Climbing

Lovely hot day again today. Lee invited me to join himself and 2 friends (Yaron and Dave) who are currently over for a visit plus a friend of Justin and Emily's, Will, for a climbing session at Auzat which is a great spot when it is hot, as you belay from the shade of the trees ..... cooool! Unfortunately, Dave was not climbing due to some rather nasty blisters that he acquired after an outing with Lee on Monday! So I seconded Will up a couple of 5cs, 5c+, a 6a but left him to it on a 6b which looked like hell! Nice to be back on the rock although my Sesamoiditis became rather painful after too short a while. Don't really know what can be done about that when it comes to climbing unfortunately! Ow!

Climbing

Lovely day today so we met up with Lee, Ian and Nina at Auzat for some climbing action on the granite. I think we had all expected it to be a bit busy, as this weekend is a long holiday weekend in France. But to our surprise, the lower grade routes were pretty much deserted and there were only a handful of other parties in sight. Very different to the Peak District crags where it would be heaving and you would have to wait patiently to get a route done!

Having never climbed on granite before, I wasn't sure what the friction would be like, but to my delight it was excellent. We shimmied up a 4c, then a two pitch 4c which was fun and then finally I seconded Andy and Lee up a 5c which was even more fun, with some lovely moves and positive rock. Too soon, it was time to head home. I am already looking forward to next time, when I will hopefully push myself a bit more on lead.

Climbing at Calamès

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.

The good and the bad

Let's start off with the bad, shall we? The dog. Anybody want a dog? Free to good home! He woke us up far too early this morning by whining to be let out, which usually means he needs to relieve himself. Sure enough, he shot up the hill like a rocket. I left him to it and went back to bed (he always let's us know when he wants to be let back in). I must have dozed off, as I was awoken an hour and a half later by him barking outside. He had returned but was absolutely coated in cow manure. He stank. Andy reminded him in his own way that that was not a good thing to have done and then we set about cleaning him down. That pooch was in the dog house. Andy reckons he was after a shag from the the unspayed bitch up the hill. Either way, that is no excuse for his behaviour!

Now for the good...... Climbing! Beautiful day today. So we headed over to a limestone outcrop which is over the Col de Port, above Rabat les 3 Seigneurs. It was a stiff, uphill walk-in which took 30 mins, but it was worth it. We had the place to ourselves. The rock was pristine and the weather perfect. The view down to Tarascon from the top of one of the routes was amazing. It was good to get my leading head on and we both enjoyed the amazing rock
The highlight for me was leading a 32m long 5a. More please!

Climbing!

It has been too long, but today I intended to join Lee, Dave, Ian and Nina down at our little local crag at Biert for a spot of climbing action. However, first I had to find the place! I actually wasted over an hour trying to find the crag by making the mistake of following the 'Site d'escalade' signs which took me way up through the woodland onto the 'Ker' above Biert where I stumbled upon the 'grotte supérieure' or cave where there were a few hardcore climbs..... NOT where I wanted to be. But the view towards Massat was nice and I saw loads of pretty little woodland flowers which included a Helleborus Viridis...
and a carpet of Colidaris Solida
In the end I gave up looking for the crag and headed back down to the car. As I drove back towards Massat, I glanced over to my right and glimpsed a red top on a bit of rock .... aha! Maybe that was where I needed to be! Indeed it was. I parked up, The rock looked good and the others had already ticked the lower grade climbs in the left hand sectors and Lee was about to start up a nice looking 5a. I wasn't ready to lead but was happy to second up the route.... it was so nice to touch rock and to get my climbing muscles working again after more than 2 yrs. Nina had a bash at a nice looking route further along the crag.... and Lee did a good lead on a 5b which again I was quite happy to second....


It was fun, great to meet some new people and above all it was fantastic to be climbing again. I hope it won't be too long before we get back on the rock again :-)