Adventure Saturday

Chris, Sarah, Abi and myself chipped off out on Saturday for a barbeque in the woods and a spot of climbing. Was really nice to hang out and have some munchies, go for a monkey around a small crag that none of us had climbed before and generally just have a nice relax.

We bumped into a scottish guy and girl who were climbing the same crag and ended up laughing with them a while - culminating in us all going to Le Vert bar for a few gin and tonics after the day's exertions. We all eased our way down to Le Delice back in the Houches to carry on the weekend's celebrations and then at the end of the evening some of the guys went off to a birthday party in the woods further up the valley. Yours truly was a good boy however and retired gracefully.

A testing start at Servoz

It's been crap weather here for a week. Really crap. So when the clouds lifted for a brief second earlier whilst on the computer in the office it was no surprise to hear my phone ring with a voice on the other end of the phone saying to grab all available climbing gear and meet up at the crag at Servoz. After a bit of nagging Chris eventually gave in and said he'd be down a little after Brian and I were to due to meet. I'm really pleased he did because he brought a camera and snapped a load of absolutely incredible photographs (Flickr). Some are included in this posting. Chris didn't climb but made use of a small winding path that leads up to the top of the crag to watch and take shots.

So a brief fly to the farm from Cham to pick up the bits and down to the crag to meet Brian. It was pretty cold leaving Chamonix with hairs on your arms standing up due to the distinct chill in the air. The mountains have been dusted with a small coating of snow down to around 1850m (6,070 feet) and felt more like December than early summer. The portent of abandoning the evening's climbing loomed larger with a rain squall in Les Houches but with backup plan in mind set off determined to get some exercise and fresh air.

A dark and broody peak above Servoz


I'm pleased we did, as although there was a good bit of cloud there was also enough blue skies and bright sunlight to strip off the tshirts and warm our bodies in the golden rays before setting off upwards. Had a funny moment stifling a giggle at Brian trying to remove all his thermals in the blazing sun after being caught out by the unusually hot weather. A brief discussion later and Brian was duly sent to lead a long single pitch to the top of the crag. It looked like a testing sort of 60m (196 feet) pitch with some interesting features the whole way up to the final large overhanging section extending down from the top by 5m. I've got to admit, anything that Brian takes his time to climb generally means it's going to be a tad sporty for the rest of us. This hypothesis has yet to be disproved and stood up once again here as Brian tackled the top overhang. Grinning insanely to myself, I set off after him and the early part of the climb went relatively well - some good sections, some really cool moves, some not so good and one minor slip on a piece of wet rock. Challenging might be the right word for it. Felt good though and was very pleased to get up to below the overhang at the top.

Brian closing in on the top of the crag.


This is where said hypothesis was proven. There was a feeling of being a little tired after a long pitch with arms starting to complain about the state of affairs and feet barking away about being stood on tiny ledges for too long. Looking up at overhangs I always find it uncomfortable as you're arching your back and craning your neck to see where the holds are. I could see where my hands and feet were supposed to go so had the first (of several) cracks at it. A slip and a fall back to the ledge made me chuckle and have another go. The next I set my jaw into what I'd like to think was a steely grin in the face of adversity but probably looked more like a vicar with hemorrhoids. Another slip and by now the steely grin (or purturbed vicar look) was starting to be replaced with a rather nervous twitching smile. It's all good climbing indoors and falling. It's even fun falling close to the ground or half-way up a small pitch on a crag. It gets subtly less amusing 180 foot up a rock face with nothing more than air betwen your arse and the ground.

I must have tried climbing the overhang maybe 7 times but it was just too much. I was too tired and maybe not had enough to eat. It was also technically very difficult. I called up to Brian to say I was having a bit of a sketchy time of it and did he have any suggestions on alternative ways to get to the top. After a couple of goes of pulling myself up a rope purely by my hands and arms I felt myself starting to topple back in my harness. This was when I felt things turning a tad feisty. You step into a harness much like you fill a kettle with water. Much as in the same way of making a nice relaxing cup of tea - you turn the kettle upside down and the water empties out providing a refreshing beverage. Turning upside down and the feeling being poured out of ones harness was however neither relaxing nor refreshing. In fact I started shaking like a shitting dog. I've never had a panic attack before but this one kicked in with a big insane grin.

Luckily I've spent a lot of time over the years in precarious situations and have had a lot of experience making decisions and trying to keep a clear head when things could get messy - backcountry and freestyle snowboarding and wakeboarding as well as hiking mountains in the winter all bring a certain level of risk and subsequent important decision making. Also included in this list could be the time when I tried dating two girls at the same time whilst in my latter stages of life at school - an extremely precarious situation.

Brian managed to rig a pulley system by me clipping a spare carabiner into my harness and clipping the run off rope from the belay device into that. Very effective, and a half dozen or so heaves later I found myself sitting on the top of the crag with Chris and Brian feeling a tad shaky but otherwise OK. I rolled a much needed ciggie and unbeknownst to be me Chris snapped one of the best photos I've seen for a long while.

Brian and I at the top of the crag.


I love this photo because it says a lot. It tells me that my friends and I will use lateral thinking and ingenuity to solve problems as well as heart and strength. It tells me that I can push myself to my absolute limits and still know when I'm beaten. Earlier in my life I'd have pushed myself more in that situation to get up the overhang and probably end up hurt. Not this time. It tells me that it takes more than just meaty arms to push yourself mentally and that if you work at something then you can achieve it. Most of all it tells me how I know my life to be - full of challenges that I know I can overcome, even when I'm really really scared. The simple thing the picture says is friendship. I'll look at this photo and think of what happened beforehand, but as a snapshot the picture looks serene with two guys out for a bit of adventurous exercise.

We did do a bit more climbing afterwards - Brian did a few more pitches whilst I belayed him from a shelf much lower down. I had a smaller climb and got some really useful tips which I'll definately remember and use in future. Brian got beaten by a 7b pitch (so he IS human!) so it was kind of comforting to see we'd both reached our limits. AFter a good few hours we returned to the Delice for a quick mango juice and then I retired home for a spot of dinner.

Addendum: Brian and I had both forgotten our guide book for pitches on the crag so we didn't know what route was graded what. We later found out that the start route was a 6b+ - one of the hardest pitches on the whole crag and the hardest pitch from the bottom! Feeling dead pleased to get as high as I did!

A hot climb at Servoz

So Hana and I met up yesterday and went for a climb at Servoz - one of the currently favoured climbing venues. I've led pretty much everything in the lower half of the crag so I was pretty happy with just picking interesting pitches out of the book and leading them for Hana to second. It was unbelievably hot, I'd guess around 32°C or 34°C and we both caught the sun despite wearing sun cream.

Hana tying in at the bottom of a pitch.


I climbed pretty well apart from one pitch I wasn't overly happy with, but I also managed to do 5 consecutive single pitches - the most I've done so far. I was pretty happy with that and it shows that I'm getting fitter. Hana climbed really well - she's only been a couple of times before - figuring out the various puzzles that the rock throws at you and managing to get up everything put before her. We had a lemonade break half-way through at the bistro opposite and sat down and nattered away which was nice =)

Hana at the top of the third pitch.


We even managed to take a little walk through the woods at the side of the crag to a waterfall and have a cool down in the clear mountain water. Very romantic!

The waterfall in the woods.

Once more again, with feeling

Good day today - boshed a load of work this morning, sold some software, legged it down to the crag at Servoz for a spot of elevated fun and activity before heading back to the office. Plus I climbed with a new partner today - Brian who's an american lad that's been out here a while and a fellow geek. Turns out he's one seriously gnarly climber too. We decided to do a variant route to the top of the crag of the multi-pitch climb Crampons and I did yesterday.

Crampons, myself and Brian made light work of the starting 6a climb that we struggled with the other day (still can't figure out why) including whisking straight over the overhang with no probs first look. Very cool. With the longer rope we were using we were able to cut the 3 pitch climb to the top down to 2 and joined Brian perched on a ledge 10m below the top of the crag ready to have a look at a 6b pitch that would take us up to the top of the rock.

Crampons had a bash leading first up. I'm pleased he did because my arse was making noises like a dolphin due to the intimidating look of the pitch. Pretty much the whole thing was overhanging with wide holds putting enormous stresses through the arms. High up on the crag and in the beating sun with hands slippery with sweat just added more difficulty to an already hard climb. He managed to get 3 quick draws in before coming back down for some R & R. Beaten back by the rock. Brian went up next and got to the top before abseiling back down dangling on the end of the rope in mid air like bait on a fishing line. I couldn't not have a go and surprised myself by making it up to 4 quick draws. I really should have pushed myself further but my arms were getting really tired and with all the pressure going through my hands I was starting to feel like I could do the climb if I had more strength. Damnit - the first climb in weeks that I couldn't do. But I felt really good to have got to that stage and realised that only condition was preventing me, not the technicalities of the climb.

Crampons had a visit to the vet to attend to (his dogs, Crampons has had all his shots) and so abseiled down on the second rope whilst Brian and I remained up at our perch for Brian to have a go at an extremely overhanging 6c. No chance I was going to try it but I was happy to belay him so he could shimmey up. We needed to do a high-level traverse to get from our current anchor under the 6b to the anchor under the 6c about 8m to our left. That was pretty fun - delicate foot placements and working along the ledges with a little bit of climbing for good measure, lots of fun. Really strange to be working sideways over a big drop but we were all roped up and clipped into a couple of pitons. Brian even managed to snap a quick photo of me easing my way over to the starting ledge of the last pitch looking rather calm too!

Me on the traverse (click for a bigger image).


When Brian started the last climb I've never seen anyone close-up tackle such a difficult pitch so well - he worked his way over the huge overhang to the smaller overhang that led up the rest of the way smoothly easing past the difficulties with arms trembling with effort at the more strenuous parts. Hugely impressive and I was in awe as I belayed him from a rather uncomfortable sloping ledge under the overhang. Pleased to be part of the team!

We abseiled down swiftly then grabbed a beautifully cold beer at the bisto opposite the crag before coming back to Chamonix where the heavens decided to open! Good day.

Keep going up!

I've recently been doing quite a bit of climbing later afternoon/early evening. Good for working beforehand and it's nice and quiet. Normally it's Chris and I by ourselves but I've been climbing for the past 2 days with a mate Crampons. We're a pretty similar level to each other so it works well.

Explanation: On the French grading scale they rank the difficulty of a pitch with a number followed by a letter (then an optional + if the rank is slightly harder). So it starts at 1a, then 1b, 1c, 2a, 2b, and so forth up to 8. It does go higher but I've never seen any 9's in books. An average climb would be around in the 4b, 4c, 5a, 5b territory. Above that and it starts getting harder with overhangs and minimal holds coming into the equation.

Yesterday we set off to the crag at Les Gaillands (Google Maps) for a quick climb - we intended on doing 3 pitches of around 5c to 6a. The first pitch ("L'arête des bûcherons" - 5c) was on a corner with a small chimney and it went OK. Just OK. A few sketchy moments coming over an overhang but managed it and sped up the chimney well.

The second pitch ("La Vipérine" - 5c) was spectacularly good. A small crack and needing precise footwork with some good strength needed. Really climbed it well balancing carefully and using good technique to really scale it quickly. Obviously the first pitch was needed as a warm up and after we both climbed the second pitch well Crampons suggested something a little trickier.

Here it is (move mouse over for the pitch route). It's taken over Crampons shoulder as we're looking for holds and route before we get stuck in. It's a 6a+ called "La Zig sans Zag".



A very cool pitch, really testing and exhilarating to climb. Technical but needing lots of strength with a two or three moves that really tested us. It marked a turning point in my mind to be able to do these harder routes and feeling much more confident about climbing on a different type of rock than normal. The pitch looked hard, it was hard and we still managed to get up - and well.

So today again late afternoon we grabbed our gear and headed down to the crag at Servoz (Google Maps). Crampons and I had the intention of doing a gnarly multi-pitch climb. Essentially a climb that's longer than the rope by a long way and requires 3 consecutive pitches to get to the top. The first pitch was a pretty tricky 6a, the second an easy but unprotected 3a and the third a technically difficult 5b. We'd looked in our climbing book showing the route up the crag, got our gear sorted out just so and then decided to set off.

The going was tough with an overhang to climb in the first pitch. There were good holds but for some reason Crampons and I made the going tougher than it needed to be. Up we went however and I reached the top of the first pitch feeling reasonably happy and helped Crampons sort out the rope for the next pitch as we hovered on a small ledge clipped into slings halfway up the face. I led up the second pitch after having clipped a quick draw into a bolt as protection and scurried quickly up to the start of the third pitch. Crampons duly followed then took over leading the last pitch up to the very top of the crag.

Me belaying Crampons up the second pitch. The chimney is the dark patch of rock in the top-right of the photo.


There was a small flake to put your right foot on at the start of the pitch and it was necessary to access the chimney by working around a pillar. This meant a left hand hold around one side of the pillar and moving your body into a position where you could reach around with the right hand to find a hold. As you were doing this your entire body was hanging over a vertical drop of some 300 feet straight down to the grass below. Hairy stuff! Safe enough with all the gear but it made my heart tick a little quicker than normal. The route from there up the chimney was littered with good holds and quick progress up to the top of the crag followed and then the deep exhaled breath of happy success! A truly awe-inspiring climb with delicate balance high above the ground. We sorted out the ropes and admired our manliness then abseiled down to the top of the second pitch dropping down into an overhanging chimney again got the heart going at a solid speedy rate. We re-organized the rope for the second abseil and down we went, then another organization for the final abseil. Minutes later we were down on the ground looking up, feeling exhilarated with ourselves and with big cheezy grins all round. I'm still smiling about it hours later.

Here's the crag and if you move your mouse over the photo and wait a sec, you can see our route up.



All in all a very good multi-pitch climb. Really pleased to feel like I've stretched myself a bit more in what can be done. Crampons was delighted too - he climbed and led very well and we did the whole climb safely and securely making sure to double and triple check the equipment at every stage. Awesome stuff!

Climbing today

We didn't climb at Argentiere today in the end, instead we went to the crag at Servoz. It was a beautiful day and we both climbed really well. Was awesome to be out in the fresh air and get some tanning in as well as a load of exercise.

Here's all the photos from the day's climbing.