Another rainy Thursday....

It's surprising how quickly the time passes (even when the weather's not good enough to get out on the rock!). Since my last post, 2 weeks ago, Robin and I managed to get out only once. We had a great day at Chouchou Place last Thursday. It felt like spring had arrived as it was warm and sunny. Since then it's been raining more or less every day and there seems to be no end in sight! (Still, it's not as bad as the UK weather at the moment.)

So, the climbing walls are eating into our bank account big time. Imagine my surprise bumping into a bloke I used to teach 12 years ago at Art'bloc yesterday! Eugen wasn't really motivated in school, though he was an interesting and very respectful teenager. He's here on holiday, so I'm going to meet up with him for another session there today. So I hope to find out how he got involved in climbing. I do remember he was into martial arts and was very athletic. He blew my mind when he did a back somersault from the top of a 9m cliff into the river, during a break whilst canoeing. Boy, I was so impressed and I'm really chuffed that he's got into climbing.

I managed to find and scan some old slides of our original climbing board back in St Helens from around 1992. We added loads of holds later on and it became quite popular with  local climbers Pete Chadwick, Ewan McCallum and Steve Tonks. A regular visitor was Lancs power house John Gaskins and even Tony Mitchell put in a couple of appearances.

Oats and bouldering

I'm just letting my "Quaker Oats" settle. They make a nice start to the day with honey and ground cinnamon, when I'm not working. So, I've booted up my laptop and found an email from Atout Roc (the local climbing club that I donated my earnings from Rockfax a couple of years ago) with an up to date topo of Chouchou Place (the current spot a la mode). Great; it looks like there's still more to go back for, if and when the weather improves long enough.

At the moment the sun is out, but I've checked the forecast again and they're still saying rain later on. So, Robin and I have a rdv for Art'bloc this afternoon. Should be a tough session, as my body aches from yesterday's session at Val de grimpe! Plus, my ribs/intercostal muscles are still really sore from my ski accident 3 weeks ago! It's important to get the excuses out ready...

Talking about indoor bouldering, I think I've got some old photos of our board in St Helens. I'll trawl the collection and see what I can post.

I could only find some outdoor bouldering shots from the 90's. See if you can identify any. Meanwhile, I'll be thinking of you all again working away today. Allez, ciao!

January and February 2013

The fingery lower section of Chouchou Place, 7c. Photo by Julien/Voyages a la verticale.

It's Thursday again (the only day I get to lie in whilst Elaine takes Scamp for a walk). It's also the day that Not-so-fatman and Robin get together and have the difficult task of going out climbing on the fabulous Cote d'Azur crags. I know, it's a tough life! However, unfortunately it's been raining for a couple of days now and today is shaping up the same way. Time for me to catch up, as it's been a while since my last blog.

Mike, Elaine, Scamp, Marie-Jo, Gerard and Marc at Chouchou Place (photo by Julien/Voyages a la verticale)

Elaine and Scamp at Greolieres in January

Chouchou Place, 7c (photo by Julien/Voyages a la verticale)

Since the new year, the weather has been very unsettled. Typically the pattern has been for an unsettled week with periods of heavy rain followed by a week or two of good weather, during which it has been possible to climb on the dry crags (ie. mostly those without tufas). Then the rain has returned again. It's been pretty frustrating for all the keen climbers down here. Most of us have been ticking over, occasionally snatching some good routes and keeping fit at Art'Bloc and Val de Grimpe.

Elaine and Scamp on the way to Chouchou Place in February

Robin warming up on a 6c at Chouchou Place in the February sun

The whole place to ourselves. How cool is that?

Elaine still looking good in SOS pants at Isola

Elaine and I have even been skiing and making the most of the brilliant conditions. We've had a couple of great days at Isola 2000 (where there was almost 3m of snow) and a couple of superb days at Valberg last weekend. Yours truly had a nasty wipe out at Isola, cutting my head (5 stitches needed) and covering the piste with lots of the red stuff. The irony was that the day before I had a helmet in my hand at Decathlon but decided not to buy it. Guess what was the next thing we bought?

I'm made up that I've remembered how to upload photos! And I'm psyched for some bouldering this afternoon with Marie-Jo, Julien and Robin whilst the rest of you folks are keeping the world turning! See ya!

Wet Monday afternoon

Doom, 7c at Castillon.

Scamp and I have just got back home after our walk up the hill behind our house. It was pretty cold out there - I had to put a fleece over my T shirt and hoodie! However, what I should have put on was a waterproof. From the summit, I could see that it was raining over Roquefort les Pins and, on the way down, it caught us about 15 minutes from home and we got pretty wet. Still, it could have been much worse. Now the fire is roaring away and a very happy, tired dog is sleeping underneath and I've got a mug of Twinings Earl Grey. We're both drying out nicely.

Not-so-Fatman and Robin have been out cragging. They were seen having a merry old time at Castillon last week. On Thursday, N-s-F was chuffed to do a 7c he hadn't done before called Ultimate Mort de Faim, which does all of Starlette then follows tufas and a groove to the top of the crag after 30 metres of very varied climbing. On Saturday, they both hauled themselves up the first part of Mortal Kombat, a tough, powerful 7c+. N-s-F had already done the full version at 8b in 2005 (an event he happily relives most days) but it was the first time for his trusty side kick, Robin. They then moved onto Doom (down graded to hard 7c), the route just to the left of Mortal. (N-s-F did this with "steady" Eddie Martinez way back in 1998, before he moved down here with lovely wife and Merlin.) They both huffed and puffed, with arms that were already feeling tired. Unfortunately, it was too much for the young Robin (who apparently was heard to complain about the age difference as N-s-F reached the belay, after a real fight up the damp tufa in the middle!).


Whilst the boys were out battling with the real thing, Elaine went to Val de Grimpe (a fantastic bouldering wall nearby, opened up by Alex Chabot) and had an equally merry time by all accounts with no problems experienced with her injured finger. We will be doing more of the same at Art'Bloc this Wednesday afternoon (shame Val de Grimpe doesn't open until 6pm!!).

Yesterday was cold and overcast and Liverpool were not up to beating Man Utd. Just when will they be able to knock Fergie and Man U off the perch that used to be Liverppool's?

Oh well, I should drag myself downstairs and do some bouldering in the cave. See ya.

Happy new year everybody

It's a damp, cold day here in Le Rouret, very un-French and more like typical UK weather. Still, it doesn't matter as my body needs a rest after climbing the last six days.

The last month has been colder (not surprising for December, I know) and I caught a pretty bad cold at school. I still haven't shaken it off, so the climbing has suffered. We spent some time bouldering at Art'bloc and Valle de grimpe, but hardly any time outdoors. With the holidays arriving, we were keen to get away in the Cali but didn't want to make the usual long drive to Catalunya. So, we decided to head to Valle Pennavaire (Castell Bianco) near Albenga an hour and a half away in Italy. Unfortunately, the sun didn't follow us and the crags were very wet, so we returned home for Christmas after enduring two damp and cold days at Terminal.

After Christmas dinner, we were wondering where to go next. Elaine came up with a great idea to go to the crags near Toulon. Immediately I was transported back in time, remembering the long falls off En un combat douteux at Cimai (whilst putting the clips in for Ian Vickers, who refused to watch me so that he could do it onsight!). Patrick Edlinger gave me some great beta for the last section, that enabled me to redpoint the same day Ian did Treblinka Direct. That was a very cold day in March, 1996 and it was the last time I had been climbing near Toulon.

So, we headed off in the Cali and were climbing in the sun at Coudon, about two hours after leaving home. Brilliant! Elaine was happy to do some easy 6a's to test her finger and I was happy with just onsighting up to 7a+ (not easy on match stick edges on vertical walls, just like in the 80's!). After two days we moved on to Baou des quatre oures and found the climbing much more friendly (i.e. steeper and with bigger holds) at secteurs Cayenne and Minarets (ticking away at the routes in the excellent Cote d'Azur Rockfax). We did loads of brilliant, long routes from 5+ up to 7b+ and most of the time we had the crag to ourselves. We headed home last night for a well earned rest, as the forecast was for rain today.

It really feels like winter here now, the temperature downstairs in our "cave" has dropped to 11 degrees and I had to light the fire at mid day. Snow was forecasted today but so far hasn't arrived.

2012 was not a year that we'll remember with great affection in years to come, but we do have some fond memories that have made us very happy and put big smiles on our faces. We're hoping to have lots more happy times in 2013. And of course, I'd like to wish all of you all the best for the coming year, great health and hope you realise your dreams.

Funny how things go sometimes.

Funny how things go sometimes. You can spend ages trying to get fit again, trying and always falling off stuff and feeling like you're not getting anywhere. Then one day everything clicks into place; you know you're on form and the climbs suddenly feel easy when you do them.

That's what's been happening since taking up what my old mate Phil Davidson was doing 30 years ago! Yes, I've stopped eating any old rubbish, ie. no processed food, no sugar and low on the carbs. This has meant oat bran and natural yoghurt for breakfast, plenty of fruit and ryvita style biscuits during the day and salad without bread in the evening and definitely no beer. In just 4 weeks I've lost 6kg and I'm feeling great!

Anyway, in the last 3 days I managed several 7a/b's, 2 7b+ onsights, almost a bouldery 7c onsight (so 1st go redpoint) and redpointed 2 8a's. Brilliant!

We've also been going down to Art'Bloc on Wednesday afternoons, as the days are too short to get out after work now. There are so many great problems to do. Just as well, as we'll be spending more time there as the forecast is not good for the rest of the week. Let's see what Thursday and the weekend bring.

Sponge Bob Square Pants and the Monsoon.

Earlier this year, I met up with a couple of great mates (from my previous life back in cold, wet Britain) at Ceuse. As usual, I had to make sure I had my thick skin on, as Ewan and Steve both have a wicked sense of humour. Anyway, Steve very quickly spotted the cheap jeans that I was climbing in and proceeded to hurl abuse my way. (At 6 euros a pair from Carrefour they are great value and they're brilliant for kneebars; they don't get holes first time the knee goes behind a tufa and you don't need to faff about with kneepads either.) As the banter developed, he dealt the killer punch line (after I had let slip that they were 30" waist and 30" leg). Since then, I have had to get used to the nickname of "Sponge Bob Square Pants"!!!

Erm, changing the subject quickly. Since the last entry, we have had an awful lot of rain down here. So much that most of the crags are now very wet and will take a long time to dry. The rain came in earnest during the 1/2 term holiday of course and at the weekends as well. How typical is that? So, Fatman and Robin haven't been back to Peillon, which will definitely be dripping. Crags in the Gorges du Loup are also very wet too.

We did get to Italy for a couple of nice days as well as to "Alcatraz". Alcatraz is a fairly new crag (equipped by the mega keen Olivier Germain) which has some classic routes, that don't seep much, overlooking Monaco. It was really encouraging to do the brilliant "Mont Fantasme" (7c+) in a day. 

Changing the subject again. Elaine is now climbing again. We've been to the local bouldering walls a couple of times. She is taking it easy of course, but her finger seems to be getting better. Great news indeed.

Another positive: Liverpool have just equalised against Chelsea. Come on the Reds, lets get 3 points! (It'll make a nice change!!!)