French Fancies

It's difficult to know where to start with a blog entry about such an eventful trip. It would be pretty boring to bust out a full length blow by blow account of each day, so I'm not going to do that. Instead, I will record the main events. Firstly, respect must go out to Andrew "stealth trainer" Hebson for taking the title of Rock Star for the week. I had expected Pete to burn Andy off. Pete has really embraced the smack beta and is so much stronger than this time last year. However, Andrew "outdoor beta" Hebson just rocked up and climbed over 50 problems in the four sending days, an impressive return. Well done big man!!! 

Next up must be a word about the venue itself. The boulders are sat on a hillside, high above the village in a fantastic mixed oak forest. Autumn was in full flow and the forest floor was strewn with leaf litter. Although the bouldering is not as extensive as Font, there is plenty to go at during short trips like this. The best thing about it is the quietness. The campsite was sparsely populated and we were climbing by ourselves all the time. It made for really relaxing sessions. Font is more hectic. In Annot you can really sit and breathe. Shame it only lasted a week. 

Next up, I suppose, was my "seminal moment" which unfortunately took place not on a 7a but on a 6c or, at a push a 6c+. Regardless of the grade I was psyched to climb Psycho Addict, an Annot classic. I also climbed another few problems that had me psyched. At Place de Carduer, I climbed a nice B7 (Andy gave it 6c - could be V5 or just hard V4 - its difficult to know) and flashed the B7 slab at Place Vondome (6b at most). the problem was fantastic, not my usual style but sent in quick time. Apart from these two, I climbed a lot of B5 and B6, some of which were fantastic.. 

What would this blog entry be without mention of Vladimir the drunken Slovak. When the rain came we broke into the Grimpers caravan to borrow his tarp. We slung the tarp over out campfire area and cooked some sausages. We had limited psyche at this point but the success of the tarp and the dinner, coupled with a few beers and the promise of a better forecast for the next had lifted spirits. We were warm, dry, fed and watered. Feeling lucky, we shouted on the new comers to join us. Expecting to interpret some french we were hit with a volley of Slovak. Slightly taken aback, we welcomed the four guys to our fire and tried to get the chat on. I quickly realised that these guys were not up for a relaxing chat by the fire but a full on wine drinking session. One by one people left the fire side, Vladimir still talking. Pete was taking the full brunt of his drunken chat and we eventually had all left the two of them to it. I was quite drunk myself by this point and was happily tucked into my sleeping bag. Inevitably, I awoke desperate for a drink of water, I looked around the tent for the bottle I had filled from the waster block before bed and noticed a bright light from outside. I opened the tent doors to look out expecting to see Vlad staring into the fire but I had to move my head quickly to avoid the burning ash fling past my tent. the flames were huge! I shouted for Pete and went to see what was happening. My bouldering mat was on fire. Only a fingernail moon shape of it was left. the rest was gone. I ran back to the tent to find water to douse the flames but it was too late, the mat was gone. Gutted. Pete and Andy arrived at the scene and as the headtorches moved around, we glimpsed the full extent of the damage. The grimpers tarp was ruined. The flames had got so big that they had burned a two foot hole in the tarp. We were gutted. We had borrowed his gear without asking and bulled it. 

The next morning the rain had turned to ice on the tents. the sun was shining and it was another great sending day. By 4pm, the snow started and we left for Nice. The sending was over for the trip. We got 4 good sending days in which is pretty good for a winter trip. I sent some great problems and felt I climbed at my limit, Pete climbed well but not as well as he can, Rosco failed to deploy his immense strength, Karen climbed really well and sent some good problems but Andy burned us all.