Monthly Archives: June 2014

Jun9

Spring Break 2014 – Climbing in En Vau: Take 2

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Friday, 23-May-14

Location: Cassis, France – Les Calanque D’En Vau (pronounced “onn vow”, if I still have got it correct)

 

Quote of the day:

Erin (resting on the stones) – “Yay!  I found a snail in my cleavage!”

Ben (climbing) – “Wait what now?”

 

By this point, we’re getting quite good at the whole morning routine.  Awake, breakfasted, coffee’d, bacon’d, and ready to start walking all in 45min or so… and that’s taking a relaxed breakfast where we chill, watch the sky, and eat a delicious croissant.  Or two.  Maybe one with chocolate in it as well.  This is France, I can do what I want.

Even the walk down to En Vou was quicker today, or it at least seemed a lot quicker.  I think the trail was a combination though – instead of tons of crowds, it was just us.  And instead of taking an insane detour away from the trail, we actually stuck to the normal trail that leads directly over to the Calanque.  So that probably helped.

But either way – we made it, and set up shop at Le Petite Aguille.  Climbing details are, as always, listed down below.  But the non-detailed version is that the climbing was amazing, the views were perfectly clear, and the sun was burning brightly down upon this, our last day of adventure on the Mediterranean.  We climbed, we chatted, we ate, and we posed like rock stars while summitting “The small needle”.

In fact, that posing part was pretty key – As I summitted the top, I struck a nice and solid pose… which elicited a resounding cheer from the cliffs.  What.  Why… I look around, then look down, and see that just as I finished a whole group of tourists had been walking past.  I guess they’d stopped to watch me finish the route, and took my pose as a call to cheer and clap.  Huh.  Nice to know I’m appreciated, I guess.

So we climbed, we enjoyed, etc…

Then, it was hot out.

There was a beach nearby.  A cool Mediterranean beach.  That had crystal-clear water to swim in.

We went swimming.  Bjorn went deep-water soloing; a solid traverse out a ways.  Rebecca swam all the way out to the deep water of the boat-lane.  I did some bouldering on the cliffs near the beach, and sunned myself there for a while.  Daniel stepped on a sharp rock.  We enjoyed ourselves immensely.

But there was still more climbing to do afterward…

 

 

La Petite Aguille

  1. Variante Nord-Oeste – 5.9 – Daniel leads.  Sort of.  Daniel actually lead two climbs as one… he got distracted by a shiny bolt halfway up, and decided to take a different route instead.  It’s ok though, because they were both super fun.  This one took a solid Arete to the pinnacle.
  2. La Face Norde-Oeste – 5.9 – Rebecca Leads.  Actually, since she just took one side of the route Daniel had done, and went to the correct anchor.  This climb was a bit more protected, since it was in an off-width about half of the time.  But not a normal offwidth… instead of a crack, this was a crack that lead into a cave.  Too small of a crack to fit a whole body through, but enough to chicken-wing an arm into.
  3. Note on actual summitting… it wasn’t easy.  See, the previous climbs all terminated about 10ft below the summit… and there really wasn’t any gear above the anchor.  At all.  So you had to climb up 10ft, then stand on a 4 sq.ft. ledge, then downclimb 10ft again.
    It.
    Was.
    Awesome.
  4. After Swimming   Face De La Mer – 5.6 – Ben & Bjorn Lead. This climb was directly viewing the beach, and it was quite fun.  Simple, lots of small ledges and interesting holds from the salt erosion, and somehow it wasn’t even super polished.  Crazy-talk.

 

Dalle Du Chat (A crag right by the beach)

  1. Passagers Du Vent – 5.10c – Bjorn leads.  This was an amazing climb.  I think it may be the hardest outdoor climb that I’ve completed, to be honest, and it felt like it.  Lots of tiny holds… they were good, but never where you wanted them.  I’m sure that it would be progressively easier the more times you do it, but the first time… yeah.  Lots of tough pulling, cursing, and just lunging for it.  Totally amazingly worth it.

 

La Saphir

  1. La Saphir, P1 – 5.6 – Ben Leads.  A good and fun end to a great and amazing climbing trip.  Erin and My last climb in Southern France, and it was excellent.  A lot more run out than I remember it being before, but quite fun with an amazing view at the end.  Excellent.
Jun9

Spring Break 2014 – Climbing in Sormieu

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Thursday, 22-May-2014

Location: Cassis, France – La Calanque D’Sormieu

 

Today, we split up the party.

If D&D ever taught me one thing, it’s that you never split the party.  Thankfully, this area of France has been free of both Dungeons and Dragons for the past few hundred years, so I think we’re safe this time.

There had been a debate the evening before about what to do with Thursday – originally, Wednesday was going to be our mid-week rest day, to make sure people didn’t get too burned out too quickly.  But since our rest day was forced into a Monday (stupid rain…) we were now looking at 4 days of climbing straight… And Daniel had been climbing for nearly a week straight before that.

So, our rallying cry became;

Bjorn, Rebecca & Ben – “To Sormieu!”

Daniel & Erin – “To Marseilles!”

All – “To keeping clouds at bay!”

 

Short version – we all drove to Sormieu, where Daniel and Erin dropped us three off and headed off toward Marseilles to do a bit of tourism and exploring (the castle from Man in the Iron Mask is in Marseilles) while the three of us climbed through Sormieu.  Bjorn had actually climbed there before, so we had a pretty good idea of where we wanted to go.

As a note, the mantra for this entire day worth of climbing has been “climb fast, and be ready to bail off once it starts raining”.  As the day went on, we lost more and more of the distant mountains to clouds, then to rain.  It always looked about 10min out from a torrential downpour, but somehow it never actually materialized.  Just luck, I guess… that, and the amazing skill of our climbing.  Not even the clouds wanted to stop watching us long enough to drop the rain.

After finishing up the last route we headed back down into the town of Morgieu to get our first taste of the typical “French hospitality”… AKA, not at all hospitable.  We stopped into a cafe to grab some coffee and drinks, though they only had water, beer, or cold tea for us… <shrug>, cold tea actually sounded good, and tasted just as good as it sounded, so I wasn’t unhappy at that.  No, what caused the unhappiness was our attempt to close out the tab – the waiter just could not be bothered.  Bjorn ended up walking up to him (he was sitting at a laptop, I believe) and handing him a the bill and our Euros… to which the waiter grudgingly gave us a bit of change.

But it was a fun day – I guess the only thing left to say is that, if you’re ever in a long roadtrip with Erin… tell jokes about sawdust and poop.  I don’t know how it came up, but the poor girl nearly fainted from laughing so hard.  We had her in a constant state of gasping laughter for nearly 20min on that ride home, discussing how North Korea uses sawdust to balance their diet… and the “unique” effects that must have on their daily routine…

Crag Lou Spigaou

This was nearly straight above the town, a very nice short approach… a lot different from the previous days.  We tramped our way up the scree field, set up shop, and started in.  With Jackets.  The sea breeze was quite noticeable here, and I was actually quite glad to have my nice orange jacket with me… I was comfortable, but I know that I would have been quite unhappy without it.

  1. La Balade de Gecko – 5.9 – Bjorn and Rebecca Lead. Really fun route; starting out clean, with a rather interesting overhang near the top.
  2. L’Hiver Menace – 5.9+ – Bjorn and Rebecca Lead.  Almost the same as the previous route actually, though more slabby than previous.  The top bulge was still the more interesting though.
  3. Ceci N’Est pas une pipe – 5.9 – Bjorn and Rebecca Lead. Again, roughly the same rock and same basic route.  Dangers of climbing lots of routes on the same huge face…
  4. Pierre De Folie – 5.8 – Bjorn and Rebecca lead.  Nice change of pace; this was a super-slabby route that got a bit boring halfway up.  No real memories of this one, to be honest.
  5. La Prima – 5.6 – Ben and Rebecca lead.  I… actually forgot that I was leading on this one.  Thankfully, I had already racked up from muscle memory, and Bjorn reminded me that… you know… maybe I should clip a draw or something.  If I feel like it, of course.  The climbing was more of the same – a slabby route with a few interesting moves.  But not many jugs or real holds, so quite reminiscent of Whitehorse… except a lot shorter.
  6. Boum chanka – 5.9 – Bjorn and Rebecca Lead. Ohh man!  This is my jam!  A good handcrack, a dihedral, a few good stemming moves, and even a chimney section.  With just enough off-width climbing to make it interesting, this climb was by far my favorite of the day.  Bjorn kinda disliked it, but that’s just because he’s roughly a billion feet tall.
  7. Le Vi Au Bout Des Doigts – 5.10b – Bjorn leads.  Tough route; Rebecca takes the first few clips, but Bjorn finishes it out.  tough slab climbing, very tough slab climbing.

 

Jun8

Spring Break 2014 – Flying to and from France

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Friday, 16-May-2014

&

Monday, 26-May-2014

(Ed. Note: I find it interesting that the first story posted here, aside from the index, includes both the beginning and ending of the Spring Break.  Feels very Shakespearian of Ben, doesn’t it?)

 

On Friday, I left work early.

That’s not really a unique thing, to be honest… but that Friday saw me driving home a good bit earlier than I would normally be comfortable with… I feel bad leaving early most of the time, but since I had a flight leaving Logan, and going internationally, at 6:30, I felt justified in leaving a little bit after 12:00 hit.

2:00 saw me stepping into a cab that already had a passenger in it: my next door neighbor.  Turns out that he had also called for a cab ride, but that his was running late… so instead of waiting around twiddling his thumbs, he jumped in with me and we headed toward Government Center to get him to his daughter’s wedding.  See, he was supposed to be there around 12:30… but he made the mistake of trusting the MBTA to get him there.  That was not a good decision, since they decided to close the Alewife to Davis leg of the red line as he was sitting on the train.  They didn’t say that, of course… they just asked people to wait patiently for nearly an hour, from what he told me.  Then they decided to make it clear that the trains weren’t going to be running anytime soon.

So, he took a cab.

There’s a song, that a man named Mike Barret sings.  It’s called “Boston Cab”.  Some people may know it.  It goes like,

Boston Cab, what’s the deal?  

Who put you…. Behind the wheel?  

Learn the Language, learn to drive.  

Take a shower, and try to get me home alive!

I am not exaggerating on this.  He got pulled over, and was told that he wasn’t supposed to burn rubber, or hit the 40mph mark, on side streets that technically make up Harvard’s Campus.  Because he chose that route to get to Government Center.  Which is clearly not a standard route decision.

Somehow, we survived, and I even made it to the airport right around when I meant to; just in time to fight my way through security (Dreadlocks require a patdown, since they’re actually dense enough to foil Backstatter machines) and relax a bit before Erin arrived, and we boarded our flight to Dublin…

Leg one:

  • Terrifying cab ride – Check
  • Convincing the TSA that my dreadlocks do not constitute a weapon (not really, they just frisked me) – Check
  • Flight from Boston to Dublin, including a steak dinner – Check.  x2 double-check bonus, since the steak dinner came with a very good red wine.
  • Flight from Dublin to Marseilles, including a full Irish breakfast – check.  Only x1 bonus on this one though, since the breakfast didn’t have whisky.  Seriously… what Irish Breakfast doesn’t?!?!

 

 

On Monday, we took a cab again.

This time, it was in France, however… so it was bound to be a bit different than the previous ride.

This cab, was a French van.  Full-sized.  Which means that it was roughly the size of an old Subaru Forester. maybe a bit smaller than a Taurus station wagon.  Somehow, we fit all our gear into the back, and huddled inside, ready for the drive of our lives, as our cabby would undoubtedly tear through the streets of Paris like a madman…

And then, he didn’t.

The drive was actually quite simple, quite easy, and we were dropped directly at the door.  Though we did have to load and unload our own bags – turns out, an older gentleman like our cabby is not up for hauling an 80 lb bag of rope and metal into and out of a van.  That’s what strapping 20 year old guys like Daniel and I are for, right?

From there… we waited.

  • First in line, when the line to check our bags took nearly an hour and a half.
  • Next, for our plane to arrive… which it did, just over half an hour late.
  • Third, for our second plane to arrive in Dublin.  I guess there was a storm over Malta or something, wherever it had been flying from.  This one delayed us nearly two hours.
  • Lastly, at the baggage claim.  Remember that note about 80 lb bags?  Yeah… I guess luggage handlers don’t like them either, so they saved ’em for last.

Thankfully, waiting for Allison to meet us at the airport wasn’t a long one – she was there with her trusty Accord (roughly the same size as the French van, mind you) quick, and had us on the move back toward Boston before I even knew it.

Ohh, how were the flights?  On the way home, they were clean and simple, honestly.  I had a good Salmon dinner (with a nice white wine, I’d like to add), and everything was quite pleasant.  I worked my way through most of my pictures, read, and generally had a good time of it.  Didn’t have any good conversations, unfortunately, but c’est la vie.  Would I recommend Aer Lingus to my future-self?  My Past-self?  Even… other people?  Yes.  Yes I would.  And I’d definitely recommend ordering the meals ahead of time – they cost a bit of money, but not that much, for what you’re getting.  And seriously – Metal silverware makes eating so much better, compared to plastic.