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).