France and Spain, October 2-21, 2009
Aaron and I had a super fun trip to Europe this fall. We visited Rick in the south of France, climbed tons of limestone, and spent a few days in the Barcelona area. The weather was awesome, and we were able to climb on any given day (even the one day it rained, we climbed). The south of France and northeast of Spain (Catalunya) are beautiful, and they have an embarrassment of limestone.
In all, we were in Europe for 14 days (after a weekend in the Bay Area) and we climbed for 10 of them. We went to: France - Buoux, St. Leger du Ventoux (2 days), the Verdon Gorge (3 days), Venasque; and Spain - Vilanova de Meià (2 days) and Garraf.
We began the trip in Berkeley, at Charles and Mélody's wedding.
Charles and Mélody got married in Tilden Park. It wouldn't be a climber's wedding if nobody tried to climb anything at the reception.
We arrived in Barcelona on October 6th and stayed the night in a small town north of the city along the coast.
A boat on the beach.
Aaron along an empty promenade at sunset. Although the weather was nice, tourist season was over and it was very peaceful.
In this region, Catalan, not Spanish, is the predominant language.
Aaron jogging up a hill to catch a view.
On the drive to France, we stopped in the town of Figueres to see the Dalí museum there. We were sidetracked by a farmer's market.
Yummy olives.
Although we finally found the Dalí museum, this building here with giant eggs on top, it was getting too late for us to go inside. We had to be on our way.
Buoux and St. Leger du Ventoux
For our first day climbing in France, we went to Buoux. It was a very warm day, and we had to climb in the shade, but Buoux is mostly pretty sunny. We had fun, but the pocket-pulling at Buoux was probably our least favorite of all the types of climbing we sampled on this trip.
Me the next day as we're driving out to find a crag near St. Leger du Ventoux.
Just another impossibly charming Provençal village set on a hilltop.
Aaron hiking in to the limestone crags at St. Leger. This area has two long crags on either side of the stream, one south-facing and one north-facing; we had one warm day and one cold day here, so we got to sample both, and the climbing was really rad.
This is on the colder day (not actually all that cold, as you can probably tell, but it was breezy).
The rock here is wild---steep tufa climbing.
The Verdon Gorge
A village among cliffs on the way to the Verdon Gorge.
Amy looking into the gorge.
We arrived midday on one of our rare rest days and went for a hike. A few steep trails enter the gorge.
Another picture from inside the Verdon Gorge.
Fall colors along the trail.
Aaron on a bridge.
The Verdon.
This picture (and the next) are telling a story. Aaron, innocently: Come closer, darling, don't you want to touch the Verdon River?
Why darling, how about a little closer? *Splash* The expression says it all.
The next morning, fog in the gorge.
Aaron preparing the rappels of "Luna Bong" (notice the name on the rock to the left). This route is normally six pitches but the lowest two pitches are supposedly not that great and are rarely done. In the Verdon, since you rappel into almost every climb, you can choose how far you want to go---maybe you just want to try the crux pitch, or maybe even just the last pitch. We did the upper four pitches of Luna Bong.
I led the first (really the third, skipping pitches 1 & 2) pitch of Luna Bong; here is Aaron coming up. The rock was beautiful, but this climb followed a bolted crack. We decided later that the face climbing in the Verdon is way better than the crack climbing (save the crack climbing for Yosemite).
Aaron on the beautiful limestone.
Me at a belay.
Both of us.
Butt shot of me leading an easy pitch.
After finishing the four pitches of "Luna Bong," we ate a long lunch, then returned to the cliff to rap the four pitches of "Riviere d'Argent." This was a really fun, mellow climb. Here is Aaron on the interestingly featured rock.
View across the gorge.
Aaron at the top.
The next morning, we spent an hour trying to find the climbs we wanted to get on. The names are typically written at the top of the cliff, and it sounds like it should be really easy to find them, but the paint has faded and is generally hard to see on the variegated rock. Here I am on a single pitch warmup that Stewart Green's guidebook calls "the wildest, best 5.10 you will ever do". While that is definitely not true, it was still a really awesome, clean, beautiful line.
Me.
Aaron heading off on another single pitch climb at the top of the gorge.
Aaron.
By the time we finished those two measly pitches, it was too hot to climb in the sun. Much (but not all) of the gorge is south-facing. So, we took a long lunch break for our standard meal of baguette, cheese, jam, and wine.
Aaron.
Still waiting out the midday heat, we drove to Point Sublime on one end of the gorge, where a short and easy hike takes you down to the river.
Just another limestone crag in the Verdon.
Skipping rocks.
In the afternoon, we got back to the climbing business. We started with a single pitch.
This route, among many in this sector, climbed right up to an overlook where people watched and took pictures.
We then headed down to do the two-pitch climb called "Ctuluh." It was an ass-kicker. Wicked hard, and runout. Aaron took two thirty foot whippers.
Aaron after the ass-kicking.
Paraglider over Lac de St. Croix.
On our last day at the Verdon, we did three pitches of a route called "Pichenibule" then branched off into three piches of "Rideaux de Gwendal." This made for a fun climb that avoided 7b cruxes on both climbs (after getting our asses kicked on 6c+...). The pitches of "Gwendal" that we did included a 6c+, but it was not as sandbagged as the one on "Ctuluh" and was quite fun. This is me on an early, easy pitch on "Pichenibule."
Me seconding a pitch.
Aaron heading off.
The weather actually started to turn cold this day.
Me topping out after the final pitch.
We were in France after the grape-harvesting season. I wanted to get a picture of a bunch of grapes, but this was the best I could find.
On a rest day, we visited Aix-en-Provence. Aaron managed to take this picture of me in front of a cathedral so as to get all the other tourists out of the picture.
Venasque
We headed to Venasque on the advice of some Canadians we'd met at St. Leger. You pick up xeroxed topos for the climbing at Venasque in town.
Boulangerie? Where? I ran into the boulangerie (bakery) and bought so many pastries we didn't have enough euros left for the xeroxed topos.
A narrow street in Venasque.
Aaron checking out the cliffs of Venasque.
The rock at the crags is wild; I've never seen anything like it. Incredibly featured, and all the features are horizontal, so you look at a climb and think 'that looks easy,' but it is...ALL...slopers. At this crag, anyway.
How it's done in France: the names are painted at the base, and ladders may be employed to begin climbs.
A view of the village of Venasque from the crag.
More Venasque.
At one crag, a route begins (you can see its name painted in blue) on an old stone structure below the climb.
This crag, still at Venasque, was a little different than the other one. It had tricky vertical climbing up to a certain point, then became very steep and VERY juggy.
It reminded us of the Enchanted Tower, though the rock was an entirely different type.
Back in the town of Venasque on our way out.
A cool old 12th century ruin.
Sunrise at Rick's house.
The village of La Tour-d'Aigues on our last morning in France. There was frost on the ground; it was time to leave for Spain.
The Sagrada Familia, a church in Barcelona designed by Gaudí and under construction since 1882.
A cute hillside village on our way out to Vilanova de Meià.
Vilanova de Meià
On the recommendation of Remi, Aaron's friend from Santa Fe now living in Barcelona, we spent two days climbing at Vilanova de Meià, about two hours northwest of Barcelona. The main limestone crag has routes of up to about 8 pitches.
On our first day there, which was really just a half-day, we did a four pitch climb whose name I have forgotten (and we have no topo).
Me leaving a cove-like belay, starting with a roof move. This third pitch was absolutely AWESOME, though there aren't any pictures of the awesome part because many of the belays on this cliff are tucked onto ledges beneath overhangs, making photographing the climbing hard to do. This pitch was on stellar rock, vertical, and it looked clean and blank except for what appear to be crimping edges every so often. The crimpers turn out to be narrow slots that are basically jugs, keeping the climbing mellow but making it LOOK harder than it is. It was a fun pitch and I didn't want it to end. When I belayed Aaron up, he took a long time: as it turned out, he couldn't fit his big fingers into the holds!
Aaron coming around a little roof.
These little mini-roofs, of which there were many, are sometimes tricky.
Aaron heading up an easy pitch. The climbs at Vilanova de Meià tend to have a hard pitch and then lots of easy pitches, although the route we did the next day was chosen because it had a few interesting pitches among easy ones.
Aaron looking up at the cliff.
Another wall across the way.
The next day, Amy on the first pitch of a six-pitch route, whose name I also can't remember.
Aaron heading out a series of roofs on the second pitch.
Aaron on another beautiful pitch.
Me at a belay (photo by Aaron...while climbing).
Aaron hiking off along a ledge.
Checking out the other little crags along the road.
Garraf
On our last day in Spain before flying home, we went to a small crag on the beach near Garraf (about a half hour south of Barcelona) to get in a half-day of climbing. We had a lot of fun: this crag isn't much, certainly not an international destination!, but it had crazy rock and a fabulous setting.
Aaron on a warmup.
Looking back down at Aaron from the top of the climb.
Bouldering around.
It was a chilly day, a bit breezy, but from time to time the sun would come out and the wind would subside and then it was quite pleasant.
Amy.
The last climb we did, a very steep route on tufas and stalactites, ended with a huge swing out over the sea after cleaning the draws.
We flew home the next day, and woke up the following morning (October 21) to a dusting of snow back home.
©2009 Amy Jordan; Email Me.