Sport Climbing

Murray about to descend,
after leading a route

I rock climbed a lot until 1980 and back then it was all 'trad' climbing, meaning you had to find and place protection yourself. In trad climbing, the technical difficulty (how hard it is to get up) and the seriousness (how dangerous is it to fall) are independent attributes. It's an adventure sport, where a cool head is as important as talent.

Since then sport climbing has come along, and there all the protection is pre-placed. The risks are hugely reduced and it's a purely technical sport - more like outdoor gymnastics. It's also much more accessible and family friendly. Trad climbing is still a mostly male activity, it can take all day and involve a lot of hiking. You can do a few sport climbs in a couple of hours and lot's of kids and ladies climb. It's much more social, relaxed and scenic. 

Me struggling up...

Most rock climbing in Britain is still trad climbing, whereas almost all in France is sport climbing. I actually did my first sport climbs when I spent a couple of days with Murray Hamilton. I climbed with Murray a lot when we were younger and he's now a mountain guide at Briancon (in the highest mountains of the Southern Alps). Unlike Murray, I can't say much of my prowess remains from 1980, but I enjoyed the new experience and understand why it is so popular here.

Mount Pelat

Final scramble to the top

Mount Pelat is just over 3000m and is the highest mountain in my 'departement' (les Alpes de Haute Provence). It's a nice hike, with some easy scrambling near the top to arrive on compact (cozy when busy) summit. It's in the national park of the Mercantour and the climb is shorter in the summer months because a high altitude car park is open then. I had a relatively early start and was on the summit well before noon, before a more leisurely descent. 

A few more pics.

Lushness in the Mercantour

Cabane du Talon

I'm back home after a couple of weeks in Scotland and there has obviously been some rain when I was away. Today, I had a nice hike in the Mercantour national park; everything is very green and it looks more like Switzerland than the south of France. I avoided the tourist zone around the Lac d' Allos and only saw one other hiker in a 6 hour day.  

The West Highland Way

I haven't lived in Scotland for 34 years, and lots of things have happened since I left. One of them is the West Highland Way (WHW), a nearly 100 mile super-scenic hike completed by 30,000 people each year. Today my son and I wanted some gentle exercise (it was an almost unprecedented 26C / 79 F in Glencoe!), so we explored a part of the WHW. 

We started from some lovely woods of Scots Pines at Inveroran and followed the way for a couple of hours across Rannoch Moor, had lunch and came back. The route was very easy, it followed Telford's road, created in the early 19th century, still 'the road' into the 20th century and looking good today.

Agag's Groove

Etienne emerges from the top of Agag's Groove
onto the easy ground of Crowberry Ridge.

I'm on a break in Scotland with my family, and visits back home are always a little bit nostalgic. This was even more the case today. 

I took my son on his first rock climb on a mountain. We did Agag's Groove, a real classic route on Buchaille Etive Mhor in Glencoe - steep, exposed, sensational but not terribly hard. Forty years ago, it was one of my first climbs and I remember it very well. Revisiting it today felt strange and a little bit like completing a cycle. 

For Etienne, maybe (like me) it will be the first of many routes he does, but if he doesn't do any more rock climbs, at least he has done one of the best!

Changes

Life changes. Over the last couple of years, I've been flying less and less. It hasn't really been a conscious decision, it's more a matter of finding other things more attractive. And like many changes, it might reverse itself.

When I started this blog, it was very much about flying. I just checked and the first 20 or so posts were all flight related. But flying has become a smaller part of my life now, so what to do about this blog?

I'm currently minded to use it as a sort of 'public outdoor diary' - whether flying, hiking, skiing, cycling, snow-shoeing, rock-climbing or whatever. It allows me to look back at previous events (and to check details like how the scenery looked given the rainfall or when I did something). So that's my current intent! 

My New Toy

I've got more free time and I've bought myself a mountain bike. It's a new experience for me and it feels a bit strange. I've been cycling for ages but that doesn't help so much when the trail gets technical. But learning is a big part of the fun...

Today I took my toy up a mountain I've flown over many times (and hiked and hiked+flown a few times) - le Petit Cordoeil. It took a long time to get up and I was down in a jiffy - a bit like ski-touring or hike and flies. I'm not sure if this is more or less dangerous than paragliding. In the meantime I remove my SPOT locator from my flight deck when I take my new toy out - just in case. A few more pics...  ...