Simon and Ryan have returned alive!
16th Jun 2011
As i'm sure a lot of you will know, Simon and Ryan have had a fortnight off work to go off on a European adventure!
The plan was to complete a few fairly major routes in the Swiss alps, however due to poor conditions and a lack of a stable weather window, we were unable to even attempt our main objectives which was quite frustrating but thats just how it goes in the alps sometimes!
We did manage to virtually complete the Super Sudgrat of the Salbitschijen, a 20 odd pitch monster route on a fantastic granite ridge. We had to take a slighty different variation on the final 3 pitches of the route as, after starting the route in shorts and t-shirts, we had to climb these in the driving snow!
Due to the poor weather we decided to leave the Swiss Alps and try the French Alps instead however once we got to Chamonix it was pretty clear that we would not be abe to get much climbing done there either and so spent 2 days there relaxing and doing a bit of bouldering in the valley.
We finally decided to leave the Alps completely and head to the Verdon Gorge in the south of France, this is a spectacular gorge with 1000ft high vertical walls of perfect limestone, we spent a few days doing some amazing multipitch routes here, we also had a slight epic attempting an incredibly runout 13 pitch route which ended in mild terror, a hasty retreat and a 20km hike back to the car!
After all of this we decided to head to Font for our last 2 days climbing, despite it being pretty hot and sweaty, we still got some good climbing done and had a great time.
All in all it was quite a frustrating trip due to the conditions, however we made the most of it, had a great time, got some amazing climbing done and got to check out some awesome new venues!
If anyone wants to hear any more specific details of our epic adventures then just pop in for a climb and have a chat!
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