking and falling spontaneously)
- Clean routes (reinforce holds with sika if needed)
- Place new anchors
- Rebuild the trail
- Build pit toilet

We’ve been making a lot of progress but there is a lot of work and we are not that many helping so it’s a long journey. I’m very happy with all the work we’ve accomplished so far tho. The few people who are here are super motivated and efficient and I can’t thank them enough. They’re all taking on their own time and energy and it’s amazing to see how dedicated to the crag we all are. These days we’re in the rebolting phase, we’ve got 200 bolts for free from a Greek organization called Lappas climbing and from the French organization Greenspits, we also got a fantastic amount of gear from Edelrid and we’ll get some from Petzl. Apart from that, we’ve been using the money from crowdfunding (big thanks to those who gave money) and the rebolting of one route was financed by the organization Fanatic Climbing (France). I am very grateful to all of them, it has helped us a lot.

I would like to raise awareness about the ongoing work, we are still in the process and there’s still a lot to do. New quickdraws on a route don’t necessarily mean that the route is completely safe. Better ask us before coming and climbing there, so we can advise you on what is ok to climb on. The wall is also full of static ropes because we need them to work, we’re still cleaning some of the routes, and we still need to rebolt most of them. DO NOT take it down. And it’s also very important for people who want to climb here that Oliana is not what it used to be, it is not a safe place because of the risk of rock falls. We’re doing our best to try and clean and make it safer but it will never be safe because of the fire it suffered. It altered a lot the rock formations and nature around so the risk of holds breaking and trees falling from the top is high, especially after the rain. Please make sure to be aware of this if you go to the crag. And if anyone wants to come and help we’d be happy to have you 😊"


How is the status with the classic routes?
Most of the routes on the main wall are unchanged, in some a few holds broke. The most affected part is the left side of the wall. All the easier routes (in the 6th grade) were destroyed. The 7a and 7b on the left side were also affected but after cleaning it is still possible to climb. Might be a bit harder but not too much. The 8b+ Crimptonite is completely destroyed as well and we're not even sure we will be able to make a new route out of it. Then T1 Full Equip (8b+) was also altered, we still need to check it properly. And the classic 8a Mishi was also damaged, so we'll see how it is now.