Ceuse France 7/26

Ceuse from town

The bathrooms at the supermarket are outside and the urinals are out in the open to the parking lot. Don't be shy. :-)

This shows most of Cascade wall, the first one we came to in the morning. We did two of the right most climbs, (much less steep than the crazy steep stuff further down, but still very steep and pumpy).

Looking up at the wall on the hike up

Biography Carin

I was super excited to climb in Ceuse so we were up by 6 and hiking before 7. The aproach is huge around 3000 feet vertical and takes 40 to 60 minutes depending on how much you push it. The climbing area is devided into two main areas,the south part is in the shade till around 11:30 and for the most part only climbed in the morning. The north part goes into shade between 3 and 4 and is heavily climbed till after 8pm. Our plan was to climb the south part, stash the gear, go back to camp for lunch when nothing is climbable, and come back up in the afternoon to climb the north part.

So not really knowing where we were going or being able to read the signs (they are in French) we wound up towards the top of the rock formation about a mile south of the south climbing area. So at first we thought we would bush wach our way over to the craig rather than hike down the last 1000 vertical and back up again. After about 30 minutes of this and getting nowhere we gave up and bushwacked our way back down to the trail. Long story short we finally made it to Cascade wall a little before 9:00.

Upon arriving we knew it was all worth it, just standing under such a huge limestone wall was impressive. We came in at the steapest section of the wall and after hiking to the far side of it we found the handfull of routes on the whole wall that where within our grade. The book says that almost every route in this section is a classic.

The first route we got on was "Des trous encore des trous direct" (6b) 5.10c, it is the easiest route on the wall and the greasiest route I've ever sen. Still a good warm up for the fingers and intro to the rock. The second route was "Les Sales blagues a Nanarad" (6c) 5.11a/b, an awesome route, and the best climb of the trip. The third route was "Medecine douce" (6c+) 5.11c and a great route. The order we did these routes was not a coincidence, they are the easiest routes on the wall in order and the fourth easiest and last climb we did on Cascade wall was "Ananda" (7a) 5.11d. Thankfully someone was projecting this route and there were fixed draws so we had no worries on the lead. Given the grade we both took many a lead fall and but I was stoked about working the super overhung and juggy holds to the top. Only two climbs after the previouse best route of the trip Ananda was now on the top of the list.

With everything else on the wall being split between 5.12 and 5.13 and with the sun starting to hit the wall we decided it was time to hike around to Biographie wall stash the gear and head down for lunch. As far as stashing the gear, it isn't so much stashing, as it is putting it in a big pile with everyone else's who didn't want to haul all their gear up and down the approach.

After hiking down and Mikey taking a wrong turn he decided to rest the fingers and pass on the hike back for the afternoon. I headed back with only a bottle of watter and some bread, making the hike not so bad.

Back at the rock I ran into some guys working a super cool looking 7b+ Teuchipa (5.12c). After gaulking at them for a couple minutes the guy who was climbing came down and asked me if I wanted to give it a try. Of course I was was dieing to so I just had to try and conceal my excitement. The climbing was even better than it looked, crazy overhung, great jugs, awesome heel hooks and foot locks, hand jams, 35 meters long and 50+ feet of overhang. Needless to say it was the third route of the day to be the best climb of the trip.

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