Mike Owen's blog

Perfect Verdon souvenir

40 years ago today, Elaine and I arrived at the Gorges du Verdon for the very first time. It was our first ever climbing trip abroad and we'd made the long drive from Merseyside with Al and Alison Simpson, via a stop off at Fontainbleau to do some bouldering.

We quickly set up camp at the Camping Municipal and set off for a drive along La Route des Cretes to go and check out the cliffs. We stopped at all the belvederes to take in the impressive views. Not surprisingly, we were awe-inspired as we watched the climbers making their ways up the various routes on La Falaise de l'Escales, the biggest and most popular cliff in the gorge at that time.

Next day, after an early start, Elaine and I set off from Couloir Sampson along the Sentier Martel, heading for the classic multipitch Voie de la Demande. I'd recently broken into the E6 grade back in North Wales, so I assumed that La Demande would be straight forward, as it was theoretically much easier. However, it turned into a baptism by fire and we took all day! A combination of tricky route finding, climbing with trainers and water bottles attached to our harnesses, along with climbing in the intense afternoon sun meant that we were very slow. We had a total epic, especially in the chimneys at the top which were very strenuous and utterly terrifying. Furthermore, there was nobody around to hitch a lift back to the campsite, so we had to walk all the way back and arrived totally exhausted, well after most people had gone to bed! Neither of us slept well that night, we were far too worried about our car sitting in the car park at Couloir Sampson. Rick Newcombe gave me a lift to go and get it early the next morning; it was a great relief to find it still there, undamaged with all the windows intact.

After our epic on La Demande, Elaine and I decided that we'd had enough of climbing long routes, starting at the base and climbing all the way to the top of L'Escales. At the top of the cliff there were lots of one and two pitch routes, accessible by abseil, that kept us happy for a few days (eg Necronomicron and Ctulah), always after a leisurely breakfast (thanks to Rupert Hewson for collecting fresh baguettes and croissants every morning).

There are also lots of climbs that start from the various tree covered terraces part way up the cliff. However, the multiple abseils needed to get down are almost as famous (and harrowing) as the climbs! So, Al and I were very happy to complete the abseils down to the bottom of Jean-Claude Droyer's classis masterpiece Triomphe d'Eros without incident. (Sadly, the climb is defaced with red and white GR markings, presumably somebody egotistically implying that it's a path.) Everything went smoothly until the belay next to the famous graffiti "La concierges est dans la fissure, sonnez la", which was when a massive storm started. Luckily the timing was perfect for a change, we were completely sheltered and stayed dry. However, the next pitch was a long traverse right that led to a belay below the crux pitch, both were completely soaked and unclimbable. Neither of us wanted to abseil all the way down, and staying put was not a good idea as it was getting late by then. Al spotted a line of pegs and bolts that went up the dry overhanging wall leftwards above our belay, so he manfully set off (despite having no idea what grade it was) using a mixture of free and aid climbing, and got to the top without much fuss. It was a phenomenal lead in my opinion. Next day, we abbed back to the belay besides the doorbell and finished the route. Brilliant!

Joe Picalli inspired Elaine and I to go and climb the uber classic Dingomaniaque, which we both enjoyed without having an epic. Joe and I finally teamed up and had so much fun together on Toujours plus près.

Our visit coincided with the appearance of the book Opera Vertical (featuring Patrick Edlinger) in the shop in La Palud. It provided the perfect souvenir for our trip and would provide the inspiration for a return the following year to climb Surveiller et Punir. Joe, Elaine and I climbed a number of the routes on the roadside crag of Miroir du Fou and managed to succeed on Overcool Babados and Missing before it was time to start the long journey north.