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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