With good friends Robin and Paula living out of their camper van in the Gorge Du Verdon in Provence France, it was the perfect opportunity to experience the sheer walls and pristine limestone of this amazing place. Not to mention get scared silly by the exposure and scale of the cliffs.
Basing myself in La Palud a stones throw from the gorge Robin and I managed to climb almost every day despite the temperature being very low for the time of year (we had snow on the ground one morning). This trip for me was an orientation trip, an ease yourself in kind of experience. I wanted to climb moderate grades (after a winter of injury I was in no shape to commit to anything hard here) and experience the exposure and majesty of the massive canyon, whilst hopefully not being too intimidated by it.
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 | Eying up Eco Logique (E1/E2ish)
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 | | Highliners - part of the scenery in Verdon |
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The first two days were spent on Les Deux Doigts dans le Nez Les Filles (6a+) and Salés du Métier (6b). Both about 150m long and both reasonably well bolted. Well “le Nez” could have used a couple more bolts, the route feeling intimidating in the ice cold of the shade...
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 | Arranging the Abseil
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 | Abbing in
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 | | On the crux of le Nez |
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 | Robin topping out
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| Me finishing off Wide is Love |
In preparation for our attempt at La Demande and having just bought some new sticky rock boots from the local climbing shop, Robin and I opted for a rest day. I was just going to top rope a single pitch of 6a (Wide is love) get the new shoes broken in. Robin set up the anchor and lowered me in from the rim on his Grigri to the two bolt belay further down the cliff. Being more used to the big steel rings in the Dollies I easily missed the two expansion bolts that were to be my planed stopping point. Anyway about 50m down and facing a slightly overhanging wall of rock I began to question whether I was in fact on a 6A. I was of course now not on a 6A and in fact on the Pichenibule face and facing 7C level climbing. Robin was way out of sight and even earshot so I had to attempt to climb. Which of course I could not.
So here I am faced with nothing in all directions but blank vertical grey limestone 300m up a cliff. I gathered my wits and reached for my Tiblock and prussik loops. These unquestionably got me out of what could have been quite a predicament. I prussiked up 25m of rope until the ground eased and I could see the two bolts that I had missed. Clipping into them I shouted to Robin with relief. We were now in earshot and I could climb the route as planned. It turned out Robin had had gone through a complete rescue procedure whilst I was prussiking in my own vertical world. He’d untied from the system and headed back to the car to get extra gear in order to set up some sort of pulley. Thankfully it was not needed.
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| The cold early start |
The next day we climbed
La Demande (About 6a or E1, 320m). A gorge classic it spans the whole height rather than start at one of the Jardins at half height. Subsequently a silly early start was required. We started breaking ice of the car in La Palud at 5.15am. By 8am we were climbing. The first few pitches were polished to a sheen and with numb fingers and toes I resorted to pulling on a few quick-draws. Not good practice but I was keen to get high on the route as fast as possible. About a third of the way up two base jumpers whizzed past! This happened just as the sun had cleared the opposite rim and we started to feel the warmth immediately. Completely psyched by the site of the base jumpers we cruised on to the exit chimneys. Here the fun really did begin as two distant rumbles of thunder stopped us in our tracks. Paralyzed with indecision we contemplated the enormous decent. This would take hours. We slowly untied waiting for a third rumble. Nothing happened. Cautiously we made the decision to continue the sky was clear again and we were so close.
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 | | Intimidating in the cold depths of the gorge |
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 | | Now in the sun we warm up |
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 | Bridging
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 | | Me following |
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 | An improvised Stance -
After missing a belay |
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The exit chimneys were hard! And quite run-out. All body workouts with chimneying and bridging. Not many bolts either. We both utilised a few of the bolts as aid given we now figured time was of the essence and topped out about 3.30pm. Its now on the list for a complete clean ascent though Via Ula (6b trad) is calling to be climbed....
|  | The Exit
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|  | | The exit chimneys |
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The rest of the trip was spent climbing of course with À tout coeur (6b+, 150m) being the most memorable. One day was spent with Pilar exploring the bottom of the canyon via a spectacular gorge walk....
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 | | Exploring the bottom of the canyon is a must do! |
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