Annot part 2

We went to a brand new sector today with lots of nice climbs


Zoe meanwhile made a platform for her stuffed mouse. She seems to periodically pick a new animal, and the mouse is the flavor of the month. She gets very upset when she (frequently) loses track of the souris! After a picnic, we went back to Place Vendome, where everyone climbed pretty well, and I fell off several waaaaaay scary highballs. I just couldn't summon the nerve to top them out for some reason. Then it was back to the farm for beers, petanque and dinner

Annot

We drove down to Annot today, on one of the worst travel days of the year in France (long weekend, and changeover for vacation rentals). We left early-ish, but still got stuck in quite a few mini traffic jams along the way. The first was caused by a car that had driven off the road, and the second was a car vs. motorcycle accident right before the Col de la Croix Haute. Then there was a traffic jam at every little town between Grenoble and Sisteron. Some wag had put up home made signs over the town signs in La Faurie and Aspres-sur-Buech, renaming them temporarily to St. Tropez and Aspres-sur-mer. There was a third town that had been renamed to Frejus, too. Eventually we made it to Annot and after dropping our things off, went to boulder at Requiem for Bloc for a while. There are some excellent problems there, and I'll definitely be going back. The highlight for me was a slopey mantle called "plus de cul". I hadn't been bouldering outside with friends for a while, and had forgotten how fun it can be. It also helps to be in the south of France, with warm summer breezes blowing over you while you relax in a chestnut forest.







After a few hours on the blocs, we headed back to the farm for apertifs (Cerdon, of course!), dinner and Petanque. Somehow I had never played it before, and Chloe, Zoe and I had a blast. Zoe is a little small still to be able to hurl the metal balls very far, but she did well.

lambos

I saw what looked like a celebrity lookalike of one of the ZZ Top guys coming off the autoroute driving a yellow Lamborghini Diablo. He was wearing a headband and looked like he had just driven off the set of an early nineties music video. The weird part is that it was in Voiron (I was on a bike ride), which is suburb of Grenoble, and a very unlikely place to see a supercar.

Jamón

A few years ago, a Spanish friend introduced us to Jamon Iberico. Without waxing too poetic about it, it is simply the best ham I have ever tasted. Even the lowest of the three grades is far better than anything I have tasted! So when I had the opportunity to buy a jamón ibérico with a decorative stand and stainless ham knife, I did not hesitate. I thought it would be excellent for our stay in the chalet, but it unfortunately did not arrive in time, so now we must torture ourselves with endless Jamon.

Zoe and Alex seem to love it, and cram the thinly sliced Jamón into their mouths as fast as I can slice it (which admittedly is not all that fast).

Tour des Sens!

another fabulous meal at Tour des Sens! Thank you Stephanie!











What more could you ask for besides perfect weather and delicious (not to mention creative!) food on a terrace overlooking the Chartreuse?

In town!

with the kids and Robyn

Feu Sacré

Today the weather and babysitting windows opened (THANK YOU CHRISTA (et al!)) and Chloe and I finally got to try a route on the Tour Termier -- Feu Sacré, 280m, 6a,6a+,6a+,6b+,6a,6b,A0,6b,6b+,5+. We were treated to a cloudless sky when we started, a relatively painless approach, and most improtantly, no one else blocking our way on the route for once!! Things started a little inauspiciously, as the first two pitches were soaking wet. As the route got more vertical, it was almost all dry, with magically adherent rock. The only remaining pitch was the "crux" pitch, which I had planned to do free, but too many key holds were (literally) dripping wet, so I aided through it. About midway up, a low cloud bumped into the formation, chilling us and dropping visibility. There was another team on Terminee, and we would periodically look at the clouds and then back at each other and then shake our heads in disbelief. The cloud eventually cleared, but then a second grey cloud parked right above us! It was like a cartoon storm cloud: no clouds and sunshine for as far as the eye could see, *except* the tour termier. We almost got our down jacket out at this point. Otherwise, it was a fabulous climb on perfect rock.






The view from the top (3070 meters/~10000 feet) is magical, too.



There were some patches of snow,


and a family of Bouquetins looking for food.

The approach shoes are great: lightweight, sturdy, fit like a glove and survived the scree surfing. ❤ La Sportiva. The rubber is not great when wet, however.

The hike back took AGES. At every hill we would see that the trail continued off into the horizon. New weather was moving in, so we had some beautiful views of Lautaret and Termier

And then the fog moved in



Thanks again to the babysitters!!

Rocher Baron

We all (except Tom and Christa, who were on a hiking trip) went to Rocher Baron today. After a bumpy road up to the parking area, we discovered that a few other people had had the same idea. In fact, it was overrun with gumbies. Gumbies pushing us off small belay ledges. Gumbies with ropes running in all directions. Gumbies trying to do multipitch climbs above everyone else. It was a total clusterfark, and very stressful. I was sure that something huge was going to get kicked down on us by someone or one of them was going to get themselves injured. At least a few people got to try climbing, though!

We decamped to the non-gumby sector and I did the 7a to the left that Francois had recommended, which was excellent. Chloe did it on TR with one hang. The real fun was setting up a rope swing for Zoe though!


On the way back to the chalet, we stopped at Alpimat, where I bought some approach shoes (running shoes have not been cutting it). I wanted to check out the Gandalfs after reading the fabulous SuperTaco review, but found that they were a bit too heavy for what I want to do. Instead, I bought a pair of Sportiva Fringes. We shall see how they hold up! Some members of the Spanish climbing team were in the store at the time, and I saw the Slovenian team car a block away (for the Climbing comp).

Montgenèvre, rain

Got in a morning ride before the rain set in. The climb to Montgenèvre is not long or steep, but do-able in a short time. I added on a little flat riding on the road to Nevache, where car drivers seem to think they are on the autoroute. The first drops of rain were just falling when I got back to the car, and huge storm clouds were descending upon Briançon. The rest of the day was spent by the fireplace.

Galibier

Rode Galibier from after the tunnel on Lautaret. It was very cold, but felt ok. The lack of riding has really been hurting my power! Afterwards, Zoe and I went to get crepes and ice cream in town, and then to the bouncy thing and ball pool


Zoe was very happy in the ball pool by herself, but fled as soon as a pack of feral kids jumped in.

pic de laigle

Chloe and I drove over Galibier to try a new climb on the Pic de L'aigle. We parked by plan Lachat (next time we will drive up to the barrier, I think) and then walked up to the peak. The peak itself is visible from the road down from Galibier, but not Plan Lachat, and it is very impressive when you round the corner of a hill and see it looming there in front of you! It took one hour and twenty minutes to get to the base of the climb.

The hike goes through the French Military camp of Les Rochilles, used by the 93ème régiment d'artillerie de montagne. The last part of the path goes up a scree slope, and behind one large boulder, I found a stack of NATO 5.56 casings, and a bullet:

The first pitch of the climb turned out to be very hard, and we decided to bail since it was also very cold (snow on the ground!). About halfway through our return hike, the weather turned very bad and started raining... so it is a good thing we backed off. The climb looks beautiful though, and I would really like to go back to try it on a warmer day. It's been a tough vacation , weather wise. It still amazes me how quickly the weather can turn bad in this part of the Alps. Just look at how clear it looks in the approach photo, and then imagine the sky completely blocked out in grey, with peaks shrouded in clouds (all in the space of less than thirty minutes).


We saw a lot of mountain bikers on the trail. Someday I'll have to come back with a bike! I was thinking that a bike approach to this climb would be ideal, since it could cut down your approach time and descent significantly.

Later, Zoe and I got stuck in a traffic jam going into Briancon (45 minutes to get there from monetier!) trying to get to the toy store. On the way back, while sitting in traffic, I saw this mural



Which looks like the cover for ZOMBIE BIKERS. Either that or Anquetil and Poulidor were suffering from some terrible skin problems.