If you missed the first couple of installments of our Big Trip Retrospective, you can follow our blast around Eastern Europe and Scandinavia here: https://rockaroundtheworld.co.uk/2020/06/22/rockaroundtheworld-retrospective-the-big-trip-part-1-around-the-baltic-in-80-days/ and our trip across the […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
We’ve been firm fans of Oltre Finale (which translates as “beyond” Finale) for a number of years now, but had written off its more famous and long-standing neighbor as being […]
With so much climbing I’ve got into a bit of a “back-blog” so here’s a quick round up of the other crags we visited in the Aosta Valley: Corno di […]
A message from Will, fresh back from Leonidio, prompted a further exploration of the crags further up the Valgrisenche. He and a Cham team were planning a foray through the […]
No, we haven’t packed big boots and crampons for this trip. The Aosta guide is a huge tome, organised into sections according to area, and the valleys leading up to […]
The Aosta Valley runs for almost 100km from just north of our campsite (Camping Mombarone) … up to Courmayeur and the Mont Blanc tunnel. There’s a tonne of rock (140 […]
We’re taking advantage of a weather window to explore the climbing around Grand Paradiso and the Aosta Valley, starting in the lower valley whilst things perk up and dry out […]
Alex, the first named storm of the year, was forecasted to dump about 6 inches of the wet stuff on Val Penneveire on Friday, threatening to put a major dampener […]
With Jake and Leah having a rest day, we took the opportunity to explore the top end of Val Penneveire. Rocca dell’Arma sits at around 1,400m near Colle di Carpauna […]
A couple of kilometres further up the Pennavaire valley from Colletta, these three crags line the sunny south-facing flank. They’re only a few hundred metres from the road, but two […]
A number of factors conspired to see us leaving Germany and heading into Italy (dashing through Switzerland en route without a “Transit Stop” to avoid falling foul of any quarantine […]
Unlike many of the other climbing areas we’ve visited in Southern Germany, the crags are pretty obvious in Donautal (or the Danube Valley) – there are major High Tor sized […]
Blautal is another extensive area of crags in southern Germany, in the Schwabisch Alps, near Ulm. Despite the name, it’s neither blue nor very obviously a valley, with rolling green […]
Neues Tiefenbach is another impressive crag hidden from view, this time above a picture-postcard chapel framed by distant Alps. Just a few hundred metres from the van you can just […]
French climbers have a name for conglomerate: Poudinage vividly captures the random collection of glued-together cobbles, stirred together in ancient rivers or perhaps in some Giant’s mixing bowl. If Spain […]
