Climbing around Le Grand Massif
Based around Samoens for a couple of days, we decided to explore the wealth of climbing in the hinterlands around Mt Blanc. There are three guidebooks-worth of cragging accessible within […]
Author Archives: Dominic
Aiguilles Rouges, Chamonix Mt Blanc
The happy coincidence of a forecasted weather window in Cham overlapping with Dave being resident in Samoens opened up the possibility of an unexpected hit of high altitude cragging – […]
Rocher du Bez
This is a super handy granite crag, a few km north of Briancon. It has very much been developed as an amenity, alongside a via ferata and a picnic spot […]
Le Ponteil, sector Hot Roc
This is a really fab spot, and only 5km from our favourite campsite in the Durance (Le Verger just north of Roche de Rame), and I can’t really work out […]
Into the Durance and a couple of days at Les Traverses
With a weather system sweeping down from the north we escaped the forecasted snow in the Oisans and made the 2 hour hop over to the Durance valley south of […]
Rock around Embrun
A chilly, showery day following heavy rain overnight – time to put the “you can always find somewhere to climb in the Durance” theory to the test! The crags around […]
La Bérarde, Les Oisans
The magical Veneon Valley runs roughly eastward from Bourg d”Oisans to dead-end at the tiny village of La Bérarde, passing the start point for the refuge du Soreiller approach at […]
Aiguille Dibona
The Oisans region lies between the Vercours and the Ecrins and is home to some magnificent peaks. One of these: The Aiguille Dibona, must rank as one of the most […]
Presles, sector Daladom
Presles is undoubtedly the Queen of Vercours climbing – a 7km wide crag of grey and orange limestone around 300m high and offering hundreds of routes of around 8 to […]
L’Albenc and into the Vercours
The Isere Valley marks the northern border of the Vercours national park and the river has sliced the end of this high plateau leaving towering limestone cliffs impressively lining its […]
Berdorf – not the red sandstone we were expecting to be climbing on, but not a bad substitute
Regular readers will know that one of my favourite expressions is “Green lights all the way!” and I count myself both a very fortunate and often lucky person. However, our […]
Perma-dry climbing 5 mins from the pub – what’s not to like about New Mills Torrs?
The Rucksack Club evening meet programme got a welcome bonus episode as the autumnal weather provided a dry window of opportunity. Where else to go but NMT when you’re short […]
Last hurrah at Hobby!
The last Rucksack Club evening meet of the year saw the season go out with a bang with a great turnout and fabulous weather. A combination of the usual suspects […]
Last of the summer wine
Sunday morning and I should be on a plane to Vegas. That didn’t work out (yet) but as a consolation I’m heading west along the A55, bound for Gogarth. The […]
A Brit Grit fix with Jake
More or less straight off the plane and back into action – Jake’s only home for a couple of days and is keen to get some cragging in. First venue […]
North America Wall – Trip Report
This could be subtitled ‘Episode Ten in Bill and Dom’s Excellent Adventures’ after five previous trips to Yosemite, and further adventures in The Alps, Dolomites, Taghia (Morocco) and Riglos (Spain). […]
Dike Wall, Mammoth Lakes
After an exhausting day of being tourists it seemed much easier to just go climbing again for our last day – but nothing too stressy! The criteria were: not far […]
… And Relax
The beers, shower and pizza (plus a dose of ice cream) were every bit as wonderful as anticipated – and the luxury of a humble apple served as a reminder […]
Topping out on NA Wall
After an only moderately comfortable, but historically resonant (Robbins, Frost, Choinard and Pratt slept here – it’s like a climbing hall of fame!) night in The Igloo … it was […]
A night in The Igloo
The Cyclops Eye is big – REALLY BIG! Must be over 200ft in diameter and we spent much of the day circumnavigating it. Pitch 20 is a soaring traverse up […]
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