Grenoblog 4 - Encore in the Vercors!

I seem to be spending my life in the Vercors these days, not that I'm complaining - it's easy to see why I could find myself going back there, and in the case of this last week, going there twice in one weekend! The cold, crisp mornings of the week before disappeared and the fresh cover of snow on top of the 3 Massifs rapidly melted away almost overnight as temperatures soared, just in time for my 3 day weekend on rock!

The Vercors from Pierrot Beach

I had another enjoyable week at work and trained on the Tuesday night at Espace Vertical 2 and the Thursday evening at Ablok, where I met Léo from work and also quite unexpectedly bumped into a friend of mine and Robbie's who we have encountered at various crags on our travels around Europe. Frédéric offered to take me climbing at the weekend, so all in all a productive trip to the wall!

First though, the main event of the week was an adventure in the Vercors with my workmate Meta, where we had the intention of completing a 250m long multi-pitch route called "La Dame de Coeur", graded at TD+, très difficile +. With 8 pitches up to 6c, I was looking forward to completing my first multi-pitch sport route. Meta picked me up at 9:30am and we made the drive to Presles in the Vercors, admiring the scenery and chatting about anything and everything. We arrived and got kitted up ready to climb - taking the bare minimum of equipment. After a brisk walk downhill to the foot of the route we were met by another party of Dutch climbers who were starting up the first pitch of our route. They were not intending to do the same route as us which meant things freed up a little bit.

La Dame de Coeur

The first pitch was an easy scramble up a 6a. I seconded up after Meta and met her at the belay, where she taught me how set up a proper belay of my own. She had already gone through it all with me on the ground, and I already had a good idea of what to do, but it was necessary to be shown on the wall just to make sure. I was impressed with myself in that for the whole day, we had conversed solely in French - which adds to the potential for confusion when learning how to do something you are not sure about in another language (don't worry, I was almost always aware of what was going on and checked if I wasn't!) Meta lead the second pitch to allow me another chance to see her belay set-up and then it was up to me to lead the third and hardest (by grade) pitch on the route - a 6c. It had a powerful start on pockets with some big moves on a steep section, then eased off a bit. I made it to the top where there was a big ledge, conveniently comfortable for setting up my first belay (and for posing for photos and eating lunch afterwards!) I made the belay fine and admired the view as I brought Meta up. The panorama of the Vercors was amazing and I felt very at ease despite being about 100m+ up. I was excited at the prospect of having to climb another 150m of rock which loomed above us before we would reach the top. I also saw a lizard on the ledge as I was making the belay and he gave me the thumbs - or claws - up in agreement, so I knew my belay was safe...

The next pitch, at 6b, turned out to be the sac à sable of the route! I started up on lead and pulled on some layback/sidepull slopers at the start of a crack. It was steep with not much for feet. What lay ahead was an amusing mixture of contortion and perplexity - I jammed, twisted, kneebar-ed, chimneyed, backstepped, bridged and used just about every trick in the book whilst generally climbing like a sack of spanners. I made it though! Once my heart rate had settled and I was no longer in the splits position things calmed down and I made my second belay. Safe! I was relieved to hear that Meta too had found it a tad tricky for 6b - "C'était un peu pourrie ça - pas 6b!" ie "That was a bit minging - no way 6b!" Although it was a bit awkward, I rather enjoyed the challenge of climbing something a bit out of the ordinary and completely different. I may yet become a crack climber! 4 pitches remained - all of which were supposedly easier than what we had just done - luckily for us!

Each pitch seemed to increase in quality - we even had a friendly 5c to look forward to just before the finish. I lead one more pitch and then it was up to Meta to complete the final 6a to the top of the crag, 250m up. We could see a wall of grey rock reaching up about 20m above our heads. The end is in sight, we thought. Meta started up and eventually was just at the apparent apex of the curved rock. She's there, I thought, that's the top. Oh no, there was another 20m of rock on top of that!  A 40m pitch was our last hurdle, it seemed. I seconded up, and although knackered absolutely loved it. It was a great feeling to have summited amidst the panorama of the valley. I felt the sense of height as I saw a rockface just across the valley which I remembered seeing on the walk down to the crag and thinking - that is massive! I hadn't actually seen the size of the crag we had climbed up, but that gave me a rough idea. We were both tired, but had enough energy for the walk down to the car (no need to rappel, thankfully!) and a good French chat in the car. I arrived home to a dinner cooked by my housemate, which was very welcomed as I was very low in energy!

On the Saturday I rested in anticipation of climbing with Frédéric the next day. I wandered around town in the sun, bumped into Alice from University, bought a French SIM card and some postcards and stamps (not sending one to everyone, be warned!) It's amazing to be able to wander around a picturesque town centre with your H&Ms, McDonalds and at the same time be in the middle of the mountains! I have found that I am very good at navigating here because I can use the Vercors, Belledonne and Chartreuse Massifs to guide me. The Dent de Crolles is particularly useful as a navigation tool!

On the Sunday I met up with Frédéric and we decided to go to La Balme (de Yenne) where I had already been this year with Robbie and Alex in the summer. It was much less hot this time round but also very strange to be back there again and see our little van site where we stayed for a night. Sentimental feelings aside, it was a productive morning in which I ticked a 7a which had spat me off in the summer (due to the heat and Robbie and Alex's insistence that I try a kneebar - which didn't work for me! :P ) and then I onsighted a classic 7b+ called Cathédrale - a long, pumpy route filled with tufas and big juggy pinches which get less juggy near the top! I was really happy to onsight this, but afterwards we decided to head towards Pierrot Beach (another crag in the Vercors/Presles region as some of the harder routes were wet at La Balme. After about 2 hours in the car (we took a wrong turning!) we arrived at Pierrot at about 5pm. By now I was feeling very tired and the rock was still in the heat of the sun and unbelieveably hot. We warmed up on a 7a and then Frédéric attempted his 8b+ project, getting fairly high and inspiring me to try somehard routes here (just not today, as I was knackered!) 

Good view of Pierrot Beach

Instead of trying an 8a+ which looked good, I fancied my chances on a 7b+ which I wanted to onsight. It wasn't too long but looked thin in places! I began to climb and felt re-energised - the sun had gone down a bit further and I was in the shade. I made it to a good rest and checked out the next few clips - a definite crux! I chose a sequence and went for it - no hesitation, just fight. I got throught that section and did the same for the next. Composure and aggression. The moves went fairly quickly and I was at another rest not far from the top. The next section looked tricky but more technical than physical. Luckily I was right, and although having to disturb a rather large spider with an even larger web, I made it to the chain - my second 7b+ onsight of the day! I was content but tired, and ready to go home after giving Frédéric another belay. We drove back to Grenoble listening to some old school Groove Armada tracks, which was a great soundtrack to the drive through the valleys, the lights starting to turn on and the outlines of the cliff edges just visible against the pastel-painted sky. 

Presles!

My day wasn't over just yet though - I got back home and within ten minutes was welcoming Lucy into my house for dinner. Lucy is a fellow Edinburgh University student of French who has got into climbing here in Grenoble! She has even bought her own climbing shoes - watch this space! We chatted (in English - a nice change considering how immersed in French I otherwise usually am!) over a tuna slop (my speciality) and agreed to meet up again this week for a jaunt to the cinema. 

Today I started back at work, just another day in the office - mountains all around us, lunch outside complete with Clairette de Die champagne (ok, sparkling wine!) and chocolate gateau, and then a little detour by a circus complete with llamas and donkeys on the way home in Crolles. It's nae too bad here like!