Tag Archives: Spring Break

Jun8

Spring Break 2014 – Climbing in Morgeiu

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Tuesday, 20-May-2014

Location: Cassis, France – Les Calanque D’Morgeiu(pronounced “more-gi-eww”… I think)

 

One of my favorite things in life is waking up just a bit before my alarm, and relaxing in bed until it goes off.

That is exactly what happened on Tuesday, with the subtle exception that, after relaxing for 3 minutes (still another 10min or so before my alarm) Rebecca drop-kicks my door down while screaming a battle-cry that would rouse the stones themselves.

I may be exagerating, but that’s sure as hell what it felt like when my heart was racing at 5,000 bpm and Rebecca was asking why I wasn’t awake yet.  It’s because I’m having a heart attack thank-you-very-much!

So I got out of bed, ate bacon and eggs, drank coffee and juice, put my pack on, and we all walked out the door and into the car, heading toward Les Calanque D’Morgeiu, one of the larger and better-known climbing spots in the Calanques.

We left the house right around 8:45, picked up Baguettes at the small shop, and were on the main road right around 9:00… just in time to hit French rush hour (Ed Note: in France, people get into work at 9:30, on average).  French

rush hour, in a word, is terrifying.  I don’t know how Daniel survived the driving, but I was quite happy to sit in the back and silently wish that Vespas wouldn’t pass us, at 60 mph, with roughly 10ft to spare before being crushed by a semi.  See… the main road we took went between Cassis and Marseilles… it was two lanes.  One lane each direction.  No divider.  100kph speed limit.  Yeah.  Also, on the side of a mountain with a flimsy guard rail.

But we survived.  By the grace of Vespa-girl, we survived.  And I mean, the roads won’t get any worse, right?

Hah.

The road into Morgeiu.  Twisting and turning through the mountain, more hairpins and switchbacks than a person could easily count.  Two directions, on a road less than 10ft wide.  The trick, we learned, is to constantly honk your horn when you come to a blind turn or curve. That way, the drivers coming straight at you, have time to pull into a tiny little pullout to let you pass.

Ohh, and there are no guard rails.  Don’t worry, it’s only a 400ft drop off the side of this insanely narrow road.  It’s kinda sloped too, so we’ll probably survive.

The fact that Daniel could still climb after gripping the wheel on that drive… that’s true strength and endurance.

 

Anyways, we survived.  We parked in a little lot.  We walked to the first crag, found a huge schoolgroup, and then walked some more.  No real trails, but a lot of thin social trails.  <shrug> When in Rome…

 

Climbing!  The area we settled into was called Le Cret Saint Michel, and the specific wall was La Creche…

  1. L’Estrello – 5.3- Lead = Ben.  Nice and clean route; face climbing with a few interesting moves.  Not rough, but not super polished either.
  2. Santo Vierge – 5.4- Lead = Daniel.  Basically the same as L’Estrello
  3. Jesu – 5.7- Lead = ???.  Very interesting start, with a lot of sneaky and neat moves
  4. Sant Jose – 5.5- Lead = Ben.  Very solid route that linked with Jesu.  A lot of similar sneaky moves, where it’s horrible until you find that one hidden hold.
  5. Lou Mounie – 5.9 – Lead = Rebecca.  Another fun climb, though a lot of the little moves were rather sketchy
Jun7

Spring Break 2014 – Climbing in En Vau: Take 1

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Sunday, 18-May-2014

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

 

En Vau is a Calanque right near the house we were staying at – literally only a walk away.  Thus, it was the first one that we headed to (And the last, though that story hasn’t been told yet), so after breakfast on Sunday everyone packed up their gear and started the walk over.

“The walk” consisted of maybe 5 minutes on the roads of Cassis, before we found the official parking lot for the trail head and started into the Calanques themselves.  We had to pass through a small one labeled Port Mieu, though the trails in that area were rather light and easy, before we actually broke into the real trails that worked their way through the mountains toward En Vou.

See, a Calanque is very similar to a Fjord, in that it’s a small strip of ocean that pencils in through cliffs and spires.  I think the technical difference is that a Calanque was carved by riverwater, but you’d have to check with a geologist for the actual information.

All I know is – the hike?  It was steep, and long, and really fun. The rock in this area isn’t the usual New England granite – instead, it’s a softer sort of rock (I believe a form of sedimentary rock).  That means that it wears a lot easier… which means that the thousands of people who hike these trails and climb these routes have slowly polished the rocks down – there are places where the rock is literally gem-level polished.  Kind of nice on the feet, but not really ideal for rock climbing… especially when that hold that you need is roughly the texture of oiled glass.

But we persevered – the hike down part Port Mieu into En Vou was fraught with peril and tourists (literally dozens of people clogging the trails), but once we made it in… well, the pictures describe it.  Jaw-dropping is a good term too. We set up out gear at the base of one of the larger spires, a good multi-pitch that comes highly recommended, and started up…

Climbs:

  1. La Saphir – five pitches (officially), ranging from 5.3 to 5.8
    1. Pitch 1 – 5.5 – Lead = Daniel.  This was a very fun route, though a lot of the rocks were super-polished from so much traffic going up and down the route.  It’s even got a nice little concrete basin at the bottom, so we could keep all our gear out of the wind
    2. Pitch 2 – 5.1… if that – Lead = Ben.  Just a simple traverse with 2 bolts, though it was a bit run out, so rope-drag actually became annoying
    3. Pitch 3 – 5.4 – Lead = Daniel.  Again, a simple traverse, not really much to say about it
    4. Pitches 4 & 5 – 5.7 & 5.9 – Lead = Ben.  I spun these two pitches into one, since the middle belay stance wasn’t particularly good.  17 quickdraws worth of climbing, maybe 30 or 40 meters high, and nice and steep.  Very small and polished holds throughout, but it was a really fun lead for me.  I think there may have actually been two belay anchors, but… yeah.  Better just to finish it all as one go.
  2. Descent – This is where everything went interesting.  Erin, Daniel and I got to the top.  Then Bjorn and Rebecca got to the top.  Then Johan and Magnus got to the top.  Then another two teams got to the top.
    Why didn’t we rappel off, you ask?  Well… the rappel anchors were being used by the main belay, and we were originally going to just descend the same way that we came up.
    But… that was obviously getting a little unlikely, since we were now looking at a third team coming up the face.
    So, shivering from the cooling breeze (we all had neglected to wear shirts, you see) we set a rappel down the main face with Daniel and Rebeccas ropes – a full 70m and an 80m, so we were quite confident that they could make the complete drop.
    Which, thankfully, they did!
Jun7

Spring Break 2014 – A rest day in France

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Monday, 19-May-2014

Location: Cassis and the Provence region in general, also Avignon!

 

My second full day in France, it rained.

 

I woke up being a little surprised – We had spent a lot of time planning climbing the previous night, but I couldn’t hear anyone else around the house getting ready… as I left the room, everyone was sitting on the couch looking a bit dejected.  The rain pattering against the bay window told me why.

So, instead of heading directly to the climbing, we took a light breakfast at the house and then all rain-geared-up, and jumped in the car to look at Lilac fields.

 

The first stop?  The Abbaye Notre-Dame de Senanque, a small Cistercian abbey that’s known as one of the best examples of it’s style of architecture.

On the way over, we stopped in the small fortified town of Gordes first, to grab ourselves a bit of lunch and exploring before we subjected ourselves to the silence and reverence of walking through a working abbey…

  • Gordes is an old city… it was founded far before Roman times, but the majority of the architecture still shows the Roman influences – it’s tight up on a hill, full of narrow streets, winding staircases, and fortified walls.  Some of these walls even have cacti growing up around them… though whether that was a defensive measure or simply nature reclaiming it’s own I couldn’t tell.
  • Walking around the city was beautiful – we did stop into the castle / Chateau quickly, but it was honestly a bit of a let down.  It had some history, but not really all that much.  I found the real joy in just wandering around town, looking at all the little doorways, small corners, and little streets.
  • Lunch!  Always a good thing to have when it’s lunch time, and we had ours on one of the mid-layer walls, overlooking the fields and a whole bunch of cacti.  Panninis were the word of the day, from a little shop in what looked like an old wine cellar.  So good, though it did remind me how little French I understand, when I had to ask Daniel how to find the bathroom :/  Slowly but surely, I’m picking up what I need to know…

 

After exploring Gordes we made our move on the abbey – there was some debate about walking over to it, instead of driving, but time constraints kept us in the car.  Hindsight showed that to be a very good decision, as the road down to the abbey was rather terrifying to drive down… though the trips to Luminy and Morgieu would show us just how bad French roads can actually get…

  • The Abbey is Catholic… though you’d never guess from looking at it.  Ornamentation is strictly forbidden here – the only “pretty” things here was a statue of Mary & Jesus, a small demon-face to remind the abbot about the stakes of his work, and the cross itself.  Beds were far too luxurious for these monks, as was finished walls – the dormitory simply had straw mats and rough, unfinished stone walls.
  • The tour was conducted solely in French… very interesting for Daniel, but not so much for me.  I admit that I may have gotten a little bit bored while listening to our guide discuss the intricacies of the courtyard and the numerology inherent in the number of arches, but it was still quite a relaxing time, and a good chance to take many interesting pictures.
  • The grounds were amazing!  The Lilac’s weren’t in bloom just yet, but the whole area was just… serene.  The monks definitely chose a good valley to build their abbey in all those years ago…

After the Abbey tour was done, and we successfully navigated our way back up the terrifying road out of the valley, Daniel turned the wheel toward the old city of Avignon, where we were planning on doing a bit of exploring, and a bit of dining… But the drive took a bit longer than anticipated.  You see, the GPS system that Daniel got for his iPad has a double-negative for the “do you want toll roads” setting.. it asks “would you not like to avoid toll roads?”, and we may have chosen the wrong option… which led us down a horrible series of tiny little back roads.  Somehow we survived though, and saw the walls of Avignon ahead of us…

  • We drive through a tunnel through a fortified wall, and park underneath a castle.  Dude.  USA?  This is why everyone thinks Europe is cooler than you.  Back in the States we have oil fields and McDonalds.  Can you feel the difference here?
  • The castle we parked under was called the Papal Palace… unique, because no popes ever lived here.  One’s buried here though, so it’s a very popular pilgrimage site I guess.
  • Pictures!  So many pictures!
  • Walking through French cities is a bit amazing – the buildings are these contrast of gigantic and imposing stone structures on the main boulevards, and then tiny little streets with tiny little houses and shops on the side streets.  I’m sure some cities in the US are the same way, but it’s just so… old, here.  People never spread out, and so much effort was put in to fit so many houses within the walls of the city…
  • We scouted a ton of places for dinner – starting on the main drag, then following a few small streets, before we finally settled in to eat at one of the earlier places that we saw.  As is traditional in this area, fish was a big part of the menu… so I ended up with Salmon again – not a bad thing at all.  A quick walk found us gelato, and a quick purchase found that I can almost order stuff in French!  If I watch three people do it first.  And memorize how much it costs, so I already know how to give him change…  aww.
  • So I never took French in school… but if I had, I guess I would have heard some poem / song about a bridge?  In Avignon?  Daniel and Erin took French in school, and they’d heard a song about a bridge in Avignon.  The song is about dancing, so… off we go to Dance!  Nope.  Bridge is closed for reconstruction.  So instead, we all dance UNDER the bridge!  Aww yeah Chili Peppers.

Thankfully, the drive back to the Villa was a lot less… adventurous… as the drive to Avignon.  We got the GPS working right (after a few miles…) and made a beeline on the main roads back.  Nice, simple, and efficient.