Cobblestones
Friday 25 November 2011 at 10:05 am.
Pockets and baguettes. Cobblestones and Fajitas.
A European and North American climbing experience Europe I began my trip in Amsterdam - the city with the highest number of pedestrian deaths in the world. If you are not fortunate enough to be killed by a passing cyclist, tram, car, bus or stray chainsaw from a juggling street performer, you will undoubtedly get knocked out by the stuff they put in your coffee. Dazed by the busyness of Amsterdam I headed via Eurorail to the peaceful town of Gap in the high Alps of southern France, during which I was brutally assaulted by a tramp who objected to having his picture taken. Half an hour later, while hitching out of Gap towards Ceuse, I was assaulted again, this time by the French police who demanded to search my baggage on the side of the road.(I realised later this probably had something to do with the unruly state of my hair and general appearance, and the fact that I had just arrived from A'dam) However, my luck changed when the next Frenchman to stop was the owner of the Les Guirens campsite, which is perfectly situated below the flawless pocketed limestone walls of Ceuse. Keith Forbes arrived a little later that day, and over the next week we fell comfortably into the routine of baguettes, camembert cheese and tomato for breakfast,the calf burning walk up to the Cascades sector, during which Keith insisted on wearing a heavy black jacket and dirty jeans, (despite the soaring temperatures) much to the amusement of Matt the Australian. This was followed by run out routes, and intense ping-pong games in the stable/games room against Matt and Thoger, in the evening. There was a large international contingent at the campsite, a german with shaved yellow hair whom we called "Tennisball-head", some Tasmanian devils rumoured to be in-bred, a german girl with no inhibitions about going topless, and the famous Lynn Hill. (Naively I went up to her in the campsite, and asked her where she was from, and after a pause - probably thinking: "Who is this dumb South African who does'nt read climbing magazine?" - she said, "I'm a Californian girl." The Cascades sector is the most popular, if you have ANY energy at all after the horrendous walkup. The left side of the Cascades starts in a bulging overhang, flowing into a steep technical face- this section has an average grade of 28 and here you will find some of the most impressive lines at Ceuse. On the right of the Cascades, the routes start mostly with a technical boulder problem, ending in a pumpy workout on wrapper heucos. The routes here are generally graded between 24 - 28. The Demi-Lu sector, named because of a great semi circle chunk taken from the top of the cliff, consists of tricky slab and face climbing, a vast number of the routes here opened by the legendary Patrick Edlinger. It rained solidly during my last week in Ceuse, so Keith and I hooked up with Thoger from Denmark, and headed south to the student party center of Aix. Here we hobnobbed with famous French climbers, (we climbed with J.B. Tribout in his gym) perfected our French aided by R30.00 beers, (Got slapped by French girls) provoked the living statues, and went buildering. (We received a stern warning from the French Police and they demanded to search our car)Then I headed north back to Amsterdam, joined in a massive street party celebrating the victory of their soccer team, and flew to New York City. The States The States, a land of big people, big cities, The Big Texas Chicken Fajita Skillet, fast food eateries (with unlimited soda refills) on every corner and a sex starved president with a strange taste in cigars. Salt Lake City After 3 months at a summer camp, hauling kids up a climbing tower, throwing them off a zip line, encouraging them to jump off "The leap of death", and another month experiencing the New York City Canada on a 6 500km roadtrip, I arrived in Salt Lake City with very little cash. But before I could say "Jo ma se ..." and resort to bergie lifestyle, I managed to track down Jason Temple Forbes and the hospitable folks at the Wasatch Front Rock Gym. Kristian and Julie at the Wasatch Front, provided us with sleeping facilities under the best campus board in the world, and a job to sustain us, (pulling MORE kids up a portable climbing wall) until we satisfied our appetite for climbing in the area.Salt Lake is the ideal home base for climber bums like myself. There is plenty of work available due to renovations for the Winter Olympics, ( resulting in horrendous traffic problems from highway closures) the best snow on earth (as a result of evaporation from the salt lake) but most importantly, close proximity to some of the top climbing areas in the states. Within 2hrs drive is Maple Canyon, 45mins away is American Fork, 2hrs is Logan Canyon, Virgin River Gorge 4.5 hrs, Red Rocks in Nevada 6hrs, Rifle Mountain Park in Colorado 6hrs, The City of Rocks in Idaho 2.5hrs, and numerous other areas. Rifle Mountain Park Some parts of Utah ares so flat, they call it the land where you can watch your dog run away for 2 days. The mountainous region of Rifle in Colorado is in stark contrast. Driving down the tall narrow canyon I peered out at the belittled figures of climbers spotted like flies on some of the well-chalked classics, standing out on the vast limestone walls. Rifle is one of the States best and most convenient sport-climbing areas. The 2km stretch in the canyon where climbing is allowed, boasts 219 routes concentrated into 15 different areas, which include 6 5.14s (33). A scenic warmup walk alongside the river running through the canyon, leads you to the popular warmup area - "The 80ft of Meat Wall". (It often has a queue of 3 people per route) The climbing is often polished, from the heaps of traffic during the season (May - October). Expect to really suck for the first week until you start getting used to the unique 3 dimensional technical limestone climbing that typifies Rifle. Even the easy classics are 25-30m monsters, stretching out every last inch of your rope and physical endurance. If you are fed up with 14 consecutive days of pasta and sauce, convince someone that a Buffalo meat burger at Burger Works in Rifle is a more pleasant alternative. Sick of wiener shrinking baths in the river, well head on down to the Hippie dips in Glenwood Springs, and for the yuppies there is also the health gym in Battlement Mesa, where you can relax in the whirlpool during your rest days.Here I spotted Matt the Australian again, who was staying at Bobbi Bensman's place in Rifle town. (She just had a $2 000 boob job) Time to leave, andt is common depart with a hitlist that has doubled in size, and after I witnessed Lynn Hill (I think she is after me) effortlessly onsighting one of them I am even more physched to come back and complete my numerous projects.
