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 […]
Tag Archives: Durance
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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