Tourist Stuff

Well we finished up at Verdon by doing a great climb “A Tout Coeur” 150m 6b+ (21) every pitch was good climbing.

Claire on crux pitch of “A Tout Coeur” 150m 6b+ (21)

Then we drove north to Chamonix and spent a few days walking around and looking at the big peaks covered in ice and snow including Mont Blanc, The highest mountain in the Alps 4810m.
It looked like there was some good rock around but according to the guide book the climbing was mostly on the other side of the range so couldn’t see the alpine routes.

Claire & Mont Blanc

After that we started to drive to Arco but didn’t make it because I decided to surprise Claire and take her to Venice for her bday. Venice was a cazy little city. You know when you are in a touist town when you have to pay €1.50 to take a piss. So many tourists in one spot, it was a cluster fuck but the fact that there are no cars in the city just a maze of canals it was fun to look around.

Venice, Italy

Now we are in Arco with about 9 days till I start the journey home, time to climb some single pitch sport routes.

Voilà

We’re still in Gorge Du Verdon. We’ve done a few 150m routes which have been fun. I’ve tried top roping a 6c and a 6c+ (22 & 23) I couldn’t do the crux of the 6c+ but my neck isn’t getting any worse so that’s good.

Claire on the last pitch of “Afin que nul ne meure” 6a+ (19) 150m

We decided to do the tourist thing and went on a canyon day trip. Wasn’t very extreme but it was fun sliding and jumping down the water falls.

Claire jumping into a hole Canyoning

Can’t escape Tasmanian’s, even on the other side of the world. A few days ago some new neighbours moved into the camp site beside us. It was a few of the Tassie base jumpers. So I’ve watch them do a few jumps which has been awesome.

The plan atm for the rest of the trip is to stay here for around another week, then head north to Chamonix for a few days to check it out then head east back into Italy and climb at Acro for a week. Plans always change though so we’ll see what happens.

Europe is it…

Once a year I can afford to go overseas. This year I’ve come to Europe to see what it’s all about. Well that wasn’t the initial reason; Claire was going to be coming back here to study, she’s not doing that now but that’s the reason I’m in Europe in the hottest time of the year.
I thought it might be a good idea to train hard in preparation to crank, I lot of good that did after 1 week of over training I pulled a muscle in my neck and didn’t climb for 5 weeks before I got here, stupid man, anyway…

I started the trip by meeting Claire’s family near Manchester, good bunch, felt very welcome, so she’ll keep
After that Claire and I flew to Milan in Italy, jumped in the hire car and drove though like 20 tunnels and ended up in Val di Mello.

Val di Mello is beautiful, big granite peaks and lots to climb. The town of San Martino is at 925m so we thought it might be cooler temperatures up there but we were wrong, It wasn’t too hot but climbing in the sun was an effort on the slabs. We did a few routes but after not climbing for a while and 5 bolts in 25m pitch (makes After Midnight look over bolted) made Jed a scared boy so we decided to move on to the Verdon Gorge

Just to give you an idea. If you can see that roof in the left of the photo that buttress is around 200m

Claire walking up the valley

Claire in the forest relaxing beside the river

Verdon is awesome Limestone Climbing. I’ve never climbed on limestone before but I’m loving it. All the climbs start at the top so you rap in, pull your ropes and climb back out. So for a while I’m going to top rope some things and get strong again. The neck isn’t 100% better, still a slight soreness there so just seeing how it goes, if all is well I’ll be doing some of the 100-300m climbs that are at Verdon

“Face Au Public” 5b+ (14)

On a rest day in Antibes now, went for a swim in the Mediterranean today, you don’t get to do that every day. Heading back to Verdon where we’ll be for a few weeks I thinks.

Me & Calire, On the beach in Antibes, Swimming in the mediterranean.