[Drew]

Bum! You beat me by a minute!

and the obvious question: where is it?

Didn't take too much investigation to find out it's Armenia

Found this while checking

[BenF]

You'd need a good helmet on, just in case one of those columns fell down.  Which doesn't appear utterly implausible. 

[Plattsy]

Kinda like an upside down hanging Giant's Causeway. Looks amazing.

[SA Chris]

.. Or Fingal's Cave on Staffa, or A downscaled Devils Tower in Wyoming, or Lover's Leap in Otago. here is even some on the Fife Coast, but it looks even looser than that.

[AndyR]

.. Or Fingal's Cave on Staffa, or A downscaled Devils Tower in Wyoming, or Lover's Leap in Otago. here is even some on the Fife Coast, but it looks even looser than that.

Or one of the Calchek crags outside Whistler, or the upper crag at Smith, or any one of zillions of crags in Oregon.....

A lifetime's supply of tedious jamming and stemming - the horror.

[SA Chris]

A lifetime's supply of tedious jamming and stemming - the horror.

[slackline]

A few snaps from my Verdon & Buoux trip.  Being the fuckwit that I am I didn't take a small digi point & shoot for taking on the climbs    Oh well, just have to go back again




The brilliant Wide is Love (didn't get to lead this as I'd just led Bette a Sex round the corner)



...so I seconded it...


La Kajozoazo at Buoux


Really liked the climbing at Buoux, especially the multi-pitch route we did.

[cofe]

nice

[SA Chris]

The brilliant Wide is Love

Or "Wid is Love" according to the old guide. Amused us anyway.

Nice pics, you get on La Demande?

[slackline]

Nice pics, you get on La Demande?

No, climbing as a three, and one guy wasn't up for leading anything and generally a bit slow due to being freaked by the height/exposure (not sure what he was expecting, although he was confident he'd be ok as he'd done some stuff in the Alps....20years ago!), so we thought 13 pitches would be pushing it.  Did 7 pitches from the bottom to the top on the crag thats just after the first tunnel when approaching from the top (can't remember the name, but the two 6a+ pitches felt rather tough for the grade).

[Johnny Brown]

What would la Demande be in Uk grades?

[slackline]

Can't remember what grades it got in the guide we were using (some scrote nicked it from the top of the crag on our last day  ), but the UKC logbook gives it 5c,5c,5c,6a,6a,5c,6a,6a,5b,6a,6a,5c,5c so nothing that hard (although my impression was most routes felt hard for the grade and a local we chatted to confirmed there was a bit of undergrading).  Translate it as you see fit!

I can't remember if its that route, but I think from reading Fawcett & Livesey soloed it in a few hours (although as I say I could easily be getting the route wrong).

[SA Chris]

Fawcett famously soloed it and ended up (apparently) almost falling at the top when he tried to climb the left crack instead of the right one in the bay at the top. I did the same (with a rope on) but noticed the error of my ways when I saw a bolt twinkling next to the other crack (I guess back when Big Ron did it there was no such guidance) and reversed quite quickly.

this may be in the book, not read it yet.

[Paul B]

Worth noting that the new guide is pretty poor. The corron PDF is much much better. What use is a photo topo taken from the other side of the valley when you approach from the top? Not to mention many of the approaches are just plain wrong.

For more examples La Demande is listed as fully equipped which it isn't and a classic 7a+ has been drawn on incorrectly and is actually a newly free'd aid route going at F8b. Just what you don't want to find out abbing in a few times to a hanging stance. Plus it was the most expensive guide we purchased on our travels, coming in at just shy of 30 Euros.

Nice pics Slackers... the Verdon is an amazing place.

[slackline]

We were using the black guide whilst out there.  The Yellow Bar had an older "bible" that had 900+ routes in, but hand drawn topos that looked just as hideous to follow.  Book shop owner in Castellane said there was a new guide coming out soon (few months supposedly), perhaps it will be more accurate and useful. 

Main mistake I made was missing the abseil station at around 50m.  Thankfully we were using a 70m single rope and the second abb was 50m, so I untied on stretch, replaced the knot and downclimbed easy ground, with one of the half-ropes that we were intending to do the second abseil on.  Even more fortunately for my friends there was another couple who were abbing in, they managed to find the station I'd missed (mark on topo was wrong after checking the crag from the bottom) and everyone got down fine.

[Paul B]

A few freinds of ours did one routes (A tout couer?) and got lost on the final pitch wandering onto a long pitch (70m ropes came in handy!) and told us that they must have got it wrong. We checked the guide and ended up on exactly the same pitch. The lines were the wrong way around!

I also don't quite understand if you look at the page of the dalle grises routes how they can all be 150m when some traverse all over the place and then go up and others go straight?

[slackline]

[SA Chris]

Nice pic. Would be better with a brighter T shirt!!!!

[Johnny Brown]

Nice. You done the direct start too?

[slackline]

Cheers, t'was indeed a poor choice of t-shirt.

Thinking the direct might be one for me to work on (when its a bit cooler!).

[slackline]

Out at Ravenstones yesterday, quite pleased with these shots of my friend leading Trinnacle East...

[clgladiator]

really like the second one, very good 

[SA Chris]

Both great, but second just sneaks it.

[r-man]

Mt Trio, WA

[slackline]

Both great, but second just sneaks it.

really like the second one, very good 

Cheers, was pleased they came out at all as the face was in the shade and was expecting to have dark silhouette's/nothing.  Guess the "Active D Lighting" is working/doing its thing there.

Distance from Perth to Mt Trio == 337km

Approach...