Climbing and falling

Time to talk a little about the climbing. This is a honeymoon, in the sense that two newly weds who are madly in love are holidaying together in beautiful remote corners of the world, but it’s not a honeymoon that is dedicated to five star resorts, expensive champagne and relaxation. The locations are planned around climbing seasons and rock quality, the luxuries limited to what we can squeeze into the top of a rucksack loaded with 20 kilograms of climbing hardware and two 50m+ ropes. A morning might be dedicated to sleeping in, drinking coffee or lazing about on a beach, but the afternoon is more likely dedicated to throwing ourselves at steep bolted climbs two grades harder than we would usually climb at home until the strength leaves our forearms. One day might be dedicated to visiting a quaint little stone village in the mountains, but the next day is spent high above the village on the surrounding cliffs. It’s about the most perfect way to spend 6 months that we could think of.

The rough plan is to spend the better part of two months training at the “consumer friendly” crags in France, then attempt some long routes in some of the most spectacular locations we could think of: The 300 metre limestone gorges of Verdon in France, the soaring granite peaks of the French Alps, the remote granite faces of Namibia and Madagascar, and the huge sandstone cliffs of the Middle East. We need the training, as many of the climbs in these areas are above our current onsight trad leading limit of about 6a+ (roughly 19 in the Aussie scale – for an explanation of grades see http://www.chockstone.org/rock.asp)

In terms of “consumer friendly” crags for training, our first stop in Orgon, Provence was ideal. Smallish pocketed limestone cliffs in easier grades, never more than 10 minutes walk from the picturesque valley campground.  It was a great place to get back into the swing of regular climbing with heaps of pleasant single pitch routes in the 4+ to 6b range. At one point in time the Canal sector of Orgon was the scene of the hardest climbing in the world, but the grotty caves have fallen out of favour and easier slabs high in the valley are the attraction. The long history means most of the footholds are slippery from the polish of a thousand climbing shoes, and it’s a bit nerve racking to lose your feet on an otherwise easy climb, but you eventually learn to choose the less obvious feet placements and deal with the occasional slip.

Our next climbing location, The Calanques, was sadly a brief stop, as the Mediterranean heat was too energy sapping to allow for much climbing. The one climb we did do, named Les Calanque after the area, was spectacular though, a four pitch 5c up a stunning white arête high above the clear blue-green ocean. I’d love to come back here another time and enjoy the climbs in cooler weather.

The Gorges du Tarn, our current climbing spot, is as unbelievably convenient as Orgon, but it’s really a destination for the hard climbers. The routes in our grade are the warm up routes, the classics are the 8a+’s that draw only the strongest climbers. That’s the very reason we chose this place though, either get strong or don’t climb at all! The climbing so far has been overwhelmingly steep , fairly repetitive pocket pulling, with long sustained pitches. The highlights have been the few routes which follow nice natural lines and flakes like Jeux de Plage 6a, a 30 metre stemming corner followed by nice steep headwall. Of course, anything harder than usual that I’ve been able to get up on lead has been a highlight for me, like Le Petit Massoro (6b+). I’m hoping routes of this grade will start to fall more regularly. Without the rests, ideally.  A wonder how much different 6b+ feels when you’re crimping on tiny granite edges 10 metres above the last bolt in the middle of the west African desert? Hmm better go climbing now….

UPDATE: Got my best redpoint of the trip so far, a 35 metre 6b+ (21-22ish?) flake pitch. Would have got the onsight too I reckon if I hadn’t got lost the first time. Also got up a 7a clean, though someone had covered it in tick marks that softened it up considerably. Feeling tough, I tried the next day to campus up a 7b+, failed miserably and lost a lot of my fingertips in the process. Back to reality again.