Ceuse - Best Crag in the world

The train ride to Apt, the closest town to Ceuse was uneventful. I had a two hour stop over in Grenoble so I was able to have a look at the area where Scheinder electric. I found myself in the Apt train station at 5:00 PM.

I decided to look for a grocery store to buy food and an internet café to get direction for Les Guerins where he camping was. I wondered up and down the main street in Apt with my two packs on, one in the front and one on the back, as well as carrying a bit of food and my laptop bag. The total weight for all my gear would easily tip the scales at 40kg. So when I step into a break in the sidewalk because I couldn’t see it over my backpack I went down hard.

This was a rather humorous moment for me. I think this was the first time I had fallen on my face in my adult life. Quite an experience having feeling of wounded pride; I could only laugh as I felt the warm trickle of blood start to run down my leg. I gather myself up and move on walking past a French girl waiting at a bus stop laughing at me. It must have be a comical scene watching me tumble to the ground.

Alas I gave up on the idea of finding internet access and feeling hungry and a bit beat up I decided to get a taxi to the camp ground. After a brief negotiation I got the drive down from 50 euro to 35 and we headed to the campground. I was taken aback by how beautiful this place was. The campground was relaxed and the cliff face seems like a warm guarding presence looking down on us in the campground below.

Picture: Panorama of Ceuse from the campground. That cliff band is as high as 100m.

I setup my camp and had something to eat.

The next morning while I was cleaning up in the bathroom I ran into Audrey. Apparently both her and Adrian were staying there for the next couple of days. Audrey and I decided to climb together up at Cascade sector and Adrian went out to take pictures for the Guidebook.

The infamous hike to the top of Ceuse was at hand. Audrey set the pace and lead the way up since she had done it a few times. A gentle breeze kept the hike from being unbearably hot as we hiked through the heat of the day. By 1:30 we had arrived at Cascade the hike not being nearly as bad as advertised. The hike up was made easier by chatting with Audrey and being distracted by the gliders that would routinely buzz the cliff face overhead. The glider really are a surreal experience because they make the same sound that the Cyclone Raiders do in Battle Star Galactica.

Picture: Cascade Sector profile as seen from Medecine Douce.

We accidentally warmed up on a 6c that was a bit of the shock to the system since we both thought it was the 6b. The climbing was slow going and steep in the blistering heat. I think it was around 31 degrees. That night I stashed the rope at the top and left my draws in Medicine Douce a 6c+ that I was projecting while Audrey left her draws in Hyper Mickey 7c.

That night I spent hanging out with the Germans that I had met the night before when I had arrived. We just hung out around some candles they had brought and drank wine. Now here is something that left me longing for home: the lack of camp fires at the campground. That is definitely one of those treats we have in North America and specifically Canada – the luxury of having a camp fire; small things that mean a lot.

The next days Audrey and I headed back up while Adrian set out again to get photos for the guide. After a couple 6b and 6c warm ups to the wall left of Cascade I took a burn on Medicine Douce. It was a good burning making it all the way to the crux before pumping out and falling. Audrey had picked off Hyper Mickey and so we took a break in the shade to hide from the sun.

Picture: Me just before the crux of Medicine Douce, 6c+ at Cascade Sector.

I took one more burn on Medicine Douce later that day falling at the first crux and decided to take out my quick draws in favour of using my last couple days for climbing at other sectors. Adrian had rejoined us so we went over to some other sectors to climb the classics at other walls.

Audrey put up Zegreb, the classic 6c. I took a spin on it despite feeling tired to start. I fell off below the crux, catching my left foot on the fall on a hold re-sprained my ankle. The sprain wasn’t nearly as bad as last time, more of tweak this time but it hurt none the less so I called it day. I took a nice hike up the wall towards the Demi Lune sector passing under Biography wall where Realization is. I looked the route but to be honest it wasn’t as inspiring as I would have though it because of the way the cliff falls away below it you don’t get to appreciate the steepness or difficulty of the 5.15a climb.

Picture: Panorama of Biography sector, Ceuse.

Later on down the wall I stopped to sit under a beautiful overhang where hundreds of sparrows were swooping towards the cliff roof trying to find a place to rest for the night. They would fly right up to a pocket and then hover right at the edge, sometimes they would land, sometimes they would fall away if the pocket was already filled with sparrows. Sometimes they would spook and several would take off and the group would fly a few meters from the cliff only to turn and come back to find a place to sleep. It was a wonderful experience to just appreciate their dance for a moment and see the beauty in their existence.

When I returned to where we were climbing earlier that day I found Audrey and Adrian had already packed up and headed down the hill. I got my pack and walked down. Had dinner with Audrey and Adrian during the last night there then caught a ride into Apt with them the following day to catch up on emailing and coordinating plans with Evan and James.

I have to say hitch hiking in France is pretty nice, I had no trouble. Of the 20km trip to the campsite I only had to walk for 200m and wait no longer than 10 minutes. Definitely feel appreciative to the generosity of my French.

The following day I climbed with one of the Australian guys from New Leyland. He had been sick for the past couple of days and wasn’t looking to climb hard. My ankle was still sore and I was looking to test is gently to see how it was doing. We headed up to Demi Lune and the first 6b we got on was technical but I was able to hold on and get the onsight but I felt very uncertain of my ankle as rocking over on it was causing some pain. Still not warm I followed up with a 6b slab climb thinking it was a 6a. I made it all the way up to the top and found myself at a tenuous crux where I had to rock over my left food on a flow stone scoop. This move proved to be very painful for my ankle not to mention scary as I didn’t want to fall off and land on the slab below and possibly aggravating my already injured ankle. I pulled through after falling off once but resolved to avoid slabby climbs because I couldn’t compensate for my injured ankle with my arms and was more likely to further injure it if I fell of.

To round out the day I headed up Chant De Cristal at 6b+ which I onsighted easily – I hit the crux sequence properly which makes it feel easy and them moved on to the 6c extension that pulls the steep roof above on large holds. I feel off after the first bolt and then dog my way to the last bold on a huge 4 meter run out. I called it a day after this since I my nerves were fried for the day. Since my ankle was bothering me so much I decided to pack up my things and head out for Pierre Longue and visiting Christian and Gabriel my friends whom I had met there earlier in the trip.

Christian picked me up from the train station in Orange and we headed immediately to close family friends of his up in Beauvoisine for a BBQ with his brother’s family and family friends. It was a great night catching up with Gabriel and Christian and eating some fresh BBQ lamb from their farm as well as sausage, cheese and vegetables. It was really unique to experience another family meal in another country of the world.

The following day we spent lounging around at the river and in the kiddy pool with Gabriel, Christian and their children Salomi and Camie. Gabriel and I made inukshuk at from the rock in the river.


The next day Christian and I hiked up to the top of the mountain between Pierre Longue and Mount Ventoux to get some exercise as our last day together. We had tons of fun and I enjoyed the view from the top looking down at the places where I had climbed and lived for 3 months at the start of the year.

The following day Christian and Gabriel dropped me off at the train station in Orange and spent traveling to Barcelona on the train.