A brief dip into Provence followed by a deja vu dash
As autumnal weather begins to make itself felt, we headed a bit further south and to lower altitude into Provence. The Alpilles, centred on Saint-Remy, are a range of modest […]
Category Archives: France
Three Sides of Rocher Baron
We first visited Rocher Baron almost 25 years ago, with two tiny tots in tow. The appeal at that point was the roadside / “pram-able” nature of the nearest south-east […]
Le Pouit – Incy Wincy spider climbs up the rock again!
After two days of continuous rain, we were pretty much climbing up the walls of the van and desperate to get onto the crag. Normally, we use any rain interruptions […]
Casse de Prelles and Les Ayes
Casse de Prelles is an east-facing series of quartzite slabs and pinnacles set above the village of the same name. Here’s a view taken from across the valley a couple […]
Briancon revisited – Hot Rock and Pudding
It’s only a short drive from the Ligurian coast to the Durance valley; around 3 hours over the Montgenevre Pass linking these two tremendously diverse and abundant climbing areas. Each […]
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 […]
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 […]
L’Aiguillette d’Argentiere and Les Cheserys
No, NOT The Aiguille d’Argentiere, but this diminutive and shapely near namesake gives a fun micro summit in absolutely fabulous surroundings. The Aiguillette can be found about an hour’s pleasant […]
Servoz
With the weather perking up around Chamonix, and bizarrely looking better than the usual fleshpots of Provence, we decided to take advantage and spend a few days enjoying an out-of-season […]
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 […]
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 – […]
