Christmas Eve - chez Arran's first birthday!

This day last year we were driving down from Calais in an overloaded estate car, heading for hard work and adventure. This time we went climbing!
It's been a tough year getting plenty of accommodation ready, but very satisfying seeing people really enjoy themselves. It's a great buzz to read the complimentary things people have posted on various websites, and we're keener than ever to make as much progress this year as we can, so that even more of you can enjoy this wonderful place.
For my part I still can't quite believe how good it is here virtually every month of the year. I have to keep pinching myself to make sure I'm not just dreaming it all!
Today's climbing was at Calamès, one of the best crags for midwinter as it gets any sun that's going. There wasn't much sun today but it did show its face occasionally and because the day was quite warm it was a great temperature for climbing. The photo is of me on Homo Plombus, probably the best 7b on the crag, even though it's given 7a+!
Back out on Boxing day for more (possibly hungover by then) climbing fun. Have a great Christmas everyone.

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Merry X mas and happy 2010

This year has involved lots of changes since first turning up on my friend Ruth's doorstep in France on Christmas eve last year. The alternative was a warm house with many clashing brown patterned wall paper and no friends. We opted for the basement party in Loubiere :)

This year it will be much the same really except we have the house upstairs and will take along some tasty fish for Christmas dinner. Now sitting in the apartment it feels like a million miles away from the corridor it was last year. Luca, Ruth's son taught me the perfect pronnunciation of 'pere noel' - which was much better than any of the rest of us could muster!

Both of the major ski resorts are now open and our guests are having a great time on the slopes. Here is a Christmas dog present from the Plateau de Beille. Wishing you wonderful x mas and a fun New Year, Anne x

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A little later than usual the winter finally arrived last week ... and did so in spectacular fashion, with plenty of snow and temperatures down to -12.

We took advantage by heading up to the Plateau de Beille, one of France's premier Nordic Skiing resorts and only 20 minutes away by car, for a bit of much needed practice. There was a festival atmosphere there as it was the resort's 20-year anniversary, so access to all the pistes was free for the day, which we weren't about to argue with! There were plenty of other fun things laid on for the day too, like live music and magic shows, excursions on the piste-basher and a huge floating inflatable dragon which was determined to eat the candles from the 4m-wide snow-cake built specially for the resort's birthday.

The husky dogs were out too, seemingly raring to go for another season of haring across the snow-covered plateau with gleeful people in tow.

Then today the sun came out again and with perfect blue skies and dead calm it would have been a great day for climbing, but we missed out this time. Never mind, the forecast for tomorrow is quite good too.

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Genat - winter sun crag focus

One of the finest crags in the area for people climbing grades 7a and 8, although there are some very good easier routes too. The main crag is extremely overhanging in its central section, generally on good but sometimes improved holds and stunning tufas. Notably there are some slab routes which stay dry even after long periods of rain, including routes of 6a-6c. Rock, orange and grey limestone.

Leave the main Tarascon to Vicdessos road (D8) at Niaux. Cross the river, pass through Alliat village and continue a further 5 minutes up zigzags before taking a turnoff to the left shortly before reaching Génat village. 400m later the road ends at a gate where there is parking space for about 6 cars. To the right of the main gate is a footpath; follow this through a smaller gate and up right to the crag. 5 minutes walk.

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Gaz Parry and Kate Mills visit the Grotte de Sabart

We had the pleasure of entertaining Gaz, Kate & Pebbles the horse on their way from their house in Costa Blanca see http://epic-adventures.eu/default.aspxadventures.eu/default.aspx After some warm up cranking or 'that's enough' cranking at Genat we headed to Grotte de Sabart. Kate and I were in the 'that's enough' team & Gaz found la Dame de Sabart not a walk in the park, but polished it off nevertheless the following day. Hat's off to Stevie Haston for his routes there - you certainly need top sequences and a stong core to survive ... Pebbles seemed to enjoy the stay and was intrigued to meet Geri and Panache our neighbours horses. I'm looking forward to having more stamina on 30m roofs and an improved core so that more than 1 or 2 attempts are more worthwhile!

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2010 Tour de France - Pyrenees stage near us!

The 2010 Tour de France route through the Pyrenees has now been announced and there's a stage right next Chez Arran, finishing at our local ski resort Ax Les Thermes.

Stage 14 Revel to Ax les Thermes i 184km long - Date: Sunday 18th July
The comment of Christian Prudhomme - Director of Tour de France
"1910-2010. The celebrations in honour of the hundredth anniversary of the Tour’s first foray into the Pyrenees will be the highlight of this 97th edition of the race. A novelty in the first of the four Pyrenean stages: two “modern” as an alternative to “historical” climbs will be tackled as the gruelling Port de Pailhères and Plateau de Bonascre in Ax-3 Domaines were not included on the race itinerary before the 21st century".

If Ax-les Thermes is a regular point of call on the Tour since 1933, its ski resort, Ax-3 Domaines, hosts the race since 2001. Stage finishes are held at the Plateau de Bonascre, one of the three skiing areas that make up the resort. In 2003, an impressive little Spanish climber here abandoned his usual reserve to claim the first of his three Tour stage victories: five years later, Carlos Sastre won the Tour.

It then starts again at Pamier which is also only a few km away. Let us know if you want to stay to see the Tour!

The event will be broadcast live on: http://www.letour.fr/

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Out and about in Russia and South Africa

It wasn't all climbing in France over the summer. I went to climb Elbrus with the UIAA Global Youth Summit and had a great time, although getting up at 2am and ploughing up the first slopes in the strong cross wind wasn't the most fun. Dawn came though and it was magnificent as sun rise brought light to the many high peaks around. The train of climbers plodded higher and it wasn't until 5000m that I felt it was tough for a while. Every step was an effort. At the col at 5,300m we hit sunshine and having a sandwich helped no end. With a new lease of life I went on to the summit. It was too misty to see much but never mind - the highest peak in Europe was climbed :)

Last week we got back from South Africa where we had the UIAA Youth Commission mtg in Capetown. The hospitality was excellent and after the meeting it was possible to visit Rocklands and Cederberg to snatch some climbing - and later some animals in Pilanesberg game reserve. Thanks to Mark Johnston for the images!

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With the House and the Apartment both rented out, we're relegated to less luxurious accommodation in the next-in-line place to live. Not sure what to call it yet, maybe the Gîte? Or maybe we'll think of a naming system that doesn't seem to confuse people so easily - answers on an email please  ;-)
The good part about living in unfinished digs is that you want to get out a lot, so we've been doing a lot more climbing and other stuff lately than we've had time for ever since we moved in last winter. Anne's quickly back to climbing 7c and I'm up to 8a+ again so things are starting to pick up nicely, just in time for a trip to South Africa in a couple of weeks time, which we're really looking forward to.

I also grabbed an opportunity while Anne was back in Blighty to check out some higher mountain crags. My plan was to reduce the approach time to the Pic Rouge de Belcaire - one of the Bassiès crags - by running much of it, but the plan was soon thwarted once I realised that much of the approach was up a 1:1 hill! Still, the crag was definitely worth the effort as the rock there is amazing - even though I completely failed to find the route I was trying to climb!

I was looking for a route called Friscounette - 7 pitches up to 6a and mostly trad - and I climbed about 7 pitches or so up to about 6a, but I was a bit puzzled by the lack of equipped belays, even though I did pass the occasional peg or two.

When I got home I did a bit of googling and found out it started somewhere completely different, so I ended up braving the 2+ hour approach again. Heaven knows what I may have been on the first time but the real route itself was probably even better, with one particularly memorable pitch (see picture) up nothing but granite chickenheads. Amazing! Very much recommended for anyone after a long route of about E2 5b and who doesn't mind a bit of a steep hike-in in return for great climbing and a 360 degree panorama of awesome peaks from the 2, 650m summit.

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It's not just us who think so!

Every morning (well almost) we wake up, look out the window at another gorgeous day in the making, and say to ourselves: 'It's another sunny day in paradise!'  It really is going to take a very long time to get bored of being around here.
So it's good to know that it isn't just us who seem to have been smitten. Matt Heason and his family are good friends and were staying here for most of August, helping us with some of the chez Arran redevelopment work while climbing with us and trying to wear out our pool - on this latter objective they tried hard but I'm pleased to report they didn't succeed as it's still operational even into October, although it's getting to the point where you have to be REALLY hot before you want to brave it now. Having said that it was 28 degrees here today!

Anyway, Matt said some very nice things about his time here on his blog at http://www.heason.net/News_&_Blog/Blog/2009/09/01/Chez_Arran/, and compiled this great photomontage:

Thanks Matt, and look forward to your next visit.

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The Apartment is born

Late in August the Apartment was nearing completion. There was no particular hurry because the first booking wasn't until mid-September. But then we received an email: was it available for booking the first week of September?

Let's go for it, we decided, and worked flat out for four days to get it ready, finishing literally five minutes before our first Apartment guests arrived! Their verdict was hugely positive, which was quite a relief given how tired we were by then.

Since then we've made it even nicer, adding all the little details we didn't have time to finish the first time!

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The pool's the best

It's been a long time since the last blog entry, partly because we've had such a busy summer but mainly because we had problems with adding photos to the blog while it was hosted on the chezArran.com site, so now it's on blogspot like all of the others.

Many things of note have evolved this summer, and hopefully we'll be able to blog about many of them very soon, but pride of place must surely go to the pool, which proved an unmitigated success among guests and us alike!

Typically reaching 28 degrees on August afternoons it was even warm enough for me to hop in without fear of hyperventilating - and I'm the world's biggest wuss when it comes to getting in cold water. Almost like being in Thailand.

Matt and Sophie Heason were staying here for most of August, and Matt at least made a point of plunging every single day of their visit.

But even into September when we were concerned the water temperature may start to plummet, the pool was put to extensive use by Sophie and Holly (left, thanks to Al Murray for the great photo), who seemed to think it weird that their parents preferred to go climbing!

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Finally we have a kitchen...

It was a very exciting moment at the end of last week when we succeeded in tiling the kitchen floor and aquiring a an ikea kitchen, all in 5 days! After a while moving around a half rennovated house feels tedious, but now I really feel I'm sitting in a real live kitchen for the first time. The circle of spots looks cool on the ceiling and our origional wooden table that was left in the house fits in well. Must admit I'm not a big fan of grouting floor tiles though, must buy knee pads.

So what about the climbing? Well I have a little project on our village crag which is 5-10 mins walk from the house. It's around 7c+ we think but haven't been able to track down a topo to the place as yet. It's around 25m and overhangs by about 4-5m. It's great when in the shade, just have to balance the diy with the climbing time in the right conditions. John onsighted a more overhanging one, not far from a bees nest - they seem tame though. Yesterday at Genat crag a French climber gave me a lizard, which was pretty tame and by far the best climber there. There is a fantastic 7b+ called Crossroads which is highly recommended if you go there. Now John is back it's much easier to get out climbing. I met a local, Patrick, at the crag the other day so he could be someone else to climb with. We have been resisting the temptations of 'the cave' (Sabart) - the very long 30+ metre roof - in the hope that we can get fitter first. 'Ganage' is core body strengh, so I discovered from Laurance G Haston. Actually I think it would be best to just get on it because the moves are so wierd and funky and the strengths needed more akin to repeatedly doing front levers.

And would you believe it - in Ikea in Toulouse we met Paul Reilly and his wife Lisa. Hadn't seen him for years, he was from Bristol and now has a house in St Antonin Noble Val. An incredible coincidence. Robyn Erbesfield also has a place there and can be seen teaching large hoards of American kiddies there from time to time. Well that's it for now. Back off to England for a couple of days - will post some pics of the climbing around here soon.

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Comes the grim reaper!

With all this work on the house, interspersed of course with plenty of cragging action, we returned one day to realise that the garden out the back had been having a bit of a grow. Quite a lot of one really, the grass was above our knees and some of the weeds were nearly head height.
Off to buy a petrol strimmer (it's a big garden!), which promptly broke within five minutes use. But wait! What's this lurking beneath the ivy in one of the outbuildings? It was a scythe, and a big and very sharp one at that.
Now my only experience of scythes came from pictures of the grim reaper and from a classic line in Blackadder, but I couldn't help getting excited at the idea of going all agricultural, so out I went one fine morning.
Three hours later I had aches in places I didn't know I had muscles and I had sunstroke. But I'd scythed my way through what seemed like acres of rampant undergrowth and I could collapse in an armchair knowing that a)I could feel smug about goung all manual and traditional, and b) it would be much easier next time when I'd been back to the shop and replaced the strimmer!

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Getting there slowly

Anne's leading the development charge to good effect while I'm out here enjoying myself - not! - in Congo. She's recruited people to help, and between them it sounds like things are coming along nicely with the electric rewiring, and things are starting to happen with the decor too. Not before time either!

The kitchen of the house now has walls that don't make your head spin with competing patterns and innumerable shades of brown. Only the floor, the ceiling, the beams, the lighting and the fittings to go ...

Great to see the fine sturdy beams are in good nick. They were all panelled in with hardboard and wallpapered over so it was quite a relief to find out that the ceiling wasn't about to fall down!

Thankfully the bedrooms won't take as much work. We've already stripped and refinished the furniture, but we really will have to find time very soon to banish the evil wallpaper.

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