In Freyr we free two direct steep lines:
- 110m Love Me Tender + Pull Marine;
- 85m Samarkande, that crazy sketchy classic + Les Tourtereaux (L3-L4).
A duo ventures into Al'legne's last pitch. |
Les Tourtereaux L3. |
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The next morning we pass the famous Belvédère de la Carelle. Moments later we walk over the rocks inbetween bushes and small trees. We think we near the edge and slow down our steps. We hold a branch. In slowmo we stick up our head and tilt it over what must be a windy abyss.
All of a sudden we're exposed to a battlefield of clouds. 'Till beyond the corners of our eyes, tumultuous plumes of mist shoot up, race down, push left and advance sharply right. The bottomless canyon stirs up. This boiling cauldron is almost filled to the brim where we stand perplexed for a while. Climbing?
Meanwhile Griffon Vultures glide over in the peaceful blue sky. A bit later they turn back to skim over us. But the wall's guards don't seem bothered the least by the unannounced visit of both two-legged miniature creatures.
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I vouch for the abseils down to a hanging forest, inaccessible in any other way. Multipitch number one, Eperon Sublime (Luna Bong), obviously dates from the era (1970) when it was deemed heroic to traverse footless by campusing on slopers and aid gear, with rope drag heavier to pull than your own weight. There's only one way out. You do or you do not, there's no try.
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Afterwards we look for a sleeping bag for Ben as he forgot his and it will freeze again at night. The lady of the local climbing shop is surprised to see people around and immediately help us out with some fluffy blankets. Merci!
At Malines the next day we find seldomly seen cliffs, bowing over the Verdon's thundering river for several hundreds of meters. Our sunny side of the hurtling stream is gentler and allows for comfortable climbing in Arête du Belvédère, the climbing being less tricky than the exhilarating approach down, the only way to the Verdon stream. We encounter many cordelettes and maillons in bushes, improvised rappel points, or fool's rappel points as they would have you ending up dangling in the air, out of rope and nerves.
Day 3 (Sunday) we abseil into the abyss again to land on yet another hanging balcony jungle. The Dalles Grises offers us a wide range of long lines. We head out for four 6a+ pitches in Atout Cœur, hoping to eventually join another line in a comparable grade. Ben leads the first pitch, then I start the second and experience at first hand why Verdon is famous for a diversity of phantom bolts.
All the bolts I see are spacious and incoherent. Ben? Can you check the book? He's behind a corner 10 meters down. I have to go even more right? I unknowingly lead an airy delicate link-up to another line, a 6a that Ben then leads, while we both still think we did the second and third length of Atout Cœur. Then I start in what we think is the fourth 6a+. "oh I'll keep the backpack with the food, thermoses – and a few bricks I guess – on for this, that's less hassle"...
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No no. Purple lightning bolts. Lunatic spirits. Earthquakes. I don't know anymore... it felt dramatic. But it was enough to make Rambo cry.
"Your 6a's have big feet while mine... What is this?! I think it's not my style?!"... Me and my backpack dangle off the majestic rock face.
Weeks later I'll learn that it must be the crux pitch of Dingomaniaque or Démon said to feature a "déroutant et obligatoire" (confusing and spatiously bolted rock you can only free climb) "passaggio sconcertante" (disconcerting sequence).
Then Ben comes after. With two fingers of each hand he laybacks a little sloping dent, while his right foot aims for a small vertical edge, pretty wide at head's height. He sends it! We end with Cœur de Verre and call our multipitchcombi Sac à Cochon (pig bag).
Goodbye Gorges du Verdon. After three days of being sharply focused, we prepare to return to our jobs but not without a quick relaxing single-pitch stop in the Gorges du Loup!
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Wild water surrounds us, thundering down steep overgrown flanks, sculpting out unpredictable paths. We walk halfway the air in this jungle canyon as we follow a piece of abandoned road of which the ruins linger along an overhanging rock for two hundred metres. Rockfall smashed the blacktop and nature has taken over. If they'd drop you here, you'd think apocalypse has happened, the more if you reach the Loup village with its fancy hotel mouldering away, and the lost glory of its decaying candy factory. I wouldn't guess that we're just 30 carminutes away from Nice.
Eventually we put our bags on the ground and warm-up in the well-hidden sector of Hermitage, that baffles us with pristine solid limestone which seems unclimbed. This hidden sector offers natural slabby lines (mostly in the sixth grades) and feet to put on the most subtle and surprising features with a friction to rival sandstone. UKClimbing consistently gives its maximum of stars.
We go to the ultrafamous Mesa Verde sector in the midst of the jungle of waterfalls, though only 15 minutes walking from the Pont Du Loup village. The crag is known for its seventh grades.. Here there's more polish but it doesn't matter thanks to the outspoken features. We will meet the seemingly only climbers of this long weekend, two locals.
Me and Ben both send Hopi Birthday and Pas de bras, pas de chocolat first go. We discover that the Loup's flow also brings to several multipitches.
Verdon, I am really curious for more of your grandes voies like La Demande (trad), Tarabiscotage, Massacre, Pincée de Ketchup, Rêve de Fer, Surveiller et Punir, Pichenibule, Tandem pour L'Evidence, Gueule d'Amour, Durandal, L'Ange en Décomposition, l'Encatête, and single pitches Eve Line, Aquarelle, Et le Temps Cessa D'exister and Série limitée, but Gorges Du Loup will deserve a comeback too.