After several weeks packed full with film festivals and presentations, I was really glad to go back to climbing on real rock.
November is not a good time to be in Grenoble; the weather is wet, humid and cold. For a little escape, I went south to Claret, a nice cliff north of Montpellier.
While it was snowing everywhere else, we climbed in shorts and tank tops, and even then, it was almost too warm for climbing.
The king line ‘guère d’Usure’ picked me and looked directly into my eyes. It is an achievement to be proud of and I really wanted to climb this 8c. The first try did not feel so hard, due to the good betas the local guys gave me, and I thought that I would be able to do a quick send.
But in fact, the route was harder to climb than I thought. Especially for a couple moves on the upper part, I needed to have steady controlled movements using full body tension on very physical and compression moves. In the end, I needed 4 days to complete this route. With each attempt, I felt better and stronger so my motivation increased more and more.
For the send I needed to fight hard and I love that feeling…the fight with your mental hat and you can only hold the next hold because your head wanted it….climbing is a fantastic and strange thing…
During my last days in Claret, I climbed a few more five stars routes. For example, the fantastic diedre of ‘ Catalepsie’, a really bouldery 8a+ on my third go and two other classics; ‘Double Nelson’ 8a flash and the big roof of ‘Makossa’ 7c+, on-sight.
I loved Claret, not only for the climbing, but also for the great atmosphere on the cliff, the good vibes and nice people. A good place to be….
Thank’s Seb Richard for the good betas in Guère d’usure and for the nice pictures.
