Matt applying a healthy dose of sunscreen "à l'Americain"...also known as bringing New Jersey to the crag.
Les Murettes...Barbarela. Word to the wise. Stay away from the bearded woman.
Steph leading the all-time most heinous route ever. She did awesome on it. After coming back to the ground, we watched 4 people totally flail on it, including several guys who just got off Matt's project, which was supposed to be way harder. I smelled a total sandbag and stayed away.
Matt on "Crache ton venin," a short, power endurance route that is fun and well-worthwhile. The route is pretty manufactured, but the movement is great and it has a little redpoint crux right at the top...just to keep things interesting.
Matt at the crux.
Steph doing some championship belaying action while I was a slacker and took photos...
There was a group of French climbers working on routes around us, and in between attempts, Matt mentioned that they were welcome to take a burn on his route since the draws were already hung. What we didn't realize was that everyone in the group was going to try it. In the end, Matt didn't get quite as many burns on it as he expected, but all the French folks were super nice and it was cool to get to meet some local climbers. The were helpful in directing us to a local gym and some other crags, that hopefully we'll get to check out.
Matt taking one last burn on Crache... Not quite enough juice, but perhaps if he ever makes it back over here, he can try it again. Although, I imagine it will be pretty hard to justify driving past Buoux, Ceuse and some of the other spectacular rock in his area to climb at Calamès again.
Enjoying a nice sunset in Foix.
I'll post more pics of another day Steph and I had where we climbed a 5 pitch route to the summit of Calamès where there is a 11-12th century chateau guarding crest. It was pretty cool...
Do you know what "Crache ton venin" means? I will tell you, it means: spit your venom. Was the climb that hard? I guess it would depend on the climber. For me, after stretching my arms up on the rock, I would exclaim: "va cracher ton venin sur quelqu'un d'autre". In other words, go spit your venom on someone else!
ReplyDeleteMonique
Were you refering to Steph as a bearded lady? you better watch out, girls got some guns! :)
ReplyDeletelol, Steph, you are making that route look cruiser in Cam's photos!
MIIIIIIIIISSSSS you guys. Gah.
Next year- we'll help you ring in 31, Steph, promise...29 and 30's naughty stepsister. :)
Mama...that was funny! :) You are right, that climb was ridiculous! Silly climbers in their pursuit of crap-tastic climbs!
ReplyDeleteErin...I swear I had that beard problem taken care of years ago! ;) That climb was one of the strangest I've climbed, definitely not worth a do-over. Miss you too!!! Oh that crazy 31, always getting into trouble!
That's an astute observation Monique! You should come to the crag with us more often...then we wouldn't get sandbagged quite as much!
ReplyDeleteSo funny story regarding that route...
When we came here last fall to visit, I saw this route and thought it looked cool. Then I looked in the book and tried to decipher the description. Since my vocabulary consisted of about 5 words at the time (it has grown to about 10 now), I didn't fully understand the subtle implications of the title or description.
Here's what it says in the book:
Crache Ton Venin
Quelques petits pas venimeux. Bricolée!
Here's what I understood...
Someone named this route something...
blah, blah, blah, Little, blah blah, blah...BLAH!
Standing below it, I was like..."huh. That looks sort of little (the only word I understood in the phrase, which of course, I mistranslated). I could see that. From the ground, it looks cool. I can't really see any holds in that section, but I'm sure there is something up there. The route must be good, there's an exclamation point at the end of it!"
Almost verbatum...
So I grabbed some draws and gave it a good old college try...which ended up with a lot of hanging and groping for holds in the blank sections, that didn't really have any hidden wonder jugs, much to my dismay.
When Matt came to visit this year, he translated the description for us, which actually reads:
"Some short venomous sections. Manufactured!"
Which makes a lot of sense why you will be cruising along on pre-fabricated jugs, then suddenly get to an uncharacteristically powerful and crimpy crux on edges that are almost more epoxy than rock.
It was amusing for sure. Another learning experience. Although, after climbing the route, I have to say that it is actually quite good despite being totally manufactured. I would give it 10 out of 5 stars at Rifle and almost compare it to "The Beast" in terms of quality.
Another lesson learned: Guidebooks should never be trusted...especially when you don't speak the language it is written in.
Lesson #2: write imperative guidebook information in very basic language (without flowery hippy poetry fluff) so people can understand it...
I agree, hippy poetry fluff has always been a problem!
ReplyDelete