[Ged]

Seeing as this topic crops up quite a bit, thought I'd share some thoughts on our summer out there. The area seems to have a rep as being a bit crap amongst brits. In the past I've been to some pretty rubbish crags in the area, but had a much better time this year. In general, just don't go to any crags that aren't given *** in the book.

Highlights we're:

La fessourier. Some really good 6's, including one of the best 6c's you'll ever do. Lots of excellent 7a+ to 7c wall climbing. Take an 80 metre rope, very  Long routes. Shade all day. Excellent van spot at the col De pousterle up the hill.

La grand bois. Didn't climb on the main sector as wife got a bit freaked out by the via Ferrara approach. But the routes up there look to be really good. We went to sector 3, a bit of a trek but decent enough 6's. Again good wild camping at col de pousterle, and shade all day.

Les Entraygues.  Really good quality shorter crag in beautiful setting. Got quite busy at weekend. A few good 6's on the left, really good 7c-8a in the middle, and if short bouldery 8's are your thing, you could probably spend weeks there. Lovely van spot in the meadow where you park. Great walking etc. Shade all day.

Tournoux: the sector by the path is a bit crap but the stuff up near the via ferrata is superb. Shade all day

 Canyon, ailfroide. Excellent granite sport, 6b -7b. ReAlly good verticAl face climbing. Shady all day.

Rue des masques. This is the crag opposite mont dauphin. It's brilliant.  BasicLly like margalef, but possibly better in the lower grades. Really good 6's, which also seem pretty fair at the grade (a rarity for the harder French crags), and loads to do up to 8a. Steep pocket pulling up to about 25 metres. Shade all day, great van Spot on top with toilet and water. Highly recommended.

La saume. Didn't go, but supposed to be ace. Only 20 mins or so from rue des masques.

All in all, my opinion of the area as a climbing destination has changed, will definitely be back. Loads of other stuff to do (world class mountain biking, stunning walking in the queyras, serre poncon lake for swimming/windsurfing etc), and of course only 45 minutes from ceuse!

Hope that's helpful to someone

[SA Chris]

I'd need to look at a guide to remember the crags we went to, but as you say, there were some great ones, and some crap. I seem to recall some local developer had a rep for chipping / sikaing holds at the time.

[Wood FT]

Goldmine of information, cheers Ged

[jwi]

I mostly concur with Ged's opinions and add:

Pimaï. Cold when it's too warm everywhere else (except La Saume. It's never too warm for La Saume). Crag at 1900masl in the middle of a ski slope. Gets briefly into the sun around 5. Vertical/slightly overhanging. Lots of sika, but some routes worth doing (Pimaï ca caille, 6c+, Pimaï qui m'aille 7c+, La Shibani 8a+, I wish I knew you before, 7c/+ and Gravity jump, 8a)

La Saume is the pearl of the valley. Some years you need a 4x4 to get to the closer parking, but most years any normal high-clearance vehicle should suffice. I got there with my Toyota Yaris 1.0 and a shovel, but the engine is too small to support engine-braking on the way down and I overheated the brakes (had to do some improvised water cooling). Climbing mostly in the 7a-9a span. Yann Ghesquier-land. Sectors between 2100 and 2300 masl. The most beautiful single pitch crag in France as well.

Chemin du Roy. Superb and beautiful vertical crimping. Mostly in the sevens IIRC. Early morning crag: Gets into the sun at 12, and the approach-hike is steep and takes like 40 min or so the first time.

Atelier. New crag with old-school Provençal climbing. Reminiscent of Buoux when it comes to style and stiffness of grades. Luckily, there's an easy 7c that is called “King Line” or similar. Shade in the afternoon. The beta for the approach: heel-hook the rope ladder.

Mont Dauphine - Sector Raph. Just across from Rue des masques mentioned above. Amazing sector with some superb 7a-7c routes. More like Montsant than Margalef.

[Ged]

Gutted we didn't get to saume now. Did you go to the furthest away sector, that has a few 6's on it? Is that good too?

Is mont dauphin as good as rue des masques?

Which bit of my ramblings did you not concur with?!

[jwi]

Gutted we didn't get to saume now. Did you go to the furthest away sector, that has a few 6's on it? Is that good too?

No. Only went to the second sector with lots of 8a. Petit Danseuse was good. The 6c-7c where bloody hard, the low eights easy. There's an 8b+ that looks amazing but Kajsa Rosén needed several days to do (Sean McColl needed > six tries!)

Is mont dauphin as good as rue des masques?

I like Montsant but I don't like Margalef (funny since it is two sides of the same mountain). I liked sector Raph on Dauphine but didn't particularly like (the steep parts of) Rue Des Masques...

Which bit of my ramblings did you not concur with?!

Didn't particularly like the Canyon at Ailefroid.

[Ged]

Interesting. I prefer margalef!

Will have to get to saume next time. Sounds very good.

Have you been to grotte d'oreac? That looked good, but didn't climb there

[jwi]

Don't think so, but I have to admit that my recollection of some of the crags around Argentiere have started to fade

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