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Archive for September, 2009
It’s pretty funny how even the most intriguing places can become the norm in a matter of weeks. We’ve been in the south of France for over a month now, and it’s not that it’s boring, it’s just that I’m starting to feel at home. We’re beginning to know the roads (literally) and can get around without freaking out over maps and gps’s. I mean you can only trap yourself in the wrong toll road entrance so many times before something clicks. Obviously we’re not in the most astranged of territory, I mean there’s still Redbull, The Hills on Mtv (old season’s of course) and Rockclimbing, our universal language. The community here is amazing and has been nothing but extremely welcoming. They’ve even adopted a couple of nicknames for Joe and myself, Fatchi and Coco, awesome.
We’re experiencing some serious downpour at the moment. We’ve had perfect weather up until now, so I can’t be too upset. In the meantime I’m continuing to relish in the trashiest of pop culture, specifically Cascada. This song has been our daily theme song, though most time against our will. Daniel likes it the best and I’m assuming it’s definitely the reason for his consistent sends. woohoo!!
Vuala! Here are some more pics of us prancing around France. Courtney has taken it upon herself to be our media wizard and she’s often hanging on fixed lines and videoing earlier on in the day at the Diverse cliff. Like I’ve said before there aren’t many moderates at this cliff and I’ve already gotten sucked into a proj that’s using up all my power and my time to do more moderate climbs. It’s always a battle to decide if you want to get involved with harder climbs when you’re on a trip or just dabble around with easier stuff. I think I’ve finally decided that as much as I like to clip the chains it always means more when you’ve put some real effort into it. Apparently I like torturous head games with climbing, sweat.
The extension of our crew will be showing up shortly, and I’m sure there’ll be hard sends to report, which you can find at Joe’s site sense I tend to get lost in the wirl-wind of big grades and beta on climbs I’ll likely never try. My moral got extra boost the other day when Joe and I set out to check a cliff called Cayenne. It’s a perfect cliff for myself, with tons of 12’s on amazing tufa features. This is why you come to Europe!
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ugh… i really wanted to post her newest video for Celebration that’s totally hot and has an increased amount of gyrations. but of course it’s no where!!! anyways this will do for the song at least. i gotta love europe for their obsession with pop music. just another thing we see eye to eye on!
Reporting from our new favorite wifi location, McDonald’s. That’s right. That’s the beta. The libraries don’t have wifi, some of the inet cafes don’t even have wifi. Turns out the place I despise most in the US is like the best place to be in Europe. There’s plugs, music videos, fast inet and somehow the food even taste better.Besides seeking out internet we’ve been going climbing and hitting the beach. Turns out the French are just as mutantly strong as the Spanish and I’m starting the think it’s like a Europe thing. Yesterday I saw a 13 year old walk PuntX 9a/9a+, Daniel hike Triptictonik 8c+, Joe put down Quenelle 8c, Anatole also send PuntX, and some crazy strong french chick house an 8b. Like um, wtf?? These people are all on steroids or something. No really it’s motivating, I went ahead and did some 12b’s after all that and felt pretty good about it. Sick!!Tomorrow we’re back on the grind. I’m pretty much trying hard stuff at the beginning of the day at the crazy Deverse Wall, then in the afternoon I can do easier pitches across the river and clip some chains myself. Not a bad set up, plus rolling with Daniel and Courtney is crazy fun. Allez bitches!!
As I write I’m sitting in a savvy little camp ground only five minutes from our most recent climbing destination Gorges du Loups. As typical of the south of france the camping is filled with Brits who lounge by the pool happily getting charred by the endless sunbeams. I myself am happy as a clam since we’re out of the tent and sharing a little bungalow with Daniel and Courtney as few friends of ours from the states. This means a mini roof over our heads, sinks, toilets and power, all the little things you begin to savor day four at the campsite. Maybe I’ve soften with age and persistent travel, who knows but the little luxuries have never felt so good.
Towards the end of our Ceuse stay I was actually getting a feel for the place and restoring my moral for heinously techy, sporty rock climbing. But in reality the days were way too short (like no climbing until 3:30pm!) and the hike starts to hurt when you’re doing it for only four hours of climb time. I’ll definitely be back to Ceuse, but in June and with balls of steel, it’ll be perfect.
As for Gorges du Loup the scene is way chill, but you’d suspect this for a wall that houses 40 routes 30 of which are graded 8a(13b) and higher and 20 of which are actually 8b+(14a) and higher. Yeah, exactly. When you roll with the big dogs… There’s another cliff that’s good in the afternoon, which I’ll be spending most of my time at. It’s supposed to be excellent with a ton of 7’s(12’s) and sounds like it’s more up my alley. All in all the vibe is good, the days are long, the beach is only 20 minutes away, and I have a mini fridge; life is good.
