Baume Rousse, time to take it up a notch.

Today we return to Baume Rousse for another rounds. After our last trip to this location we climbed most of the 5's and almost all the 6's. Today we return to finish up the rest of the easy routes and start to pick off the harder ones.

I started by climbing "Cheloup Plage" a short 6a that had one interesting move on it. This route and really all the routes on the lower bowl are easy approaches to the harder routes above. For use the provided good warms ups. Only problem is that the route on the left including this route were stupendously dirty. All the dirt from the upper bowls was washed over this route and "Pasta de L'Elephant" a 6a+ right next to this route. This necessitated holding on and dusting off each hold throughly before committing to it. I don't think I have ever been so nervous on such big holds even after dusting they felt like the were covered in sand. Needless to say the foot holds were in no better condition except that they didn't have the benefit of being hand dusted first. Word to the wise, avoid these climbs after a rain unless you have a brush with you.

After finishing up these two routes, I did "Al Dente" a far less dirty 6a which made for good climbing. By the end I was nicely warmed up and it was Adrain turn to get warmed up.

He linked up a 6a+ with a 7b+ above. The climbing was pretty amazing and with a 70m rope linking these pitches was a breeze.

After Adrian came down it was my turn. I found a nice 6b called "La Caraille" which, according to the old English guide book, was supposed to link into a 7a at the top. I planned to do the link up then come down. The first pitch was amazing, two stars out of three. Nice slightling overhanging climbing on big jugs. I reach the belay and continued up into the next route. As it turned out I in inadvertently had hopped on a 7a+ called " La voie de Abeilles." Translation, the climb of the bees. I feel twice before the crux because I misread the climb but it the crux at the last bolt and was completely unable to figure it out. It was very thin (small holds) on a seemingly blank head wall. The most unnerving thing about it was I kept falling and ever time I did I would hang right in front of this hueco in the rock where there was a bee's next. I asked Adrian to check the guide book because the climb felt far harder than the 7a I was supposed to be on and there was a bee's next to me. He said that the one with the bee's was the next one over after many minutes of attempts on the climb I finally caved and pulled on the bolt to get my fingers into the key hold above me so I could complete the climb.

It was a good head experience because I was about 30m off the deck trying to pull a 5.12a bouldery crux with a bee's nest at my feet. Good practice on maintaining focus.
I also manage to figure out the sequence which at this point I was just not strong enough to pull.

Once down we discovered that the old guide book writer appeared to have not climbed any of the upper bowl climbs and had offset several of the climbs so the were not in the correct place on the topo. Incidentally the old guide book is a piece of work, I haven't written about it but the author makes value judgements on so many of the climbs saying things like "This climb is exactly the climb you hate.." and "... climb should be avoided ...". It also has a fictious grading scheme. Apparently there is such thing as a 6b- and 6c minus. I will stop the rant about the old guide book and no mention it again the comment only make sense if you've seen it.

Finally we wrapped up the day by wandering over to the other side of the crag finish up with a interesting and heady 6b+/6c called "L'Esperon 1". The climb is interesting because you have to climb a slightly overhanging wall that is trending to the left and is part of a dihedral. So basically you feel like if you fall you will crash down on a slab. The climb is safe but it just appears scary. In the end I got too excited at the top, slapped on the pump goggles (something like tunnel vision but you also can't see holds even when you are look directly at them) and blew off.

Adrian gave me some pointers on style and commented on a few that I can do to improve my footwork. He also suggested a new philosophy, I should climb for style points not to reach the anchor. Armed with this new knowledge I went up a second time and the climb was relatively easy. I know a lot has to do with knowing where the holds are for the crux and the sequence but it definitely helped putting into action the techniques suggested.

Well tomorrow is a rest day and that means sleeping in. On sunday we are making our way to the first famous crag I have been to here: Buoux. For those non-climbers in the audience, Buoux is famous for some of the hardest climbing and ground breaking activity in the 80s. Not to alarm anyone but this is also the crag where Lynn Hill nearly died after falling from the top of a rope because she failed to tie in properly. So there is some history.

The plan is to spend a single day at Buoux and then on the way back we will pass through Avignon and pick up one of Adrian clients who he will coach for a week. We also are going to be joined by another Sheffield climber that we met at St Leger so our merry party of 2 will become a party of three.

Sleep well all and have a great weekend.