So, after the World Cup we then headed back down to the South of France, where we had a few days at the brilliant crag Orpierre ticking off a number of classics, including Ed boshing out his hardest of the trip being Je suis une Hyene 8b+. He also came very close on Mission Impossible 8c, which I am sure would go down fine next trip. We also met up with our good friend Ollie Ryall who was one of the first people to get us leading sport routes abroad. He lives out there and run's his own business Climbapiedia.
From there we went further south to the classic, old school crag of the 90’s Volx. We had a heard a few mixed stories about the crag, but wanted to check it out for our self. So yeh it’s polished, pretty old skool and not Ceuse but it’s still freaking awesome. We had a great couple of days there, cranking out some steep ass routes that never get wet! It’s a brilliant venue. Highlights were Heuco 7b+, Shoashing 8a and Ed fighting his way up Grotesque 8a+.
After Volx our final destination was to head up into the mountains to Briancon and hook up with a great guy that we had a met at Ceuse, David Falt. He kindly let us stay at his place for the last a few days of the trip and gave us a tour of all the best crags in the area. We checked out three very different crags all around Briancon, firstly Tournoux then Roche du Brume and the last day at Entregue. We managed to send some wicked routes at each crag with the best being Direct du Coeur 7c+, Cost of Freedom 8a, Espoir Karsherise 8a, La Cour des grands 7c and La Tordeuse de Melezes 8a. It was such a great end to our trip and a massive Big up to David, Camilla and Milton for letting us stay with them. Thanks so much guys, you were awesome! We shall be back for shore! And so all that was left for us to do was make the long drive back up to Calais, catch the ferry across to Dover and then the home straight to the glamorous village of Over Haddon!
Here are a few interesting stats from our trip:
• I drove our amazing van over 5000km through 3 countries!
• We walked up to Ceuse 25 times in a month!
• We climbed at more than 15 different crags
• Clipped the chains on around 300 routes, 65 of graded 8 and above!
• Used up 11 of the 350g Mega sized chalk bags!!
• Swam in 8 different pools/rivers/lakes
• And of course we ate loads baguettes, quite a few pizza’s and drunk a hell of a lot of Brewskys!!
E.N.J.O.Y!!!
