Freissinières – Dalles Magiques (not) and La Grande Falaise
With another fine day in prospect, Helen and I decided to have a multi-pitch adventure. The two 100m routes on Dalles Magiques get a big write up in the guide […]
Gero and other Roche Around de Rame
We arrived in France three weeks ago, ready to set the sat nav for wherever was sunny, and immediately made a beeline for the Durance Valley to take advantage of […]
French Poudinage
Moving on from the quartzite theme of the last post, it’s time to celebrate another of the diverse rock types on offer in the Durance: Conglomerate (or Poudinage as the […]
Quartzite Climbing… But not as you know it!
Quartzite is synonymous (at least for this Gogarth devotee) with the climbing on Holy Island. Others will think of Arapiles or (more unlikely!) of Kamouraska https://rockaroundtheworld.co.uk/2019/10/11/kamouraska-carling-dont-make-crags-but/ It’s a great rock […]
Paroi des Lys – Fiesta del Cinq Soup / Siza, TD-
Paroi des Lys is like a big brother to La Ponteil, looming above it and about twice the height. It’s remarkable that such a sizeable crag (routes up to 8 […]
Les Guions
This post starts with a few pics from another mission for Helen to enjoy leading routes she was only able to second when we visited with her broken ribs a […]
Aiguillette de Laus de Cervieres and Terre Rouge
After our Queyras jaunt we tootled down the far side of the Col de L’Izoard through the Cerveyrette valley, using the time to suss out some of the crags. Rounding […]
Valle de Claree
There’s a tonne of climbing to the north of Briancon which we hadn’t previously explored as it’s a 45mins drive from Roche de Rame and generally a bit higher altitude, […]
Casse de Prelles – Les Aiguilles
We’d visited the lower walls of these unusual quartzite crags last year, so this was a chance to check out the extraordinary-looking Sector Aiguilles. It’s a bit of a yomp […]
Clapeyto in the Queyras
Continuing our search for non-polished rock, we headed up into the Queyras mountains to Clapeyto, encouraged by the guidebook promise of the qualite du rocher. This gorgeous pre-alpine area is […]
Les Traverses & St Crepin – French Polish Before and After
We’ve been visiting France to climb for over 35 years (a terrifying thought in itself!) and can still conjure up a vague recollection of effortless smearing up seemingly blank slabs […]
Drive-by cragging en route to the Durance
After a year when RockAroundTheWorld morphed into RockAroundTheUK (much of it very enjoyable, it has to be said!) we’re finally back on the road! A quick Eurotunnel dash (very quiet […]
Upper Pen Trewyn – Sunshine by the Seaside
Llandudno looked like the best bet to escape the rain elsewhere in North Wales, and we woke up parked at the top of the Great Orme to find we’d finally […]
Tremadog – Cream, Vulcan and Falcon
A gloomy forecast across the UK, with occasional chinks of dryness had Jake and me heading for North Wales in hope rather than expectation. Even the usual safe bet of […]
Southern Scotland cragging – The Good, the Bad and the Baggy
The Old Man of Stoer was undoubtedly the highlight of our 10 day blast around Scotland Old Man of Stoer … and it was great to catch a glimpse of […]
Old Man of Stoer
One of “The Big Three Scottish Sea Stacks” and “arguably the finest” according to Gary Latter, The Old Man of Stoer has been a long-term goal of mine – I’d […]
Sron na Ciche, Skye
It’s over 30 years since we last stayed at the Glenbrittle Campsite, and the most obvious change is that it’s now 90% vans and motorhomes (so much for distant memories […]
Dallen’s Rock – a very handy microcrag
Craigallan, The Rucksack Club’s Scottish hut, is a fabulous base for exploring the finest mountain crags in Lochaber (and therefore Britain?) Strategically situated overlooking Loch Linnie, it’s just twenty minutes […]
Cloggy Revisited
Having polished off the Lakes section of Hard Rock over the Bank Holiday weekend, the ticking focus moved on to the remaining Welsh routes – Vember and Slanting Slab; both […]
Birthday Climb – North West Girdle, Almscliff
I usually try to grab a memorable climb to celebrate my birthday with. Sometimes these are epic / exotic https://rockaroundtheworld.co.uk/2019/09/01/outer-space-eldorado-canyon-and-a-memorable-birthday/ Often they’ve been at Gogarth https://rockaroundtheworld.co.uk/2017/09/01/flytrap-on-gogarth-north-stack-birthday-adventure/ Or involved a “tick” […]
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