Return to La Desfiladero de La Hermida and the Celebrity Climbers Ticklist

It all started with a message from Maxime Clerc (1). You see, he's a local climber who is a teacher with the same holidays as us, so he usually gets in touch to try and tempt us to climb wherever he is. Last year it was La Ramirole; we didn't take him up on his offer, partly because Maxime climbs so much harder than us and we thought he wouldn't really like to climb with us punters. However, this year he was in La Hermida, in Cantabria (Northern Spain) which we visited 2 years ago and had such a good time that we always wanted to go back again sometime.

The same day there was a new "Destinations" article on UK Climbing titled "Into The Valleys" all about the climbing in Asturias and Cantabria. We got in touch with Richie Patterson (2), author of the excellent "Roca Verde" topo and we were hooked by his enthusiasm (especially after watching the video of James Pearson on an amazing double tufa rail called "Dimensiones Paralelas" at the reasonable grade of 7c+). We headed off on the long drive west.....

We met up with Maxime. He took us to a newly developed cave called Cueva Hermida where he was trying an 8b+. The climbing there was, unfortunately, too hard for Elaine, but I managed to do two really good 7c's. Maxime had 3 good goes but had to leave for Onate without doing the 8b+.

Hatori Hanza (7c) at Cueva Hermida.

Hatori Hanza again.

Maxime Clerc warming up on the 8a version of Hatori Hanza.

Maxime on El hombre que vendis el mundo, 8b+ (all photos by Elaine).

Next day we went to another newish crag called El Infierno where we got shut down by the warm ups! Elaine found Malas Pulgas tough and intimidating, whilst I fell off Panificadora, expecting a nice 7a+, which actually proved to be wrongly graded (it is in fact a tough and run out 7b+). The high light of the day was bumping into an old friend from Granada called Javier Morales (3). We first met him in Yorkshire in 1990 with photographer David Munilla (he did things like The Oak way back then in the middle of summer with minimum fuss!). We have bumped into him many times at El Chorro and even in the Gorges du Tarn over the years, he is still climbing really hard. Also there that day was Mariona Marti (4), who we already knew from a previous visit to Onate.

Next on our list was the immense cave high up the hillside opposite Cicera called Cueva Carcalosa where we got stuck into La Deriva (7a+) and the fore mentioned 40 metre classic Dimensiones Paralelas. Elaine made good progress on the former and I should have finished the latter in a day, however I fell off high up and then twice much lower down like the punter I am. It was worth the long walk next day to finish the job, despite really sore skin. It felt awesome to climb such a king line, it was even better than it looked in the video. We also got to tick off two really big names: local equipper Alberto Hontavilla (5) and Dani Andrada (6). By the way, Iker Pou (7) spent a couple of nights next to us where we were parked up. Just saying!!

On the send train: the superb Dimensiones Paralelas (7c+) at Cueva Carcalosa.

Dimensiones Paralelas again (both photos by Richie Patterson on Elaine's camera).

The immense Cueva Carcalosa. It's massive!

Local equipper Alberto Hontevilla climbing the mega tufa Polvo en los osos (7b).

Richie Patterson climbing La Deriva (7a+). Photos by Elaine.

We continued having fun going to different crags and climbing some amazing tufas and we moved onto an excellent and friendly campsite (La Isla at Turieno, near Potes). Ruff was so happy when we were joined by her favourite uncle and auntie, Dave Cross (8) and Rhian Cross (9). Pete Chadwick (10) arrived pretty soon thereafter, ensuring that he had us all splitting our sides laughing at his jokes and stories from his "Porky and Tonks" scrapbook, even if we'd heard them before....... erm, lots of times! Later additions to the team were super stars Neil Mawson (11) and Tanya "Traverse of the Gods" Meredith (12). Brief appearances were made by Jonny Garside and his wife Becky and also Marina from Chulilla.

Rhian celebrating a special birthday.

Dave Cross on the challenging Hellboy, 7a+.

Dave on Hellboy again.

Awesome Neil Mawson, Balambambu (7c) on sight of course.

Neil Mawson climbing El Algoritmo Wallmann (8a).

El Algoritmo Wallmann (8a) 2nd go for baldy, not bad!

Approaching the crux of El Algoritmo Wallmann on the send. Above photos by Elaine.

Elaine approaching the crux of Chachimente, a superb 7b at El Infierno (photo by Dave Cross).

Back to the crag and the real purpose of the trip: ticking. El Infierno continued to feature well (Adam Pustelnik (13) ticked, along with Estraguena (nice, soft grades or what?). A day at Cicera proved too hot for climbing but very good for ticking a plethora of celebs: Javier (again, so doesn't count twice), Olivier Fourbet (14), Yann Ghesqiuers (15), Jean-Luc Jeunet (16), St Leger equipper par excellence Franck Vilpini (17) and I think (though I'm not 100% sure) Alizee Dufresse (18). I should add here that, once we'd given up trying to climb, the Chadster and I watched/drooled over a lovely young scantily dressed grimpeuse from Chambery who made an 8b look very easy on her 2nd time up (please don't hit me again Elaine!).

Asturcantabra, 7c+ on sight for Baldy (photo by Elaine).

Tufa heaven on 47 Ronin (8a), 1st red point for baldy. 

Pete Chadwick starting up Veneno Azul (8a).

Where it starts getting hard, Veneno Azul (8a).

Cueva Carcalosa from Cicera, yes you do have to walk all the way up that hill!

Stars at Cicera, the climbs are 8a+ and 8b.

After more than 3 weeks in La Hermida we decided to head to Teverga after promising reports from Neil and Tanya, despite our sentiments after going there last year. We were woken in the middle of the night by a huge horse with a blond mane, rubbing against the side of the van and Pete's car. It was hilarious watching the Chadster trying to shoo it away from inside his hearse! I can't repeat the rest of the story here....

Jonny, Becky, Bald Punter, The Chadster, The Boss, Big guns Tanya and Awesome Mawson.

What do you do on a rest day? Plan how you're going to get better, of course! (photo by Elaine).

Flipping heck, I'd best show some interest, my dad's climbing again (photo by Elaine).

Typical grain store in Gradura, held up on 4 posts. The large flat rocks are to stop mice climbing up (photo by Pete Chadwick on Elaine's camera).

The Chadster has been training hard these last few years!

Next day proved too much: hot and sweaty at the not very impressive cave of El Covachon, but we did meet up with Pierre "Kairn/Fanatic Climber" Delas (19) and Mr Greenspits himself Antonin Rhode (20) slowed down by a broken heel but climbing well nonetheless.

Fanatic Climber warming up on Espolon Marley (7b+) at the over-rated El Covachon.

Conclusion: an awesome 4 weeks "ticking" and having great fun with an ace bunch of friends; great climbing with favourable summer temps. Next July we'll be back.

Climbing in the Verdon Gorge and at Mollans sur Ouveze

I have a very low opinion of people who work in certain professions, for example politicians and French taxi drivers. Estate agents also come in this category, especially les agences immobilieres Francaises (sorry, but I can't put in the accents with my qwerty key pad). Long story short: we've been trying to sell our house since the beginning of the year. Unfortunately its a bad time to be selling a house right now; lots of people are looking but very few are actually buying. Basically the estate agents have done sweet FA. Elaine's advert on leboncoin is much better than any of theirs.

Why are we trying to sell our house? We're ready for the next chapter in our lives which involves finishing teaching and spending more time travelling, climbing and having fun together doing what we want to do when we want to do it. We are most definitely not fed up of our jobs or the amazing school where we work, it's just that we're ready for a change. However, no job means no salary and that means we can't afford to keep our house. So we need to move to a cheaper part of France. We're pretty sad about that because we love it here and we have so many fantastic friends and we have so many great memories from the seventeen years we've been here. Top of the list of places to move to is the Vaison/Buis area (lots of climbing, great scenery, lovely climate despite the mistral and excellent wine). However, I'd be happy to be closer to the Verdon at the moment. We assumed that we'd have sold our house by now and that we'd be finishing school this summer. It's not going to happen. That's just the way it is. So we'll be back at school in September and moving whenever the house is sold....

Meanwhile, we've been active on the crags. During the Easter hols we were at Mollans and we have spent the recent long weekends at Chasteuil and Petit Eycharme, in the Verdon. We'd forgotten how beautiful it is there; the scenery is simply stunning and the place invokes fantastic memories from previous visits with some wonderful friends over the years (there's definitely going to be a future blog on that one).

One last thing before I finish. If you're a climber and you haven't read Andy Pollitt's autobiography "Punk in the gym" do so. It is a fantastic read. Andy's writing style is very honest and very funny and he tells it just how it was in the 80's and early 90's. He asked me to write a few words and it turns out that he put it in as the foreword. I'm deeply honoured. Thanks Andy.

Profil en aiguille, 7b+, Mollans

My rope and draws in Classe pieds, 8a, Mollans 

Petit Eycharme, another awesome French crag and there's nobody there. 

Looking across the Gorge to Petit Eycharme from Pantin du Neant

By far the best of the recent bunch of climbing autobiographies

Relaxing at Petit Eycharme

In the Dentelles last February

A nice place to spend the night at Chasteuil in the Verdon

Wild West Tour 1993, Part 5

Since my last post nearly (3 months ago) we've been lucky enough to climb outdoors every weekend, apart from a couple of weeks ago (and that wasn't anything to do with bad weather - we both had colds). The weather here has been really good with lots of sunshine and the crags have been completely dry. Amazing conditions on the Cote d'Azur for sure.

So we've been ticking over; climbing at Val de Grimpe and on our board downstairs, also we've done some core workouts and some weights and generally keeping fit. Neither of us has found a project to get stuck into but we've had lots of fun ticking easier stuff at places like Chouchou Place, La Decharge, Seranon, Le Brumisateur and Greolieres. Most of the time we've been able to avoid the crowds and enjoy the peace and quiet in the mountains.

However, some super motivated Australian friends of ours (who climb and travel even more than us!) have been climbing at Red Rocks in Nevada, USA. This got me thinking and I realised that I hadn't written the final part of our Wild West Tour from 1993. So, here goes.....

After such a fantastic time with Tom and Sondra climbing at Jailhouse and Yosemite, we headed south to climb at Owen's River Gorge for a couple of days and, of course, to do some bouldering at the soon to become "spot a la mode": Bishop. Then we headed towards the desert. We weren't sure if we were going to Joshua Tree or Red Rocks. A decision was made when we found out that Liam Gartside (a friend from a trip to the Verdon in 1983) was staying in a place called Mesquite, near Virgin River Gorge (about 80 miles from Las Vegas). Liam's friends very kindly told us to "come on over". 

We used to drive all the way to Red Rocks and drive back each day, which was a round trip of almost 200 miles, but it was worth it for the fantastic company (not to mention all the ice cream and pizza!). Whilst there we met up again with Pete and Cara Blackburn, who we skied with at Heavenly whilst staying at TM's. They'd been surfing down in Baja California and were keen to do some climbing for a change. (They both studied at I M Marsh with Elaine.) We also had some great days at VRG. Well, I say great but Elaine would disagree very strongly, climbing in the shade in late November and early December was never her idea of having fun. Of course I feel the same way myself these days, but at the time I was really keen to climb some of the great routes there. Not surprisingly we met up with super keen new router Randy Leavitt, who would drive all the way from San Diego each weekend.

Climbing at Red Rocks was a nice change from the volcanic tuff, limestone, granite and basalt crags that we'd climbed on up until then. Whilst the crags that we climbed on were pretty small, the rock was nice and rough being sandstone, so the friction was ace, you could almost climb just using your feet. There was one typical American "novelty" that used to bug us at the end of each day. The park ranger would come with his loudhailer and tell us all to "get the hell out of the place" before they closed the park for the night! There was some panicked climbing, if we weren't quite finished on time followed by a frantic jog to the car to make sure we weren't locked in for the night.

One rest day we visited the Grand Canyon and the Hoover dam. Another time, Liam's friend scared the shit out of me by taking me on a wild drive, tearing around the sand dunes in his dune buggy. We even went skeet (clay pigeon) shooting. We were both horrified to see the selection of guns when we went to hire the rifles and get the ammo. You could come out of the general store armed just like Arnie in Terminator with a pump action shotgun AND a 6 pack of beer. Only in America......

All too soon, it was almost Christmas and we had to head back north to Pete and Sandra's place in Portland and catch a flight back home. Before we left we took the car back to Pete's friend at the garage where we bought it (with an extra 10 000 miles on the clock in the 4 months we'd had it). He bought it back off us for 600$, which was the same price we bought it for in the first place. Pete also gave me a letter addressed to me. It was from the insurance company and it contained a refund of my insurance premium because I'd not taken the Oregon drivers test! Result! Ok, I hadn't been technically insured during our long journey but I did have the paper work in case I got stopped by the smokies. (I didn't know that was going to happen. Honest, but it was a nice surprise.)

The last night before flying home, Pete took us down to the climbing "gym". Lots of folks were keen to hear where we'd been to and many asked which was our favourite place or crag. I can remember at the time, we both said "Yosemite". However, in reality, it wasn't an easy question to answer as we'd been to so many amazing locations, climbed in so many beautiful places and met so many wonderful people (many of which we're still in touch with today, well over 20 years later). Even now, I can still remember so much about that trip. It was absolutely out of this world. I'd like to thank everybody who helped us have such a life changing experience, especially Pete Kirton and Sandra, Marla Gibson, Tom and Sondra Herbert, Steve Petro and Lisa Gnade, TM Herbert, and finally Liam's friends in Mesquite (who prefer to be anonymous). Thank you all so much for your friendship and help along the way.

Warm up at Red Rocks (hat supplied by Pete Gomersall/Troll)

Puffing the cheeks on The Sissy Traverse (8a)

Pete and Cara at Red Rocks

The one everybody goes to Red Rocks for: The Gift (7c)

Another nice warm up

DMM sponsored bald person making a quick ascent of The Ascent of Man (8a) at VRG

Releasing the skeets, Elaine getting in some target practice.....

Elaine warming up on Yaack Crack

Elaine, Baldy, Liam's friends, Cara and Pete Blackburn

The moustache and the dune buggy

L to R: John Williams, moustache, sorry can't remember, Sondra Herbert, Krister Williams and Tom Herbert (whilst we were climbing at Jailhouse Rock)

Elaine, Cara and the moustache. Scruffy climbers skiing at Heavenly

Back at Portland, Pete Kirton and Sandra. Can you spot who's on the TV?

Heading north from Mesquite. "Winter is coming".

Super Tango photo shoot and La Croix

Found an email in my junk mail from Roman Bayon with those photos of Super Tango at Deverse Satanique, here in the beautiful Gorges du Loup.

Awesome tufa action on Super Tango (8a+) here in Les Gorges du Loup (photo by Roman Bayon)

At the strenuous "rest" on Super Tango (photo by Roman Bayon)

Just spent a week at one of our favourite crags, La Croix in the Tarn et Garonne department. The climbs are very long (up to 50 metres), on fantastic tufas and the walk in is about a minute! The new Anaconda secteur offers more fingery and sunnier climbing which makes a nice change. We had fantastic, warm weather and the cliff was totally dry. Perfect!

Yannick on the superb "Anaconda" (8a) at La Croix

It was nice to settle the score on another of my Mesa Verde bogey routes before we left for La Croix, Petit Poucet has been added to the tick list (at last!). Back to work tomorrow....

To quote Porky "It's nice to have a little bit of success".

It's weird how things can come together when you're least expecting things to happen. For most of this year I've been climbing with "golfer's elbow" and it's been really painful at times. Luckily, I have managed to climb but I haven't been able to push myself hard. Since being back home, there have been more rest days and it's been possible to do some quality training (including working on those important antagonistic muscles). The elbow is slowly improving.

Elaine's injection has been very successful and she's feeling no pain in her finger anymore, so we've been getting outs lots and making the most of the cooler temps and quiet crags. Three weeks ago I had two fantastic back to back days. On the Wednesday I set off on my latest project, a great 8a+ tufa at a secret spot, which I'd tried the previous weekend (expecting to have another dogging session)). There was no pressure, amazingly it just happened and I just kept climbing all the way to the chain. The next day I was back with Stephane Quefelec and exactly the same happened with a 7c+ I'd worked a couple of weeks previously. It made such a nice change to have a couple of no-falls days and just climb. It was amazing to just turn up and do both climbs, as they felt utterly desperate when I was dogging them. Thanks to the equippers for creating such beautiful routes, you know who you are.

After that it seemed a good idea to revisit Deverse and try Supertango again. This is a short but tough 8a+ (there are easier 8b's than this one!) which climbs two parallel tufas up a wildly steep overhanging wall. I last tried the climb eight years ago and could hardly move on it, eventually I gave up when I aggravated a knee ligament and left it. This time all was going well (I was very inspired by a local friend, Seb Mueller, who'd done it last year). Petr gave me great beta and Roman even took some photos (which I've yet to see). However, last Wednesday I felt the same ligament (the MCL) strain whilst doing a big drop knee. Instinctively, I let go and saved the ligament from tearing. The sensible thing has been to leave the climb alone, yet again, rather than risk a serious injury which would need ages to recover. So, sadly Supertango hasn't been ticked off the list!

A couple of days icing, resting and taking ibuprofen and we were out again at the weekend. Saturday at Mesa Verde falling off every move on one of my bogey routes, Pizza Party, a tough bouldery 7c. I left my draws in over night. Next morning Elaine wanted to go to Jurassic Park, so we had a good work out and I managed my favourite 8a+ again (that's 42 times now!). Cayenne and Shakti were too wet so we headed down to Mesa Verde to get my draws, as it was going to rain for the next couple of days. We arrived at the crag at 18h 27 and there was nobody there, all the other climbers had all gone home by then. There was just enough time for one go before it got dark. I was expecting to fall low down and then dog up to get the gear out but it just happened. The start went perfectly and I got to the shake out below the bouldery finish feeling fresh. After a couple of minutes of positive mental rehearsal (thanks to Hugh Mantle) there was much whooping after sticking the crux dyno. I've never been so happy to get a hold as that one! So, an old score has been finally settled. Result!

La Rentrée

Well it's business as usual now we're back home. Our year's sabbatical is finished but we've got so many wonderful memories. We're back at work but at least the Cali is getting fixed (it's been at the garage almost 2 weeks now and it's going to cost a lot!).

Being back home means we get to climb tufas again, yippee! We seem to have spent a lot of time climbing on fingery crags this summer, so it's nice to get back on bigger holds and on steeper routes.

We've been going to La Sanctuaire (which is a really nice cliff equipped by Guillaume Ciais in the Vesubie valley), Le Parcour de Sante (equipped by Alex Mege and Aurel Gelot up at Gourdon) and a secret spot somewhere along the CENSORED. Lots of great routes ticked up to 7c+ (including a possible 1st ascent of a 7c+ at La Sanctuaire, as Guillaume reckoned nobody had done his project).

Psyched for climbing locally at the moment as there's still lots to do. The only problem is Elaine's finger has started playing up again. She's going for another injection next Monday, so hopefully it'll be better soon and she can get cragging again.

Elaine climbing Shivas se regale, 7a at La Sanctuaire.

Pippa climbing Princesse 10 tetes, 6c+ at La Sanctuaire.

Jean-Luc climbing Les filles de Las Vegas, 7b+ at La Sanctuaire

Roman climbing Guere Sainte, 7b at La Sanctuaire

Amazing views in Les Alpes Maritimes

Hot Ruff at le Parcour de sante

Up and down and round and round in the Dolomites

Funny how the choices we make affect our lives so much. Take this example from the awesome summer of 1976.

One of my regular climbing partners way back then was Pete White. He was so much older and much more grown up than me, or so I thought at the time! He was 23, whilst I was a mere 18. He had a serious job as a maths teacher, whilst I was working on a building site. However, Pete had a car, whilst I hadn't even had a driving lesson, let alone passed my driving test. That summer we were on fire, working our way through the routes in The Pass and Cloggy and we were keen to try anything. We set our sights on going to The Dolomites, in Italy, where we intended to climb on the famous Tre Cima di Lavaredo. I even bought the Dolomites East guide book to get us really psyched. Then for some reason that I can no longer remember, we decided to go to ...... The Lake District instead! OK, don't get me wrong, there are some lovely climbs in The Lakes but the place doesn't compare with The Dollies.

Pete White at Gimmer Crag, July 1976, where we did Kipling Groove (so called because it used to be ruddy'ard)

Could you imagine this bloke teaching your children Mathematics?

Anyway, we bimbled around carrying my copy of "Hard Rock" as our guide book and ticked off some of the classics. We had a right jolly time camping in Langdale and drinking beer in the famous "Old Dungeon Ghyll" after cragging. One particular day (after we'd just ticked off North Crag Eliminate) we discovered the Scout Crag boulders and set about working our way through the many problems. Being as it was summer (and 1976 was an amazing one) we were topless and strutting our stuff. (Is that a resounding "Yuk" I can hear someone say?) I was 110% focused on climbing and didn't notice, but Pete had a 6th sense when it came to the opposite sex. Low and behold, we were being watched by two pretty young ladies (though they later claimed they were watching a "fit looking" instructor teaching some kids how to abseil). It didn't take Pete long to get into his chat up lines and we found out that they were called Elaine and Suzanne. They had just done their first climbs that day and just so happened to be at the crag after their climbing partners had left. We got chatting and they asked us all sorts of questions about climbing. We drove off in Pete's Triumph Spitfire, feeling very chuffed with ourselves, as we'd sort of made arrangements to meet up for a drink later on. Meanwhile, Elaine and Suzanne reported back to the two blokes that they'd climbed with that day that they'd met a couple of blokes who climb "extreme". These two other blokes were obviously very unimpressed and said "No way! They don't climb extreme".

Anyway, Pete and I didn't make it to The Dolomites, but I did meet my future wife. Elaine made steady progress and we have been climbing together non stop since then. (I hardly ever climbed with Pete as a result, sorry mate.) Also, that was the first time I met Mickey J (legendary Lancs climber and one of the other blokes along with his brother Ian!).

Now, fast forward 39 years. Elaine and I have just been to The Dolomites armed with our copy of the excellent new Dolomites Rockfax by James Rushforth. We didn't do any of the famous multi pitch routes that Pete and I had intended on doing so long ago (having a dog is such a good excuse to get out of that mullarky). We visited some of the best sport climbing crags and we were amazed by the stunning scenery. We also got to meet up with Dave and Rhian Cross and her parents, both of whom are still enjoying travelling and climbing in their seventies. (Rhian's father, Barry Webb, is famous for his climb called "Gael" on Cloggy, which he climbed in the sixties, and his appearance in Crew and Soper's compelling read "The Black Cliff".) However, we weren't impressed with how expensive everything is there (eg. the access road for the Tre Cima is a toll road, you have to pay 36 euros in a camper van and a brown loaf costs around 3.5 euros!!). It's so hard to find anywhere decent to buy food, plus you have to pay to park when you do find a shop! The campsites are mega expensive but we were able to camp wild in some beautiful places, no problem. The cheapest campsite we found was at Malga Ciapela, where we paid 32 euros just for one night. It rained or stormed heavily everyday at some point and we had to have the roof down on the Cali every night. Also, we've had enough of negotiating so many hair pin bends and slogging the Cali in 2nd and 3rd gear, as we drove up to high cols and down into deep valleys to get to different crags. On the plus side however, the crags are quiet (apart from Eiszeit), the routes are not polished, the crags dry quickly and the temperature was perfect for summer (between 15 and 20 degrees C). Whilst the climbing is generally very enjoyable, the crags are not very impressive and the style is always fingery and technical. It was great fun doing lots of on sighting but I have to say,  I didn't see anything that I wanted to project (apart from Fottiti at Eiszeit, which was always occupied).

Ruff training Uncle Dave and Auntie Rhian again!

Barry Webb in "The Black Cliff" (Crew and Soper's compelling book about Cloggy, published in 1971).

Right then, we've been there, ticked that box and had a good time but we're glad to be back home for a couple of days. We still have a month of our sabbatical left and there's still lots of fun to come! Bring it on.

A rare sunny breakfast near Saas Dlacia.

Come on, hurry up I'm ready!

Dave Cross climbing Mittersteiner, 7b+, at Eiszeit.

Climbers on Paprika (7c+) and Fottiti (8a) at Eiszeit, the day before a mega storm caused a huge waterfall over the top of the crag!

Unusual cairn at Saleras, girls looking super cool.

Dave Cross climbing Zinnentraining (7b) at Salares.

The view driving down from Passo Pordoi, so many chuffing bends!

The closest we got to the Tre Cima due to unreliable weather and too many people. Seen from the Val di Landro.