Well after 2 long weeks here is the first of many photos to prove that the team conquered the Ecran!  Left to right we have Emma, Andy, Helen, Toby, Rob, Steve, James, Matt, Jerry, Tor, Rag, James and in front Ninja.

The full details and many photos will be posted in about 1 weeks time as I am now off sailing for the rest of the week.

So you've just pitched up and fancy a bit of gentle climbing to get used to the rock with a good mix of routes, one of the crags to try with an easy drive and no walk-in is Les collets.  It is at an altitude of 1050m above the town of L'Argentiere-La-Bessee.  Grades range from 3+ to 6c with a good selection of routes on vertical walls and slabs.

  From memory the climbs in view are as follows; 1st rope 5c - Le mystere de la grande pyramide, 2nd rope 5b - L'epervier, climbers in the distance 5b - La pierre d'Henry.

Basic directions to the crag from Vallouise enter L'Argentiere-La-Bessee and turn right at the main cross roads, possible signed Fournel, (turning left takes you towards the RN94).  Cross the railway line and head up the hill, after a big hairpin and as the road becomes straight take a small road/track down left to the parking and crag.

Also accessible from the crag is a Via-Ferrata L'Horloge, this is an easy route with a summit of 1000m and an opportunity to visit the chapel.  There is 50m of Via-Ferrata which can take between 20-35minutes and then there is about 1hour of walking.  During the decent there is a 10m section which is equipped with cables.

Ailefroide is the bouldering area for the Ecran, it lies at the head of the Vallouise valley, 18km from Vallouise and about a 30 minute drive.  The main areas are within a tumble out of your car or a short walk from the campsite.  Grades range from 4 through to 8c, the bouldering is mainly on blocks which have toppled down from above rather than eroded from the ground, however each winter the area is covered in snow so the freeze-thaw process will have an effect over time on the routes.

This is the mushroom block during the annual bouldering comp in 2004, the climber is just finishing rocco's dino 6b+***

 

Over the next few days before flying out to the Ecran to meet up with the UeMC I will be posting some useful stuff about the area.  Between 1st and 15th July I hope to post more information about the area and crags whilst out in the Alps.

The Ecran national park is located in the southern french alps, the main town is Briancon.  We will be based near the village of Vallouise which is in the centre of the park at an altitude of 1,100m

.  We rent chalets from Jerry and Jackie Gore who run www.alpbase.com providing self-catered accommodation, bespoke mountain courses and guided days throughout the year.
UeMC will be staying about 10 minutes walk South-East in Vallouise-la-Casse in a chalet similar to Chalet Choucas

So what do I need to bring for a summer trip climbing?
June, July, September and October offer the best climbing weather as you are likely to get great weather every day with temperatures exceeding 25C without the afternoon storms of August.  This means lots of cool clothes, hats and suntan lotion. If you do get rain or storms the whilst the temperature dips significantly it is never cold so a light waterproof is fine.  If you plan on going above 2500m/3000m then you will need extra clothing, especially if you head for the Glaciers.
If you are climbing then you will need a basic sport rack for most locations including a 60m rope, 8 quick-draws, a couple of screw gates and slings, belay device and possibly a helmet.  If you intend on doing longer multi-pitch routes then a handful of nuts is useful if you don't like the long run-outs that you find in alpine routes.  Typically if the climbing is not as hard as the pitch/overall route grade then don't expect a bolt until you have either reached or just completed a hard section.
If you are intending on bouldering at Ailefroide then a mat is needed for most problems.

For more information take a look at www.alpbase.com
For photos take a look at http://www.thelistings.co.uk/photos/climbing/vallouiseaug04/ and http://www.thelistings.co.uk/photos/climbing/vallouiseJun05/

Having returned from Cornwall, the collection of photos can be found at http://www.thelistings.co.uk/photos/250606/ .

They would have been on-line earlier but between my hosting company Fasthosts, Telewest and some muppet with a digger there was quite a large outage on Sunday.

Thursday was a bit of a lazy day where we bumbled around Newkey watching people getting wet on the beach as the tide came in.  Newkey airport is no where near Newkey or even signed unless you approach it on the A30; it was here we picked up a friend from Cork who was then forced into climbing 30 minutes after landing.  The venue was just outside the small village of Roche where there is a small crag topped with an old chapel and contains a number of interesting routes.
Friday we visited St. Loy which is a great crag easily accessed from the coast path and high above the sea.  This makes it great for anyone who doesn't like the sea cliff exposure.  There are about 15 worthwhile routes on the main crag from VDiff - E4.  Nick lead the tick of the day a E1 5b,5c aptly named The Hairiest.
Saturday saw the chaos of Penzance and the Maisey Day parade.  I first saw it 2 years ago and enjoyed it, however returning this year nothing has changed and I'm sure that there were fewer large beasts being carried by the parade.  The late afternoon was spent bouldering on the edges of Porthcurno beach.  The problems are what you make of them, but nothing really would exceed V4.
The aim is to post photos of all the weeks climbing tomorrow night as I can't do it without a real PC.

Today we headed for Bosigran.  The weather was fine, but the breeze a little cool. Orca Slab 1 has some tough moves on both pitches - especially if wearing a sack when attempting the chimney.  The VDiff's of Andrew and Ledge wall were enjoyed by others whilst I sat and shot photos.

Day 1 - Carn Barra
Tip - Check the tides before arriving or like us you will probably find yourself on the north side of Fox Promontory.  The decent to Fox is slightly exposed and interesting to find.  The routes on the North side aren't’t anything special however many Diff and VDiff lines can be made.  Carn Barra however once down on the Northern Platform after abseiling down Peel crack buttress has good solid routes.  The routes of Socket Arête (VS 4b) and Sock It to Me (E1 5b - TR) were enjoyable.
Tomorrow maybe Bosigran and some photos if the weather improves.

If you need any weather synoptic charts then this German site has a number of different formats, all you need to know is a little German!

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/topkarten/fsfaxbra.html

This saves you having to trawl through the noaa ftp site (htpp://weather.noaa.gov/fax)

If you want to find out about weather in Wokingham past and present then take a look at http://www.btinternet.com/~wokingham.weather/wwp.html this site also has a huge number of weather related links

Live weather from the stations around the solent can be found at:
http://www.sotonmet.co.uk/default.shtm and http://www.bramblemet.co.uk/default.shtm

Then the site which is used by sailing enthusiats of all sports www.winguru.cz