Climbing! - Calamès at Bèdeilhac

It has taken us a while to settle in and get situated, but we finally made it out climbing yesterday.  There is a copious amount of limestone within an hour of our home and we decided to make an afternoon jaunt to Calamès, just outside the small village of Bèdeilhac which is about an hour southeast of our house.  Here is a couple maps that shows a little more detail of the area:

 

 

 Bèdeilhac is a sleepy little town a couple of kilometers outside of Tarascon Sur Ariège.  Heading south from Toulouse, the majority of large limestone seems to start around this area.  The town of Bèdeilhac itself is surrounded by several large crags, including Calamès, the large plug of granite pictured below, which is around 800ft (250m) tall and offers 200+ routes from 5.5 (3c) to 14a (8b+).  The crags around Bèdeilhac have a variety of different exposures, making the area climbable at nearly any time of the year.  Calamès is south facing and was nice and balmy (65+) yesterday even through it was cloudy and cooler in Castex.

In general, the formation is broken into two basic sections.  The middle and left side offer tons of moderates and the long routes to the summit.  The routes are slabby to slightly vertical and have the typical assortment of pocked edges, hidden monster jugs and lots of lizards.  The right side is a series of shorter, but steeper walls and caves that host the difficult lines.  The caves are reminiscent of the Wasteland at Rifle, although the rock quality varies more and several of the harder lines are glued, which seems to be a totally accepted ethic.  The wall pictured below is called Les Murettes and has a nice concentration of quality routes. 

 After not climbing in months, we climbed an assortment of nice moderate lines on a nearby wall called Le Papy.  Calamès seems to be a popular weekend spot, but apparently it is nearly vacant during the week, which I don't doubt.  Most of the folks we bumped into were nice, helpful and didn't live up to my other French climber experiences, which was a refreshing change.  However, I have realized that it is impossible to escape bizarre climbing types, no matter where you go. 

We were next to a man who was climbing with a boy about 9 or 10 years old.  The boy was obviously super new to climbing and the man seemed to be some sort of a mentor/teacher type.  In typically bizarre fashion, the man insisted on clipping the first bolt, then would stand in an uncomfortable stance with calves flaming while barking instructions at the boy on how to properly attach a GriGri.  After 5 minutes of bumbling around the boy would eventually get the device attached in some fashion and the guy, who was impatiently saying "oui, ça va!" (Yeah, that's it!) would set off on a shortroping marathon to the top of the slab.  I could never figure out why the man didn't just get the kid set up with the GriGri prior to leaving the ground like the rest of the world does, but it made for some exciting afternoon entertainment.  

The view from Calamès is excellent...You can see the town of Tarascon Sur Ariège and the Ariège River drainage.  Just out of sight is the town of Sinsat and the 1,000 foot limestone crag that looms over it with impressive amphitheaters and towering faces.

 

The band of limestone in the left edge of the photo is a portion of a crag called Roc De Sèdour which has 60+ routes from 10a (5c+) to 14b (8c) up to 700+ ft tall.  The band in the photo has short steep routes that get summer shade and have a 10 minute approach, which hopefully we'll get to check out when we get back in shape again.  Here's a different view of the area:

In all, the area is impressive and we're excited to explore it a bit more.  I still can't get used to the fact that the names are painted at the base of climbs, or that we have to walk through someone's back yard to get to the crag, but it has been a fun learning experience.  

Steph checking out local wildlife...

...debating whether to help it across the road, or to take it home and toss it in a pot with salt like a true French person would. :)

We're not quite French yet, so we let it go...just this once!