A new location near Bellecombe-Tarendol

The last three days the Mystral was blowing something fierce. The temperature has plummeted and yesterday was the coldest yet so far in France. On the weekend I was enjoying 28 degree weather, yesterday we hit 3.5 degree. I climbed in my Yam puffy jacket, my polartec superman outfit (long johns and long sleeve top), climbing pants, and an under armour T-shirt. I had periodically stop on the climb to place my hands on my neck to warm the up and get the sensation back into them. Despite the cold the sun was shining so the rock warmed up a little in the late afternoon.

Our destination yesterday was a new one. Ollie the owner of our gite and his friend Stuart had plans to climb near to the village of Tarendol in a place called Bellecombe. There is an amazing climbing area called "Rocher De L'Aiguier". Stuart had a climb there that he had been talking about getting on and since it was his last day to climb here we were going to see to it that he got his project. We were joined by a friend of Ollie’s names Thomas. Thomas is a french climbing guide from farther North.

We all piled into Adrian’s car and made the trek over to Bellecombe. It wasn’t long before we got to look down across the next valley to see the Rocher De L’Aiguier in the distance. The rock was think of beauty; a giant set of fins rising from the side of the maintins on the far side of the valley. It is 90 meters tall, 1 meter wide , several hundred meters long fin. We started the day with a 5+ called “Le Sas”, its an approach pitch to get us to the ledge where Stuarts project starts.

Adrian and I went first so that Adrian could set up some ropes for photographing Stuart on his project, a 6b+ (5.11a) called “Dolf”. Dolf is an unusual climb in that its a bolted overhanging flake. It climbs in such a way as to require you to lay back (lay backing is when you put you feet almost directly in front of you on pretty much flat rock and reach into the crack at almost the same height and use the tension between you arms and feet to get enough friction to hold you on the rock). There was some fun 5 meter run outs on this pitch which made for some interesting heady climbing. I had a little miss communication with Adrian in which I top roped “Dolf” thinking we were going to top out the fin. When I reach the belay ledge at the top of Dolf I found out that the plans wasn’t to top it out so I headed back down to the starting ledge.

Stuart proceeded to onsight his project with a bit of thrutching which is not surprising because he was hoping on a 6b+ coming out of a 4 year hiatus. When get back to the ledge he was so taken with the expirence that the he was a little less than attentive and leaned back on my hand crushing it against the sharp limestone. He then proceeded to step on my foot bruising my big toe throughly. I have to laugh at this because I understand the endorphone state he was in. For him the climb was really run out and without the lead head from practicing on better protected routes you get a bit dopey. Its no wonder why people miss tie their knots or lower off the end of their rope when they are at the end of the day. Scend head (when people get all pumped on adrenline) should be considered the number one reason to double check everything.

Since I wanted to get the tick on “Dolf” and top out the fin I decided to head back up on lead this time. The laybacking was as much fun the second time as the first. I of course had to take periodic stops every clip or so to warm my freezing fingers on the back of my neck so I wouldn’t lose the feeling of the rock. I reach the belay ledge at the top of Dolf then linked the final pitch, a run out 5+ (5.9) to the top of the fin. The picture that is at the start of the post is the resulting picture. The view from the top was spectacular and there is something about being on the top of a 90 meter fin that is only about 1 meter wide at the top. You can see the nearly veritical walls falling off to either side. Definitely one of the more satisfying places I’ve gone with my climbing (up there with Monkey Face and the ledge below the Squamish Buttress).

I rapped off cleaning the routes as I went. When I reach the ground Adrian and I packed up to see some of the other walls higher up. We hiked no more than 5 minutes to come to a vertical to slightly over hanging 45 meter walls of perfect limestone. It was featured but nothing truly big. I decided on a climb called "Passage aux aveux" at 6c+. Great climb going up a nearly perfectly vertical gray wall. As is typical the routes here it was a solid and sustained 29 meters.

The limestone on this particular wall was lacking the texture that comes from water dropping on it and cutting prickly edges and pockets into it. This made for climbing more akin to the vertical walls of Squamish than the overhanging and juggy limestone of France. The only difference is granite has friction and texture from the crystals while smooth limestone might as well be glass. I found my feet skating off marginal foot holds several times. I manage to recover each time because of the superb pockets that had been cut away from the rock over years of water running down the surface. I eventually got shot down because I wasn’t able to see the foot holds as the pockets were shaped in such a way as to obscure their locations when view from above. I finished the route and then cleaned it.

After coming down and the sun low in the sky we decided that it was too cold to continue and packed up our stuff and headed back to the warmth and shelter of the car.

Today was probably the most full on day so far. We got up late and headed over the Ubrieux.

Once there I got on and didn't stop climbing till the end of the day. The wall a Ubrieux we were climbing made the climbing much like Petrifying Wall at Murrin park. Very crimpy, small feet and a slight over hang. The climbs were long, all around 28-30 meters. Stared on the right, warmed up on a 5+ and started working my way across the crag moving the anchor each time and top roping the next climb. Every 4th or 5th climb I would pull the rope and lead another route. The climbing was amazing! The most 2 and 3 star routes I have been on yet.

During the day I we encountered some transplants from Britain who live here now. They commented on the the Mystral which was howling as it has for the past 5 days. They say its the worse than normal. The weather network has it gusting at 130-140 kph. This is about 20 kph above normal I'm told.

At the end of the day I had climbed 12 routes. Since I have to write up the route descriptions for each, I figured here might be a good venue. For all you non-climbers out there this might be your time to stop reading or if you wanted to learn more maybe read on, I'll try to include explanations for the lingo in brackets.

"Le Gegene", graded this one 5 (5.9). Work up big holds through a groove and then bear left working good foot holds to a bulge, pull through and then right on jugs. The route is a bit on the polished side (polish is literally what it means, so many climbers have climbed and used the holds that they take on a shine) making some holds slippery.

"Post Natal", graded this one 6a+ (5.10c). A couple moves near the first bolt requires a bit of foot work. Get on to sustained but good holds and great feet till you reach a flake undercling which you have to commit to smallish polished footholds to gain the flake. Continue up the flake and right till you reach a slab finish.

"L'enfance de l'art" 6a (5.10b). High first bolt characterizes this climb which comes at 3 meters off the deck (ground or start of the climb). Fun climbing on good holds but no give away as it still requires reasonable footwork.

"Psychose" 5 (5.9)*. Good Slab moves characterize the start of this climb then jug pulling that draws you progressively left until you are sharing holds with “L’enfance de l’art”. Keep moving up to finish on the same anchor as the previous route. These routes should not be lead together.

"Subtilite Tactile" 6a+ (5.10c). Easy climbing to a high first bolt. Move up on good holds till a flake. Work left under the flake then traverse back right with some tricky foot work and gastons. Move directly up from here to a pair of lines of weakness that provide good holds. Move above and left again to get good side pulls and jugs the rest of the way to the top.

"Faille Qui Maille" 6c (5.11b)**. Slightly high first bolt which appears nearly in a bush. The bolt is not necessary, easy climbing to the second bolt will provide protection to the first moves of consequence. Good holds pull you onto the gray slab where you begin to shift left on progressively thinner foot holds and an overlap. Moving feet up on the overlap allows for a long reach to good holds on a horizontal crack. Good holds traversing right then back left allow the next bolt to be clipped. A little run out. Pull up to a dead bush then jugs to the top where some final slab moves lead to the anchor on the right. Don’t be tempted to join the anchor on the left as it will make cleaning difficult. Got the onsight for this one.

"Turpitude" 7b (5.12b)**. Fabulous route on mega thin holds. A high first bolt is not much concern for a climber at this level as its easy to attain. Move up through an overlap onto the gray slab. Fun high steps and rock-ons (step then rocking body over the foot to make the hold better and more secure) lead to a great crux on tiny holds. Footwork must be impeccable as your right foot is on a small edge and your left foot goes toe in on a nickel size chip. Right hand on a thin side-pull, press up through your feet and deadpoint to a small crimp. Rock over you feet to get some height, lock off the left hand and move the right to a high side pull. Move the feet up then stretch for a set of so so holds. Work the feet up once more to receive some relief on jugs. Rest up for the slab finished on small holds.

"Symphonie de Gratton" 6c+ (5.11c)**. Move up to a high first bolt through the gap in the brush at 2 meters. Same as “Turpitude”. Continue straight up and slightly right past some more brush, then venture out onto the gray slab with small crimps and small but good foot holds. A few large jugs break up the climb and give relief from the small holds and provide some recovery from the thin moves. Get up through the thin moves using a few side-pulls and some under-clings with good footwork to get on a seam and better holds. Continue on good hold to a nice flake which provides some jugs which get you onto the final gray slave and think hands but good feet.

"Sublimation" 6c (5.11b) **. Steady climbing on good holds straight up the bolt line with great foot and body position.

"Kesako" 6c+ (5.11c), ***. Sustained climbing on 6b/6b+ moves then a fun sequence left to gain the head wall then straight up the gray slab and the crux. Keep on your feet and moving to get to better holds. Easy pulling on jugs with big moves gets you to the final slab. Very thin hands an some delicate footwork is needed to get to the anchor. Got the onsight for this one.

"Six Symbol" 7a+ (5.12a)*. Easy moves to the overlap at the block. Get creative with your feet and use the undercling to gain the headwall. A few crimpy moves gets to a nice polished jug. Some tricky footwork and sequence on uncertain holds draws you right and up to the broken rock above. Sustained crux in this area with thin and insecure feet give the grade. Jug haul to the finale slab.

Tomorrows a rest day. Adrian and I will be running around looking at possible gite for when we have to move on March 23rd. I hope home is warmer than here. ;)