Independence Quarry
Another contribution to Clwyd limestone by the irrepressible Gary Gibson, Independence Quarry sits at the east end of the escarpment above Trevor, with views over Llangollen. A hazy mist threatened […]
Author Archives: Dominic
Stanage Apparent North
After a lot of overnight rain, it was perhaps asking a lot for the forecasted sunny intervals to dry Stanage, and in the event there weren’t any intervals anyway. However, […]
Agden Rocher
There’s a thread on UKC entitled “In praise of Agden Rocher” and it somehow wriggled its way into my consciousness as Jim and I were pondering a venue for a […]
Halloween double header
Back in Blighty, just in time for a sunny autumn snap. Gorgeous on Kinder on Monday … with a touch of frost in the shade and even some icy patches, […]
Carrière Collot, Epinal
We do climb in some funny places… Here’s another random stop-over crag, found on the web and chosen because of proximity to our homeward route, short walk-in (zero!) and sunny […]
La Jacoterie
Drifting homewards and looking for cragging opportunities to break the journey, we took a “lucky dip” in the Vertical Life app and came up with La Jacoterie in the Jura. […]
Leysin – Pierre de Moelle
The main Leysin crags are accessed by a cable car followed by a bit of a hike, and with the weather looking a bit iffy to start with we decided […]
Yvorne
After a night in a campsite by Lac Leman We continued our exploration of the cragging a few km back up the Rhone Valley near the town of Aigle. This […]
Gorges du Dailley, Salvan – sectors Daillet and Dalle
There’s a LOT of granite on the hillside above Martigny, much of it accessed from the impossibly quaint village of Salvan Les Granges. The major tourist attraction here is The […]
Dorenaz
After a 2-day side-visit to Chamonix that turned into a fortnight, we’ve finally managed to tear ourselves away. We’d visited pretty much all of the cragging venues and the interval […]
Gietroz, sector Pylon
The somewhat utilitarian name belies an excellent little crag. Gietroz is the easterly extension of Barberine and has a bunch of sectors scattered over the hillside. Pylon is just over […]
Lady in Black, Point Gaspard, Aiguilles Rouges
After a week of valley cragging it was time for another adventure further up in the Big Hills, so it was great to be able to call on The Rucksack […]
Coupeau
On Neil’s recommendation we made a trip to Coupeau, a hidden gem of Chamonix Valley cragging – always handy to have a bit of local knowledge! It’s not a huge […]
Vallorcine
Almost 6 weeks in to Helen’s recovery and it’s time for some tentative steps back into multi-pitch adventuring – we’d been saving the friendly granite slabs at Vallorcine for the […]
Le Clis, Vallee d’Arve
We’d exhausted most of the major Chamonix Valley cragging options, and needed a break from granite slabs, so headed back down the Arve to seek out Le Clis. This is […]
Roc Dément and Les Bossons boulders – rest day recce
A bit of a look back through the blog suggests I have climbed on each of the last 14 days – not necessarily caning it, but put boot to rock. […]
Le Chapeau
This one isn’t featured in the Rockfax, but gets rave reviews in the local guide: “Site majeur de l’escalade dans la valee de Chamonix”. Unfortunately, my hastily snapped shots of […]
Barberine
This extensive granite crag is at the top of the Chamonix Valley, just over the Col des Montets – it’s actually in Switzerland (by a couple of hundred metres), though […]
Le Fayet, Grande Falaise
We’d been working towards a rest day, to coincide with the forecast monsoon which was supposed to hit today. This was downgraded to an overnight downpour, and even that failed […]
Chamonix Valley cragging – La Joux and Les Gaillands
After the lengthy approach to Les Cheserys yesterday, we opted for roadside today, so checked out La Joux. Accessed from the station of the same name, it’s a very pleasant […]
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