Monday, March 24, 2008

Camping in Apt; climbing in Buoux.

Just a quick note, that I figured out that there was a setting that controls who can comment on my blog. Previously the setting was configured such that you had to be registered. I switched this so its open for anyone to comment so if you didn't make a comment on something before because you couldn't be bothered to register, I don't blame you, you can now without having to go through that process. If you do comment please provide a name so I can start a dialog. Now for the update.

Adrian and I spent Thursday March 20th packing up our things and clearing out of our gite in Les Jonchiers. I was excited about the change in scenery and though I enjoyed my temporary home there I was happy to be moving to a new location and break new ground. Since I had so little to pack I'm pretty much self contained in one big backpack, a climbing pack and a pack for my laptop I was ready to go in under two hours. To keep me busy I cooked up some salmon fillets which we bought at the market the day before. Have time on my hands I crushed and pureed garlic and covered them in province spices and set them to cook. I made baked potateo wedges and a monstrous salad. Yes, this my way of packing food.

We didn't have to haul everything down to Apt, we were able to drop off most of the important things in Pierrelongue to be stored in the gite where we will be living for the next month or so. After divesting ourselves of unneeded weight and technical equipment made the drive down to Apt. To find a place to camp.

So one of the cool things about France is that the villages here all have municipal camp sites right inside the village. The all have nice washrooms with hot showers, and blow driers as I was to discover. Its interesting to see how they organize thing as well they don't have toilet paper in every stall. Instead there is one main roll and you get some if you need it before you go into the stall this way its easier to maintain.

We arrived late at the camp site so we set up in the dark. I had to negotiate with a stunned youth who was helping out with the camp site. The poor girl was so shy that she wouldn't answer direction questions and looked at my like I wasn't speaking French. After securing the camp site I had to get confirmation from Adrian that I had in fact asked her a few question to which I go no response just a blank stare.

In the morning the weather had turned to broken clouds and I wasn't feeling like I had recovered from the last two days of climbing so I decided to take another day off. Adrian wanted to get pictures of Buoux for the guide book so we drove up and hiked up to Fortress Buoux which is directly across form the climbing area.

Fortress Buoux is an ancient fortress that protected this cross roads during the middle ages. The place was amazing, there were walls, ditches, ramparts, churches and secret stairways. I have pictures and will post. I also found out those pictures of stairs carved out of the rock at Buoux are actually the village of Saint Germain which was located there between the 5th and 8th century AD. All in all a pretty amazing piece of history. The fort lays in ruins now as it was order destroyed by Louis the 14th to combat rising regional independence. I also can't relay quite how big it was, the entire plateau ran was about 500 meters long and about 60 wide.

When we finished up at the Fortress we hiked back to the car with dark clouds threatening we decided to head back into town rather than make the hike in for only a few climbs. As we started driving the 8km back to Apt it started to rain.

We bought some sandwiches from a street vendor for a very late lunch and bought food from the grocery story which is conveniently walking distance from the camp site and returned to our camp.

The other thing I forgot to mention about the camp grounds here is not only do they have good washroom facilities they also have a kitchen area with a sink, fridge and freezer as well as tables and shares and the best part its a room so you can get out of the elements for you dinner and socialize with other campers.

Since we had eaten so late I decided we skipped making dinner and just relaxed in the dinning room and read. it wasn't long before all the parties who had been on the rock when the rain had started began trickling back. In short order I found myself joined by a very friendly Irish man name Paul, his wife, Johny, Meg, and Rachel. I would later come to know this groups as Team Spoon. They reminded me of the Canadian Contingent from our trip to Kalymnos. They were all smiles, laughter and fun. The passed me a beer on hello and we were friends from there. This really was the first time I had had the chance to engage in mixing with people in the way I was hoping I would on this trip and I wasn't disappointed.

I talked a great deal with Paul the first night as he and I clicked right off the bat. I found out he worked for Microsoft in Ireland doing server migrations among other things. We got to talking about the environment and how to power off grid homes. He is super keen to get his house in the Alps to be carbon neutral or as close as he can. I won't bore you with the details but it was a very interesting conversation.

They taught me a card game called shit head which really is a cross between big two and Uno. We retired fairly early as team Spoon likes to make an early start.

One of the upsides of the rain is that it drove everyone into the dinner room so the loud Czechs who were keeping us up in the late evening and early morning were not outside for a repeat performance.

During the night the temperature dropped from probably around 8 to 1. I was really glad of having my -20 sleeping bag. The next day was clear and cold with the wind blowing. I made my way into the dinning room to keep out of the cold and wait for Adrian to get up (he's a late sleeper usually up around 10:30). Team Spoon was wrapping up their breakfast so I was not without entertaining conversation.

They left after not too long and Adrian and ate breakfast and headed to the Buoux. We joined Team Spoon at sector Scorpion where they were already clambering around on the two 6a's in the sector. I warmed up on a 6a (5.10b) called "Imitation Granite". The climb was a beautiful line that lived up to its name, an offwidth crack (this type of crack is to big for your hang or fist to fit into it so you can't jam your hands into the crack which makes it much harder to climb) that winds its way up the wall for about 30 meters.

After finishing this I gave Adrian a belay on a 6c (5.11b) for his warm up. I then did the first pitch of a two pitch route that leads into a higher tier. The climb was called "La Rut" and goes at 6a (5.10b) also. It was much easier than the first climb as it was a easy climbing up a dihedral (inside corner) to a short roof with a crack in the middle. You can stem your legs up and then get a bomber ring lock (ring locks are when you curl you index and middle finger over top of your thumb like you were making an 'Ok' sign) then make a big pull to jugs above the roof. Definitely a three star route.

Adrian and I said good bye to Team Spoon and went to sector TCF in search of harder routes for Adrian. He did TCF a classic 7a. I continued my activite recovery program and did a 6a+ three start 6a+ (5.10c) called "Zephir" which dances up 9 meters of easy slab to climb a pockets dihedral then steps right out onto a beautiful arete for the last 8 meters. Definitely a must do climb.

Next we made our way over to the Sectors No Man's Land and Bout Du Monde to see if we could get Adrian on the ultra classic "Le Minimum" at 8c (5.14b) but after working his way up it and cutting his finger on a hold we decided to bail out on that route. While we were in this area we met a couple of Dutch climbers who were there on holidays with their coach. The guy was working on "La Rose Est La Vampire". Share some chocolate with the coach and got to talking with the girl who wasn't climbing. She told me about traveling around and competing. They were a bit guarded which reminded me a bit of other Dutch I had encountered in the past friend and polite but not necessarily warm.

We moved on to the left side of the Styx wall where I got on yet another three star route, this time a 6b (5.10d) called "Melodie Gaelle" which works almost straight up this vertical walls on pockets and then moves through some slightly overhanging bulges. The route was amazing, flowing from one move to the next with good technical moves so that required some though but were not totally obfuscated. It was sustained to the top finishing off on 5 meters of technical slab at the top.

We wrapped up the day and headed back so we could be back in time to go shopping as the store would certainly be closed tomorrow for Easter Sunday. We got our groceries and went to make dinner. We hit a snag shortly into the preparation as Adrian was expecting me to have a stove which I did have but we didn't have fuel for it yet. So we made dinner and ate. Shortly after dinner a young lad from South Hampton University. He was there on a trip with a group of climber from and they were leaving the next day. He just so happened to have two cannisters of butane in the model that just happen to work for my stove. So the search for stove fuel wouldn't need to happen after all. They also resupplied me with pasta, rice, jam, nutella (not even openned) among other things. I guess a few encouraging words for your fellow climber can go a long way.

After another cold night which had me put on a shirt to stay warm I got up with the sun again. Met Team Spoon for one last breakfast chat and gathering of email addresses. I did the drying and packing up as we were moving back to our new gite in Pierrelongue. By noon we were on the road up to Buoux.

We made our way up towards No Man Land sector stopping along the way for me warm up a bit at TCF on a 6a (5.10b) called "La Conque" which I climbed one and a half pitches of the two pitch climb. I lowered off at the mid station of the second pitch because I couldn't see any more bots and figured the top half didn't look like it was worth the time of climbing and then having to pull the rope and rappel off.

We moved over to the Styx wall where Adrian did a warm up climb. After which we double backed to the Reve sector where I did a technical 6a chimney climb called "Tupinambis". We walked a back to No Man's Land sector where we put our stuff down. The Dutch climbers we had met the day before were working a 7c called "Pacemaker" so Adrian took off with is camera to get pictures for the book. I sat and enjoyed the time to relax and in the sun trying to keep warm despite the cold wind. When Adrian returned he said it was my turn to climb but I wasn't particularly interested in climb the slabs on the Styx wall as he hadn't recommended them. I said we could wait and he could get on the climb which he wanted to do on No Man's Land to which he replied he "doesn't do waiting for climbs".

So we packed up and headed down as I wanted to get on some climbs from different sectors to get a full flavour of Buoux. We hiked down and around to the Mur Zappa sector. This wall is less than vertical and pretty polished as I found out. After doing a 6a called "Bal Des Lazes" which was slippery the whole way up.

I wrapped up the day with one last route called "Skud" a 6a+ (5.10c) on the right side of Mur Zappa. The route was not particularly steep but surprisingly hard as it required a mantel move as the crux onto slopers. Very unique and uncharacteristic for the limestone I've climbed on this trip so far.

We drove back and settled into our new gite in Pierrelongue. I spent yesterday doing some light stretching to test out my forearms. Its looking like so far they are improving but in small increments. The right side that I tore is still sore/burns for certain motions but I'm going easy and the diet of easier climbs is making is not aggravating it so I'm going to continue on with this program.

Adrian is going to St Leger today which as climbs that are too hard for me to warm up on. He is going to meet a few of his clients who will be climbing there to get some pictures. Instead I'm going to take it easy today and stretch, meditate and maybe work on some another DJ set.

Long Road to Recovery.

Its been a while since I last wrote and perhaps its in part because I have been on the road to recovery. Part of that road has been through active recovery climbing easy routes. I started that path climbing at Saint Julien Rock.

Adrian and I climbed to check out the various lines on the rock and figure out and get in some active recovery for me. We started the day off with a nice easy 5 (5.9) called "Prend-la comme elle vien" translation - take it as it comes. The climb worked up an arete which the bolts indicate I should continue climbing but at a much harder grade than advertised 5 from the French guidebook. Instead I opted for he run out but far easier 4+ climbing up a chimney to finish the climb. Adrian followed and climbed the crux headwall at 6c.

On lowering off I found what I had suspected that the route did in fact continue up the arete as there was a bolt that was midway between the on I clipped between when I cut to the right and up the chimney section. So after eating a brief lunch I decide to go back up, the climb must be easy and maybe I was just missing a hold. I reach the point where I had before and found that the crux was more along the lines of 6b+ (5.11a) after repeatedly falling off trying to find a way to climb it without pulling on my right arm.

For out next adventure we moved over to the left. Adrian wanted me to get on a 6b but I refused, as I had already pulled harder on my injured right arm than I wanted to at this point. Instead I chose to climb a 5+,6a multipitch called "L'Eperon de la Croix" which would place up at the top of a via ferrata that connected two sections of the fin. I lead the first pitch and Adrian followed dragging a rope. We attached the rope to the anchor at the top of this pitch and he lead the second. Due ot a miss communication I didn't release the rope to the ground and left it at the anchor. Instead Adrian figured it would be fun to descend by crossing the via ferrata to the other side and descend to the ground using it.

I have to tell you it was spooking crossing the three cables with about 45 meters below you to a saddle point where it continues to fall off for another 50 meters. The wind was blowing from the North and hanging out there on those cords of iron you caught the full force. The sun was no consolation for the blasting cold carried by the wind. I can also say that climbing down cables and chains is far hardware than rock climbing. I think this exhausted me by the time we reach the ground but with the rope still up at the first belay I still had a job to do.

To free the rope I selected a beautiful line called "La Francoise" at 6a (5.10b). This beautiful line started left on some big holds on vertical limestone then some good footwork and reachy moves put you into a shallow crack where face holds on the left to guide you to the top. I reach the top of this beautiful 35 meter line, cleaned up the rope and rappelled down exhausted.

Adrian did one more route to tire himself out and we descended with the sun setting. Normally a good sign for the day but this day we need to get groceries as we had nearly run out of food. Now for a taste of what it means to live in France and in particular a small town. The grocery stores close at 7 PM. Thus, when we reach the car at 7:15 PM we realized that the only thing we were going to be eating for dinner that night was going to be tuna fish sandwiches made from the stale flute of bread we had lugged around that day and hadn't eaten. Not a bad dinner but when you are hungry like the wolf tuna sandwiches seems a touch on the light side.

The following day was Wednesday the 19th and we had agreed to go climbing with Ollie and Craig. Adrain need more picture of people climbing the routes of Saint Julien Rock so we met up at the market in Buis. Since we didn't really have a good dinner the night before and no breakfast Adrain and I got some market food. *SIGH* Street meat, I haven't had this stuff since Thailand and that set the bar pretty high. The french would have to work hard to meet that standard. We got this amazing spanish food called Paella - a rice and sea food dish that has chicken, jumbo prawns and muscles in it. The flavour is nice and rich but not spicy with a bit of oil but for calorie starved climbers that is good tuck.

We devoured the whole thing in the parking lot a Saint Julien before starting off on the 15 minute uphill hike in.

Since we were taking pictures this day Adrian directed us to each sector as he's trying to get pictures of climbers on climbs that are for the sector in the book. He climbed first and set up the ropes. Next I followed and probably the most interesting pitch I have done. The climb is a classic for the area called "La Grotte" a 3 or 4 pitch route that goes right to the top of the fin. What makes the climb so unique is that the first pitch goes at 5 (5.9) and climbs 28 meters to a cave which you climb through to a depression where you belay from. Ollie did this pitch and then I linked the next two pitches which go up an awesome flake/crack system for about 20 meters then traverses right on monster jugs about 70 meters up. The exposure is awesome!

Having gotten the shot we descended and move to the next area. This time Ollie was to be the subject of the shot. I did the first pitch of a two pitch climb called "Les Trois Mousqutons" at 5,6b+ respectively. It was hard to say now as the beautiful second pitch which moves up gently overhanging arete.

To wrap up the day I jumped on a 6a+ (5.10c) called "La Goutiere" a three start left trending line of water runnels. The holds were big and but the line made it at times awkward to use them as well as you would like. I was reminded of Banana Peal back on the Apron back in Squamish while climbing this one. The route is a full 45 meters and it was amazing sustained climbing all the way with a pronounced crux near the top.

We wrapped up and headed home with a brief stop at the grocery store to make sure we didn't repeat our mistake that we had he night before but didn't get too much as the following day was our moving day. We had to clean up and be out for a few days to give Ollie time to clean the gite for the upcoming season. Since out new gite was occupied we decided to spend our Easter in Buoux. I'll write about that in my next post as this one is getting a bit long.

Monday, March 17, 2008

I guess I like symmetry, now both forearms are have torn muscles


Seems the more injured I get the less I write. Such is life, I will fill you all in on what's been happening since my last post.

As you might have guessed I didn't return to Saint Julien Rock as we had originally planned. We forgot the guidebook that day so instead we returned to finish up the climbing at Ubrieux. I still was taking care to avoid reinjuring my left forearm so I warmed up on what I thought was a 5 called "Cupidos" as it turned out it was a 6a+ (5.10c). Thankfully it was climb that lent itself to good footwork so I didn't have to expose my forearm too much while cold.

Next I got on another slabby route called "Paradoxe" a two pitch route but only 35 meter that was 5 (5.9) and then 6b/6b+ (5.10d/11a). It has some really fun moves on small feet and a great undercling finish (under click is a hold that face upwards so you can only use it when you are above the hold). I was pretty happy with this route, I gave it two our of three starts.

To finish the day I got on a climb called "La Pas Decisif" which I graded 6c+ (5.11c) after completing it. The route was has the best crux, you start off climbing sustained 6a+ (5.10c) moves to get up on a slab on sidepulls (hold that are facing veritcally so you have to lean you body way from them and pull on the sides to use them). Part way up the slave you reach a good stance that is where the wall kicks back from slab to slighly over hanging for about 8 feet. You work you feet up to the transition point of the wall with you hands on a think crimp. Then stretch up and catch a sinker jug near when the overhang curves back into a slab. You then build your feet up on a small foot hold for you left and your right goes on the crip you used to get to the jug. Switch your right hand into an undercling while locking off you left. Then throw you left hand to a small edge up and left 2 feet. Move your left foot up to a great foot hold. Then hold then holding your right hand tight into the under cling you bump your left hand another foot and half to a hero jug. The climbing ease to 6a+ (5.10c) till you hit a technical slab for the last 4 meters. I didn't get the onsight but that was in large part due to not wanting to lock off on my right arm and throw for what looked like it might have been a big hold.

Adrian climb enough of the routes that I hadn't to complete 95% of the routes a Ubrieux so we declared the crag done and we went home.

The following day (Friday the 14th) we had plans to climb with Ollie from out gite. Ollie had plans to go back and climb a 7a+ at the "Roch De L'Aiguier" near Tarendol. Adrian wanted pictures and you can see them as I posted them on crackbook: Tarendol Pictures

Since I hadn't done it yet, we decided to do the very exposed "Grand Arete" route which goes right up the edge of the fin straight to the top. The route is 4 pitches and since Ollie had done it before he gave me the good pitches. He started up a 5 (5.9) pitch which was more of scramble up to the base of the fin. The next pitch was for me, the 6b+ (5.11a) crux pitch which moves up on the side of the fin then moves back out onto the edge where its about 1 meter wide. The exposure is wicked and the climbing fun until you get to the end of the pitch where the hold stop being incut and the feet disappear. I got my right foot up on a chip and then using open hand edges rocked up onto it. Just as I was going to make my next move to catch the finishing judge my right right foot blew off and I found myself hanging from the rope. During the fall I band my left thigh on the wall, I'm not sure if that was the rock Ollie saw falling or if the foothold I rocked up on broke. Either way I have a nice bruise form the affair.

After a moment to recover form he fall I got back on and hiked back up. This time I stayed farther left as I couldn't find any better foothold than the one I had used last time. I moved up really high on the not so good holds and threw my left foot up and opted for a beach whale plus mantel move to pull through the crux. Unfortunately, I haven't done enough mantel moves and wasn't warm enough and while pulling through the move I heard a velcro sound form my right arm this time and then a snap. It wasn't bad but didn't feel nice either. I got to the belay and brought Ollie up to my position. I wasn't in pain for the most part and I knew the rest of the climb was easier despite the next pitch getting the same 6b+ (5.11a) grade as the last pitch it was more sustained climbing as opposed to being a single hard move.

So up we went, I followed then completed the route with the final very exposed 6a pitch which was worth the full three out of three stars the route gets. See the pictures Adrian took of the route if you want to see what I mean. We rappelled off the same way I had the previous time when I topped out the fin off of Dolf. We went to the ground and grabbed something to eat and drink. I wasn't in great pain so I decided to lead another 6b+ called "L'Eau a La" to get back to the ledge where Dolf starts and the route that Ollie wanted to do. I made the moves but found certain right arm positions were a painful so I avoided them.

Adrian need more pictures of the vertical gray upper walls so I went and got on a 6c+ (5.11c) called "Libertine". This is the climb right next to "Passage a Aveux" that many of you commented about on facebook. Needless to say it has amazing big moves on a seemingly blank wall and has a couple hard pulls which might even bump the grade up to 7a (5.11d) but I couldn't be sure because on the second crux you have to do a low right arm lock off to an insecure left hand and a high right foot highstep (bringing your foot up to a hold around or sometimes above, as in this case, hip level) which I couldn't do since I hard torn a muscle (Flexor Carpi Ulnaris) in my right forearm. I lowered off since Adrian had gotten the pictures he needed for the book and he cleaned my draws off and called it a day.

All the night and the following day I applied ice as often as possible to the sore areas. Adrian wanted to climb and since the day before he had only taken pictures while Ollie and I climbed. The torn muscle is pretty specific hand positions belaying wasn't a problem. We set out for a new location called Maulecene to see if it was worth including in the book. It turned out that the climbing while good wasn't worth noting in a book where it would be purchased as a holiday guidebook. The location did have other interests as there was the ruins of what looked like a cement factory/mine. We got to climb around in, it was neat because there was a mine shaft going into the side of the mountain (James I thought of our spilunking adventures are Smith) and at the mouth of the tunnel it a overhead walkway to these giant silos that had a place for fires underneath.

We then headed into the town of Vaison-Les-Romains for some dinner and exploring a new town. The place was pretty cool. It has castles dating back to the 12th century and before. Though we didn't find it there is a Romain theatre among other ruins in the town.

Sunday I had a crazy experience today. Ollie, the owner of my gite, invited me over for his daughters 4th birthday party. I had met a few of the people there already as Adrian and I had looked into alternative gites for our move at the end of the week. The owner of one of the gites we looked at was there and the person who showed us the other gite we are considering was also there. That isn't the funny thing. The person who showed the other gite, she is living on the top floor of that one and is a Canadian from Edmonton name Gabriel. Gabriel is 29 and has lived 20 years in France, during that twenty years she spent one year in Vancouver. She went to Waldorf school in Lynn Valley and get this... she know Lonny Bastien who went to that school. Lonny and I played football on the Razorbacks together in High School. She even came out to see one our games in at Norgate park so I'm nearly certain we have met if not been introduced. Small world.

The other amazing great part of the birthday party was spending time with Aria the old french lady who live up the lane we walk through every morning to go climb. I got to sit down and talk with her for about 1.5 hours. It was really fun to connect with her. She has an amazing spirit, we talked a lot about traveling and reading and her daughter, Sophia, who is pharmacy school and how she does humanitarian travels to place like Laos and Chile. I could go on and on about how much fun it was talking to Aria but I'm sure the details would be a touch boring. Just wanted to share the joy of connecting.

Today, I did a long walk up to the next town over and a crag that we haven't been to but is only 3 KM up the road. It was good to get some exercise and did some stretching. The right arm is feeling pretty good today so maybe if the weather holds I'll get back out on the rock tomorrow and do some active recovery. I hope everyone back home is doing well.

Love you guys,

C

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Back on the rock, nice and easy.

For the past three days I've been icing my forearm and taking it easy. Thankfully its been raining during this time and so I'm not even remotely tempted to climb. I also don't have to feel pressure from Adrian as he isn't interested in slogging around in the rain either.

The time has been good. Its given the scratches and cuts on my hands a chance to heal. The forearm after three days is much better but still experiencing some mild discomfort in certain positions.

Yesterday I had a migraine so I ended up spending the better part of the afternoon meditating in bed, since I couldn't sleep. I have to be pretty thankful for the headache though, itwasn't too painful but it force me into doing something I had intended to do on this trip but thus far hadn't made the time for. The meditation session was really productive and after 3 hours of focusing on my breathing I came to a few realizations. I'll share them with you all with only a little minor editing. I'm sure some of you will find it rather hokey but its the realizations I have come to and it might not be a reality that resonates with you.

"
I can flow with love and accept what the universe is offering. I can breath into the moment, I don’t need to think about “What should I be doing?” or “That must be done.” These questions imply I’m trying to control reality. I can only become what I can conceive if I continue to attach to this thinking. The possibilities the universe offers are far greater than my mind (conscious mind) can touch, so I should just accept and flow. Trust with love that what I have been taught so far will come out. Trust in my actions and movements. Love and accept myself when I make mistakes and move forward in the moment.
"

Today the clouds broke. I woke up late because I was up last night till 3:30 AM. It seems the meditation counts towards sleep as I wasn't able to get to sleep earlier than that. To be fair, I normally get to bed at around 1:30 AM and wake up around 9:45 - 10:30.

In any event, with the change in weather Adrian was eager to get out the door. I was interested as we have been being sedentary for the past three days hasn't really done much for my excitement level. Since I'm still a bit touchy with my injury we went to a new location today which as some easier routes. Le Rocher de Saint-Julien which is another massive fin that overlook Buis-Les-Baronnies the closest town to where we are staying. I will post pictures of the village next time I'm there and top out. This will likely be tomorrow provided my forearm doesn't take a turn for the worse.

To get to the base of the climbs its about a 15 minute hike in uphill. The hike in is well worth it because the climbing is beautiful. I started the day with a 6a (5.10b) called "Prise de Tete" which wasn't in any of the guide books we had. It didn't look hard so off I went for the onsight. The first pitched finished 30 meters up in a shallow cave. Adrian followed then linked up two pitches to top out. I waited down below because the next pitch was graded 6b (5.10d) and I wasn't ready to push the grade with my forearm still sore.

We both lowered to the ground. I then top roped (top roping is when the rope is already at the top of the climb so you can't really fall, if you let go the rope just stretches a little) both were fairly easy "La plante a scion" at 5c (5.9) and "Trop de vin rouge" at 6a (5.10b). Next we decided to do another multipitch called "L'Espadon", I started by linking pitches 1 and 2 (linking means you keep climbing when you could stop for a belay, if you rope is long enough you can save time by doing this because you don't have to stop and setup all the gear to belay which takes 2-3 minutes and sometimes more). The grade was maybe 5b (5.8) and 5+ (5.10a) for these pitches and finished in another shallow cave. Adrian followed and then lead the next two pitches to the top.

The route were we supposed to follow was rated 5+ to the top and involved traversing out to the right and up an easy line of weakness. Adrain began the traverse and then followed a bolt line straight up over some fun and easy climbing. It turns out that this was not the 3rd pitch of "L'Espadon" but instead was a climb called "Equinoxe" 6a+ (5.10b). This was fun but just made for a bit of a runout to link the end of this pitch with our intended route.

I climbed and cleaned the route as I went, the top out was amazing, you literally look down on the village. It seems like you could almost reach out and touch the church in the center of town. As I mentioned before I'll bring the camera next time for the topout so that I can share with you guys. We lowered off. I was feeling pretty good after climbing 7 pitches of 25-30 meters and the forearm wasn't giving me much in the way of discomfort. I decided to call it a day and see how things go tomorrow.

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Set back...

Today we headed back to Ubrieux as we still had a few sectors that haven't been done yet.

For my first climb of the day I chose a 40 meter 6b called "Volupte" which was a fun and has this cool overhanging finish. No problems with the onsight.

My fingers seemed to be warming up and getting a into the mode. So as soon as I got down I lined up for another 6b right next to it called "Sadam". Now this route has two variations on it, you could climb the left side for the higher grade or the right side for a lower grade, only 5+. Since we figured the 5+ line would be easier to spot from the photos to make the guide so I got on the 6b variation.

Not 10 meters into the climb I had to pull a dirty lichen covered over hang. After hauling up onto a high left foot hold and locked off (a lock off is when you move into a position and lock your arm it into that position) I felt a burning in my left forearm. So after thrutching up the bulge worrying a little bit that my shoes might not stick to the dirty lichen covered rock. I pulled over and realized the feeling was similar to the injury I had last summer but with out the snapping. I made my way to the top and lowered off.

I was sore but I decided to give it another shot. So I hoped on something easier to test and see if the forearm was just hurt or was I injured. I got on an easier climb, a 6a+ called "La diagonale du fou". The climb was fun and I didn't find my forearms to have any less power but I couldn't shake the titchy feeling I had in it.

I set up a top rope on another 6a+ call "Ripoux" which I climbed without much trouble but I definitely noticed my forearm was stiffening up. So it looks like that would be the day. I cleaned off the route and put my shoes away. That was the day. It looks like I'm going to be taking off the next two days and we'll see. I'm hopeful it is only soft tissue and not a tendon but only time will tell.

I've been icing my forearm since we got home. Finger crossed its doing better tomorrow.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

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. ;)

Monday, March 3, 2008

Climbing with Thierry at St Leger, Rest and back to Ubrieux

On Friday I met up with Thierry at St Leger. It was really good to see him and his dog. He always has a great smile on his face and is excited to be out climbing. We started out on the East Face. There as is a hard 6c+ (5.11c) I was hoping to tick off called "Torcheur D'Elephant". The climbing routes names don't seem to be any less humorous than the ones in English. A Torcheur if you were wondering is the french word for someone who wipes your bum.

To warm up I decided to get on a route called "BC L'Ecornifleur" a fun sandbag 6a+ until you get to the anchor which is in a terrible position. Yes, another Kalymnian anchor. I think in the new guide we will give it a 6b (5.10d) as this is the a little more appropriate for clipping the anchors.

Basically I got all the way to the the last move where you have to move off of some really nice jugs into a terrible and insecure position with off angle feet and an overhang to reach and clip the anchor. I got trapped here and rather than get a flash pump decided to lower up and let Thierry see if there wasn't an easier way to do this. Thierry climbed it and agreed that he climb is pretty ugly and there was no easier way to do it. So I went back up and red pointed it.

Next we moved over so could get on "Torcheur D'Elephant" the 6c+ that I'm trying to red point. Thierry, still need to warm up decided to climb it first and put in the quick draws for me. He walked the route till he reach the crux which is 5 moves from the end of the route. He pulled through the bouldery moves and lowered off. Next was my turn to jump on and I climbed to the crux and fell off three moves in. Since I was red pointed and figured I had I good idea of the sequence I lowered off.

Thierry then got on a pumpy 7b which he finished with after hanging on the rope to prevent a flash pump. He lowered off we relaxed in the sun for a while talking about the technique need for the rock here, and about climbing when Erin and Carrie arrive. It was a lot of fun spending time with Thierry, he's such a fun guy and always has a sparkle in his eye and a faint hint of a smile.

While Thierry and I were climbing Adrian had gone off on a hike to get some more pictures for the book and now had returned. He decided to warm up on Torcheur as his warm up. Then I had another go on it. This time I got one move from finishing the crux when I fell off. This time I got back on and pulled through the crux then lowered and worked it a few times.

After rest and Thierry cranking out a 7c+/8a I got back on. I ran to the crux but was more tired than the last attempt and fell. I decided that maybe that was a day for me. Thierry still has some energy so I gave him a belay on a bouldery 7b which exhausted him as well. All three of us walked back to the cars and parted ways.


I took another double rest day to help recover from the abuse my body has been getting from the climbing.


Sunday, came soon; any harshness in my head and body were chased away by a couple of cups of coffee. ;) I hoped on a bike and cycle with Stuart a friend of Ollie, the owner of our gite. We went to Propiac, the next town over, which is where a street rally was going through. We perched ourselves atop an embankment overlooking a pair of hairpin turns. After about 5 minutes the cars started screaming by. We had another car every minute for 3 hours. Some screeched around the corners, some slide, some just turned. A couple nearly hit the bank we were sitting on but that was as we were about 20 feet up and so were in no risk.

At 11:00 AM the last car rolled through our stage of the race and we state down to eat lunch. The day was hot, the hottest so far here. i would guess it was 28 degrees but a nice breeze kept the temperature from getting too out of hand. After a 45 minute interlude the second state of the rest took place with the cars pushing now to their limit.

The Rally lasted till 3 in the afternoon and we packed up and cycled back up the hill to Les Jonchiers. I spent the rest of the afternoon down in Buis-Les-Baronnies with Adrian who needed a break from writing the book.

Today I wasn't expecting to climb as we were going into Buis-Les-Baronnies to see if we couldn't get Adrian's dentist appointment moved up. Adrian while in Switzerland skiiing manage to crash and hit himself in the face with his pole. He had a false front tooth from when he was a boy and got it knocked out. Well I said had and I mean had, he is looking like a hockey play now. Apparently the crash broke either the tooth that the false one was sitting it or the cement hold it in but either way its out now.

So we wondered into the dentist office in hopes of getting a cancellation or improving his appointment time. I spoke to the receptionist and she gave us a better appointment for tomorrow at 3:00 PM. So we found ourselves with the entire day available.

We decided to visit Ubrieux, we had spent one day there already but the place was massive and we had lots of climbing to check out there. We set out and climbed out the far right sector of Tchernobyl rock, a sector with a slightly less than vertical wall to a roof and then it slabs off. The routes in this location are quite short only 12-15 meters in length, making them bolted highball boulder problems.

I warmed up on a 6b called "Ira De La Lune", the climb was relatively straight forward but condensation from the hot weather made some of the polished holds slippery. Feeling good about he onsight I decided to talked a 6b called "Sensation". This route has a roof which forces me to climb the overhang. Overhangs have been my Achilles heel so far on the trip so I'm now focusing on working the technique needed to climb these.

The climb didn't go so well, the first section was relatively easy till you pull up to a ledge just under the roof and most of the holds run out. I had to pull on a mono (pocket in the rock only large enough for one finger) to gain the first hold on the roof. I clipped the bolt and then worked my hands to the jugs just above the edge of the roof but with no support from my feet I was unable to hold the position and fell off. I rested briefly and then gave it another try. This time at Adrian suggestion I cut my feet off (cutting off is when you remove both feet from the foot holds and hang exclusively on your arms) and reposition my right foot and then rocked up and locked off. I moved my right hand to a so so hold but my right foot with where it was positioned was forcing my body out and away from the rock and I was unable to hold the position. Rather than continue flailing I decided to come back to the ground and rest before making another attempt at the route.

After some rest I got back on "Sensation", after working out a better sequence involving a left hand cross (when you cross you left hand over you right hand) above the head wall I was able to get the red point.

We decided to move over to the K D'Annibal sector a bit further from the road. Here I flashed a three star 6b+ called "Nuage". The climb works up some gray slabs to a overhanging buldge. Once through the bulge you make you way up to some slightly overhanging right trending flake to a traverse (climbing horizontally) right on thin holds, then up to the anchor.

We decided to finish the day off at the Diagonale Du Fou sector. I got on a route called "Desir" without looking through the guide book. It was slab for the first section, then crack and then back to slightly overhanging moves on slab. This marathon route is 38 meters. Some tricky moves open the climb as you pull up into an undercling and then up onto a head wall. Moving over sustained but easier terrain you reach a short section of chossy (rotten/crumbly rock) rock which you pull through with some caution and then out on to the slab. The moves get progressively thinner as you work higher on the route till you step left on small edges and a couple of sidepulls and latch on to a big flag that threatens barn door you (when you body peels away form he rock and you but one side stays attached making you look like a barn door). Fighting through the barn door you get into a set of finger locks and then underclings to the chains.

I eeked out the onsight of "Desir" just as the sun set so we packed up the gear and headed home. A good finish to a good day. It seems the extra rest I've been taking recently is paying dividens as this is my first 6c+ (5.11c) onsight on the trip.

A friend recently as about what my feeling is for this trip, what exactly is my persuit here. Am I just chasing grades or what do I hope to accomplish. I think it would be good to share my thoughts on this.

I want to see just where I can go with my climbing. I'm pursuing it to the limit and see where that is, I know it might not be the same place as those guys but that doesn't matter, I want to find mine. I love the purity of climbing and its one thing I have a passion for in my life. I have always love it.

I have a whole lot to learn and I'm already starting to discover some pretty glaring technical weaknesses that have been hidden by the angles I climb in the gym. Basically the Coquitlam gym is not steep enough to teach what you get out here. Things are so outrageously overhanging it will blow you away. I now know that once the angle of a climb reaches about 15-20 degrees or more I'm going to have problems because I haven't developed the technique. Some of this is physical as I'm getting worn down a bit from the intensity and length of the routes. I also realize now that I haven't developed the strength I need for some of the hard moves because I haven't bouldered much but most of all that could be compensated by better technique which I haven't got yet. I'm sure it will come but its becoming so apparent it really interesting. Knowing a thing is one thing, becoming a thing and living/moving in that way is quite something else.

Knowing all this I'm starting to develop a more structured approach to climbing here. I'm starting to set goals and training practices to help me get the technique and strength I'll need to start climbing harder. One thing I'm not doing is resting more. I'm now going to take two day rests every week or so to make sure I stay physical condition for climbing hard. Next climbing day I'm going to get on some much harder climbs, maybe a 7b+ (5.12c), and go bolt to bolt to help develop more power. I'm also going to start picking out easier climbs in the 6a/6a+ (5.10b/c) range that are overhanging and focus on technique where I am not totally taxed to my limit (today I did this with sensation).

So there you guys have it. There are other reason for the trip but in the context for climbing that is why I'm out here. I hope everyone back home is well. Hugs and love.