With poor weather moving in over the next day or so, we decided to get out today for some more climbing action. We headed over to Bedeilhac and went up to Calamès, which is a fantastic south facing limestone outcrop that we have visited before but at which we have not yet climbed. There were some beautiful woodland flowers on the way in which included an amazing fritillaria pyrenaica....
and an orchis militaria which I had not seen before.
It is a steep, scrambly walk-in, much of it on loose scree which was testing, but the limestone at the top and the view are worth the effort. We headed straight for the Papy sector which, on paper, had some nice 5a routes which I was keen to try. However, it turned out that the bolts were, er, sportingly spaced!
I just did not have my 'leading' head on today and felt very unconfident on the rock, which was disappointing, so I backed off and let Andy have a bash at the route - fortunately he got up it and agreed that the bolting could have been better done to add a greater degree of safety to the route. But still, we did a few more routes (one of which I successfully led on another sector) and had a few hours in the sun in an amazing setting - it felt just like being on holiday and reminded me of past climbing trips to Costa Daurada and Costa Blanca in Spain! We got back down to the car just as the threatened rain started to fall. Good timing.
and an orchis militaria which I had not seen before.
It is a steep, scrambly walk-in, much of it on loose scree which was testing, but the limestone at the top and the view are worth the effort. We headed straight for the Papy sector which, on paper, had some nice 5a routes which I was keen to try. However, it turned out that the bolts were, er, sportingly spaced!
I just did not have my 'leading' head on today and felt very unconfident on the rock, which was disappointing, so I backed off and let Andy have a bash at the route - fortunately he got up it and agreed that the bolting could have been better done to add a greater degree of safety to the route. But still, we did a few more routes (one of which I successfully led on another sector) and had a few hours in the sun in an amazing setting - it felt just like being on holiday and reminded me of past climbing trips to Costa Daurada and Costa Blanca in Spain! We got back down to the car just as the threatened rain started to fall. Good timing.
No comments:
Post a Comment