Hey Guys I am finally home from my 2 week stint climbing in southern France. If you've been keeping up with the blog, you will know that I spent quite a bit of time climbing in the multipitch mad crag of Verdon. I ticked "The" classic of the gorge, none other than the famous tufa, "Tom et je ris" (8b+). It was an amazing experience to climb such an aesthetic line in such an exposed position and it's not a route that I will forget in a hurry. Anyway, things moved on a bit after ticking this epic route. First of... Continue reading

Yesterday morning, Alex and I awoke cursing at the 6:30am alarm. We groaned a bit, made some breakfast (muesli w skimmed milk - cause that's what athletes eat!), brushed our teeth, then drive to the Verdon Gorge (Rivière Gauche - left side). We drove through a huge damp cloud (a typical early morning occurrence in Verdon) before reaching the car park at the start of the walk.  We packed up all our gear and headed off into the forest, on our way to do battle with the legendary tufa, "Tom et je Ris". An hour and a quarter of walking up... Continue reading

I am finally getting my head sorted! No, I'm not getting my brain surgically removed - I know that a lot of people would prefer that - I'm finally getting my head into gear with all this climbing really high stuff. Alex and I did a classic 7a+ the other day called "Surveiller et Punir" which I think pretty much did the trick. It was awesomely technical and fairly exposed - it got me into a better place with regards climbing 120m off the ground and today I certainly felt the difference on "Tom et je Ris" (8b+). We've had two... Continue reading

Hey Guys So we've been in Verdon now for two days. Alex (Barrows) and I had a crazy drive down filled with hours of endless motorway, lots of winding country roads and one very unfortunate encounter with French 16 year old chavs! I left on a train from Edinburgh one day after Me and Nats Yorkshire trip. I travelled down to meet up with Alex in Sheffield before driving down to France the next day. I have never driven such a long distance before, of course I did none ofnthe actual driving, but sitting in the passenger seat took a lot... Continue reading