Back again... this time at the 'Best Crag in the World'?

Ceuse

Rumours of the death of our Blog have been greatly exaggerated...

As our friends will know, Ruth and I both quit our jobs a few weeks ago. All this is due to us having had such a good time when we went on our last trip to the US that we decided that we needed to do it all again. So we are resurrecting this blog to post more photos and news of how we are getting on with our next big trip.

Although we are going back to the US again for 6 months (the limit of our entry visas) because we don't have jobs to go back to this time we decided that we might as well go somewhere else first. We decided to start our trip this time by going climbing at the "Best Crag in the World" - namely Ceuse in France. Not a bad place to start really?

Alpine flowers at the Ceuse campsite

The climbing at Ceuse is at the top of a 1,800 metre high mountain (it actually has a small ski restort on top), and to get to the crag from the campsite involves a 1 hour uphill slog and over 500 metres of ascent up a reasonably steep hillside. So although it's just sport climbing, it actually involves quite a big day out. Especially as it's 30C at the campsite and you have to carry 6 litres of water up the hill to stop yourself dehydrating, on top of everything else you need to take climbing. The actual rock climbing is pretty hard when you get to it as well.

Sector Demi Lune at Ceuse

The first few days at Ceuse proved to be a bit hard on the ego. Ruth and I were definitely in 'office shape' and both the approach walk and climbing seemed way harder than we would have liked. So much so that I failed on my first 'warm up' route, and Ruth didn't want to lead anything for several days as the routes can be quite bold, with big falls being on the cards if you blow the moves in the wrong position. However, the climbing is brilliant and we persevered.

Ceuse enforces a slightly strange routine on a climber as it's too hot to climb in the sun at this time of year, so you must wait for the shade which reaches the crag around 3pm. To accommodate this you adopt the following routine:- pitch your tent in the shade of a big tree and sleep as late as you can each morning; get up have breakfast, then cook your evening meal, and then have lunch; set off at 1:30pm to walk up to the crag; climb as hard as you can in the shade from about 3:00-9:00pm; walk down (often by headtorch in the dark) and eat your pre-cooked evening meal about 11:00pm; and then sleep. Now repeat...

Ruth and I spent nearly 3 weeks at Ceuse, every day hiding a stash of ropes and assorted climbing equipment in the forest just below the crag so we didn't have to carry everything up the hillside the next day. 12 days of climbing out of 18 spent camping at the hillside - 3 days climbing in a row was the most we managed before we were knackered and needed to rest - Nibs will be proud of us ;-)

Despite our slow start we both managed to end up climbing quite well. In fact, Ruth managed to climb (on-sight) her first ever 6C, and also climbed a beautiful 7a+ called 'Noir sur Noir' - which is probably the best route that either of us managed to climb on the crag. Not bad after not wanting to lead anything for the first few days!

I managed to surprise myself on a few things too (probably by finding the few soft touches at Ceuse). Nevertheless, it seems like I might be currently on better form than I was when I last went to the US. I can't complain about that then - and luckily we are not planning to start our US trip at J-Tree, so our egos may remain intact.

After our time at Ceuse, and with just a few days remaining before we had to be back to London for our flights to the US, Ruth and I decided that we had had enough of sport climbing and that we were going to try and climb something a bit bigger in the Alps. The weather was looking shaky anyway. We left Ceuse and drove into the Ecrins...

I won't dwell on this bit of our trip to France. Cold weather swept in from the northwest, which is actually what Ruth and I were looking for, but it came with a huge amount of rain - much more than was forecast. We ended up not even being able to drive to La Berarde, where we wanted to camp for the night, as the rainstorms had caused an impressive landslide of mud and huge boulders that had completely blocked the only road to the village.

We spent an entertaining half-hour watching a very aggressive CAT driver attack the landslide and try to dig out the road and some entombed cars - all under the 'watchful eye' of a foreman (in the grey coat, below) who stood on top of the still active landslide as the CAT driver bull-dosed the rubble away from beneath his feet. Go figure....!

Alpine-style highway maintenance on the road to La Berarde (there is actually a road under this lot)

Ruth and I ended up being comprehensively washed out of the Alps by the weather. Sometimes the extent to which your ambitions are shut-down can be entertaining. This time it was by an impressive alpine storm involving hailstones the size of marbles, which made me glad I was in the valley and not on some peak up high. We left the Alps and returned home via Fontainebleau. The bad weather followed us, and nowhere in France was spared. We managed a few greasy hours at Col de Chien. We are now in London at Sheona's flat packing for our flight to the US, which leaves on Sunday. Best regards to all, Innes