Verdon Gorge France 7/30

Today we got up at 6:00 and were on our way by 6:30 to beat the sun because we wanted to climb on east facing rock. To our dimay we got to the campground gate only to find out that it was locked till 7:30. Thankfully we were able to find the host and he graciously let us out. The best part about the route we did today is that we drove to the top of a 1000 to 1500 foot cliff on the side of the gorge and repelled about 470 feet down the side of the cliff to start our climb. Tuns of exposure and super cool for sure.

We did the first two alterante pitches of ¨Les Dalles Grises¨ which go at 5.9 and 5.10a; climbing was superb. The third pitch started to slab out and not be that great of climbing, so rather than finish the route, which was now in the sun, we traversed to the bottom of ¨LÁrabe Dement¨ and did the 10a and 10c pitches to the top, which are well deserving of the classic rating given to them by the book.

It was hot and we wanted to hit the road to try and make it to Mallorca for the end of the trip so we took off. Verdon Gorge is an amaizing place and definitely one I´d come back too, next time I´d want to do some of the routes in Secteur Six Fois Zette.

We left around noon and made it to Barcelona by 6:30. However after finding the hostel and doing some internet looking for ferrys and flights to Mallorca it became very obvious that it wasn´t going to work.

So the plan for the rest of the trip is to hang out in Barcelona for the next two days for me and when I fly home Mikey is going to Fly to Mallorca for the rest of his trip.

Finale Ligure Italy 7/29

Ok, so the first 5 pictures from this post go with the last part of it about Verdon Gorge where we drove after climbing at Finale.
Mikey is standing on top of the route we are going to do the following day. We did 4 repels down this cliff about 470 feet before starting our climb back up. The first ledge below him with the big bush was roughly the length of the first repel, so that plus 3 more down was where we started and we were not even half way down the entire cliff.

Standing on the edge of the cliff with the route below me.

View of the gorge from the road that winds along it.

At the end of the gorge is a huge man made lake, that tuns of people come to for swimming and boating. While we were standing here on the bridge watching people there was a guy that hiked up to the highest point on the path going up the rock on the left and jumped off at least a 60 foot cliff.

Mikey standing next to the edge of the windy single lane two direction road. If he were to hold out his hand and drop a marble off the cliff it would fall close to 1000 feet prior to hitting the rock below.



OK, and due to my pour bloging skills, the pictures below are from the begining of the day from when we were climbing in Italy at Finale.

Climbing Satanasso 7a

Working the upper section of Zambarinik

second pitch of Zambarinik 6C (should be first picture of this route)

The buldges on Satanasso are very steep as the wall goes in and out 4-5 feet a couple times through the route.

Mikey making me look good on Satanasso

Today we woke up and went strait to Sector Fenia o Anfiteatro at Monte Cucco. This is definitly an excelent area for climbing and we´re fortunite to have had the recomendation. There are 1000´s of routes in Finale and many different locations. The first people we talked to about coming here said not to bother because all of the places they went were no good, thankfully the people we bought the guide from were huge fans and gave us great info on where to find the good climbing.

The first route of the day was ¨Dobermann¨ 6a, and I think it was twice as greasy as any route I´ve ever been on before. Next up we were going to get on Ubrecche, but before we could a German guy came up and asked if he could climb with us, we quickly accepted, and he subsequently talked us into doing ¨Coconut¨6c, as he said the quality was much better and it was less pollished. Coconut was amaizing and as it turned out that he had done much climbing in this area we followed his recomendations for the rest of the routes for the day and they were all of excelent quality. Next up was ¨Satanasso¨ 7a, and ¨Cianbalaur¨ also 7a and both in the great routes of the trip. The last climb at the area we wanted to do something a little longer than one pitch, but ended up doing two pitches as one with the 70 meter rope, stringing together the first pitch of Ottico 6a and the second pitch of Zambarinik 6C, with the second pitch being every bit of a 5 star route.

After the climbing we couldn´t help but go do some swimming at the beach, figured swimming in Italy shouldn´t be passed up. The water was warm and the beaches were packed, many thousands of people.

After the beach, we drove to Verdon George in France. Some people have said that the Verdon is the Grand Canyon of Europe, well, the Verdon is at least as impressive, and given that it's limestone, I'd say more attractive from a climbers perspective. The Verdon has the most bad ass narrow windy road that overhangs the sides of it for miles. And at the far end is a huge lake to play in. After taking 2+ hours to drive around it we finally found our route for tomorrow and a campsite not far away.

Driving to Finale Ligure Italy 7/28

Super cool pocketed wall...

We did one route the night we arrived and scouted the other routes prior to getting pizza for dinner.

Along the drive to Italy

Super awesome looking overhung pocketed juggy wall that we can't wait to climb tomorrow.

On the drive to Italy, more amaizing mountains...

Today the plan was to Final. We woke up around 8 causually ate breakfast and joked about how we could drive to Italy and climb before the routes at Ceuse were in the shade. Did some shoping in Gap and where on our way. If we hadn't made a couple wrong turns we could have been climbing by 4, but it turns out the place that was recomended in Italy is east facing so we couldn't climb it this afternoon anyways. We did find "Monte Cucco" and scope out the routes for tomorrow, which look increadible!

One of the great things about this location is there is free camping at the base of the route and all you're supposed to do is eat dinner at this sweet ass pizzeria at the entrance to the camping. The pizzeria is called Il Rifugio and has an amaizing view over looking a couple 2 to 3 thousand foot high valleys with a nice sunset. Not to mention eating pizza in Italy basicially kicks ass. Dreaming of the climbing to come tomorrow.

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Ceuse France (day 2) 7/27

Sweet ass camp at the base of Ceuse (5 ero/night/person)

There were signs of sea life in the rock everywhere... very cool.

Unknown climber doing a crazy hard route. We did a very nice route through the short but horizontal roof in the near right side of the picture.

Mikey working a sweet 7a.

The 7b+ I cranked on the previous day goes up the center of the roof in the far center of the picture 35 meters to the point where the rock is almost vertical.

As mentioned in the previous post the main North part of the wall does not go into shade till 3 to 4pm. So it is a great place to stay up late, sleep in till noon, start hiking at 2 and climb for 5 to 6 hours. That, however, was not in our agenda.

we causually rolled out of bed arround noon, went to town (Gap) and did some grocery shopping, ate lunch, and got ready for the hike. We were up at the wall around 2:00, way to early to climb so we checked out the whole North side.

Around 4 we got on "Silmarils" 7a (other guides called it 6c and we tend to agree), managed to put it up with only 1 take. It was another all time classic and supposedly in the top 10 climbs at Ceuse. After Silmarils we did two other routes further down the wall that were excelent and then moved on to "Harley Davidson" 6c+ (or 6b+ depending on the guide) also suposedly in the top 10 at Ceuse. We saved "Saint Georges picos" 7a (5.11d) for the last climb of the day and it lived up to it's reputation of being one of the best climbs in its grade.

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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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Tour De France 9/25

Ok, the tour was crazy. When we went to sleep there were a couple rv's along the road with us. In the morning the whole road was ligned with cars, vans, and rv's so there was nowhere to park. There were a ton of fanatics with there country flag waving in the wind and dressed up for the event. We just sat around and talked to people from everywhere imaginable till around noon, then things started picking up.

An hour before the riders all the sponser vans came through, hundreds, tossing out random swag. Thankfully by the time the riders got to us there was a breakaway group that was 10 minutes ahead of the rest of the riders so we got to see two sets of riders go by. When they went by, even on the 4km hill we were near the top of it was just a flash. I had time for one picture and to glance at them as they flew by and then one more picture as they left for both groups. I did manage to see Lance and he looked like he was hurtin. All in all it was a good experiance for a day, but I can't imagine doing that every day for a couple seconds of people biking by.

After the tour we packed up and where on our way to Ceuse. Ceuse is known for being the best sport climbing area in the world. As soon as we pulled in Mikey gets out of the car and says hello to someone he recognized named David. Well it turns out that it was David Graham, one of the top two sport climbers in the world. Ceuse definitely looks amaizing and I'm can't wait to climb tomorrow after having two days off.

Oh and on the drive over we decided that it would be a good idea to climb at Finale Ligure in Italy when we are done at Ceuse. :-)

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couchsurfing luxery and heading to the tour de France 9/24

Second Group of riders coming up the hill

A mile of team cars following the riders, took 50 times as long for the cars to all go by than it did the bikers.

Second Group of riders mid pack

Lead riders out of sight in 5 seconds

First group of lead bikers

Sponsor cars that came before the riders for about an hour tossing out swag.

Prior to the tour, we found this picture board in a small town where we were eating lunch.

more sponcor cars...

Tire cars...

Hey Matt, now that's a Mercedes!

We had a relaxing start at Lau's house. played some chess, showered, did laundry, etc. A little after noon we said our goodbye and started driving to the TDF. We drove to the stage 25 route aparently the last stage that really matters and found a place to camp for the night.

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Boux and Couchsurfing 9/23

Desidia (I think)

Section of Boux

We got an early start from the beach and after some crazy single lane windy roads we arrived in Boux France. We had a little cloud cover but it was very muggy and hadto be close to 100% humidity. The first climb was supposed to be 10c but I think we were actually on 11d. After a brutal first climb we decided to do one of the easyest climbs in the area, 10a. The second route was just not pleasent climbing at all and Mikey had me just clean the draws on the way down. We went and looked at a third climb but it was going on 12:30, very hot, and I was excited about meeting our couch surfing host before it was too late in the day.

Couchsurfing.org is a super cool web site that is used to network people who are looking for places to stay all over the world with people who are wiling to host them at no charge.

So we called Lau and he met us in Axe-On-Provence and had us follow him home. Lau lives with 6 other roommates in the most amaizing old plantation style french house! After arriving we went swiming at the lake and then Lau took us out to a local night market with great food, music, and people.

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Cassis France 7/22

Today we woke up at the truck stop and drove the rest of the way to Cassis. As we arrived and read more detail about the climbing in that region we found out that it is closed in July and August for fire danger. Laim. We decided to go out and look at the cliffs anyways and found out that the area actually was currently on fire! (who would have seen that coming?) We went back to our campground and got directions to the beach and market. Cassis is a great little town to visit in the summer and swimming in the Mediterranean Sea was a real treat.

Riglos Spain, 7/21

Lets see what to say about Riglos? First thing that comes to mind is scarry. It is conglomerate rock and it is the first time either of us have climbed anything like it. It is decievingly steep and the first climb we got on was definitly a challange. Mikey pulled through with the lead. Then we moved around to the back side in the shade AND deth zone. The 300 meter tower hung over the back side by 60 to 80 feet and while we were there at least a half dozen rocks came crashing down. After one climb and more close calls than we cared for we decided to call it a day.

From Riglos we went straight North through the Pyrenese into France. The senery was amaizing and we both agreed that it was a great thing to do in the day. After making it to France we got lost in Argeles-Gazost for a half hour on the one way streets before finding the way out, at which point we figured we should stay and eat dinner. After cooking some pasta on one of gretas pop can stoves we were ready to leave when something caught our eye. It turns out as we were leaving there was a dance presintation starting in the park we cooked dinner in. We stayed another half hour to watch part of it and then drove into the night till we found a truck stop to sleep at.

Climbing in Rodell

After the first day of climbing in the room we rented
View from Rodellar looking down into the canyon
Really hard climbing...
we did two climbs in the right part of this picture
Who wants a leg... :-)

Had the first real day of the trip and it was a great one. Started with a nice shower and doing some laundry in the hostel. Amaizingly after taking 3 hours to find the hostel I managed to find my way back to the airport to pick up Mikey in only 30 minutes (I think I got very lucky). Picked up Mikey a little after 8:00, found some detialed maps to find our way around Spain and France and spent about an hour trying to find a grocery, after which we spent close to an hour and a half walking around trying to get everything we´d need for the next couple days. The meat selection was out of this world, every isle had meet and there were dried cow legs lining an entire isle. Finally hit the road, and with very little wrong turns made it to Rodell by early afternoon.

There is no wonder it´s considered one of the world class climbing destinaitons, I havn´t climbed limestone like this in probably 5 years, and there just isn´t any in the northwest part of the US. The other shocker was that our 70 meter rope doesn´t really cut it. Here the routes are super long and most people are climbing with narrow diameter 80 meter ropes. It turns out they go with the narrower ropes because when you have 35 meters of rope hanging off of you it gets a little heavy. Mikey and I both agreed that we climbed the 2 longest single pitches we´d ever climbed before, both using the full 70 meters, and the secont one being about 38 meters so when the rope tension was realeased the rop was 10 feet up in the air.

Got some great pictures, will upload when I have a chance. Ended up getting a bungalo for the night because there´s very heavy rain with thunder and lightning, but our bungalo is warm and dry. :-)

Hope the weather get´s better tomorrow or we may have to drive to France early.