Friday, March 4, 2011

Who likes winter anyways???

 This dry and mild winter has been excellent in allowing us to get out and climb sport in the sun. I've been out to Bionassay fairly regularly with a mix of partners, mostly with Ally, Jonny and Carl. This is great as all three are superb sport climbers and have been inspiring me with their strength, and getting dosed up on redponting to keep their Catalunya temptations away.....
       Bionassay is a beautiful limestone crag just above Saint Gervais. Its Western aspect means there's only about 1 hour of the day when it isn't in sun at the moment, and therefore you can climb in t-shirts, even if temps are close to, or below 0. The upper crag looks like a mini Ceuse, and certainly something you wouldn't expect close to Chamonix. I found a wicked 8a project on my last visit, but ultimately i know that i'd have to sack off any exped plans for this Spring if it was to become a reality before the Autumn.
        I was also down at Medonnet the other day. This is a collection of incredible quality granite boulders in a Tolkienesque forrest above Sallanches. I am probably the world's worst boulderer, and therefore find that location is really important for my motivation to get off the mat and pull on holds. Medonnet is certainly somewhere that provides the motivation, and my tips were suitably sore by the end of the day.
     Here's a quick movie of that day:





Today i've been up at GM, climbing Nuit Blanche. I've done this Chamonix classic a number of times but it is always great fun. Today i climbed the top pitch only (the bottom pitch is the main event), for Bjarne's video camera. It was extremely wet, and after about 5 metres i was already soaked to the skin, and therefore suffered from a high ratio of hot-aches to metres gained for the remainder of the pitch. But it was all fun.


A still from the camera. Credit: Bjarne Sahlen



And another. Credit: Bjarne Sahlen.


Credit: Bjarne Sahlen.

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