James Mchaffie
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A short trip to Ceuse...

9/2/2012

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What a place. Touted as the best sport crag in France it didn’t disappoint although when i first arrived I received such a kicking I was glad there were no sarcastic commentators on the sidelines and that no one knew I got most of the kit for free. I can recommend not having Bouze de Douze or L’atome de Savoie as part of your warm up proceedings although it did give me a chance to test the Alpha trads which were great for sitting on, swinging on and falling on although I wished now and again that the Krabs were big enough to throw an arm through for when I was too pumped to even grab the draw and lacking in moral fibre for a legendary Ceuse ride. 
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Great sky across the Biographie Wall and a climber on Collonets
After a rest day things improved dramatically and some highlight climbs included Angel Dust, L’ami Caoutte, La Tombe de Savoie and Cent Patates and we finished the short holiday with a great day doing 10 routes between 7a and 8a with each one being 3 stars. Things like Collonets were good but felt like they’d been made by a hungover routesetter who’d regained some wits in the middle and lost them again at the end. 

Other highlights included watching a stunningly smooth redpoint attempt by a young French person which made me think about the shear quantity of amazing climbers France has had over the decades and the fluid grace associated with them (not to sound weird) and an Austrian 11 year old onsighting a 7b+! At first I thought it must be Aidan (12years old) who climbed Raindogs at Malham earlier in the year, the youngest ascent so far and it never fails to blow me away watching somebody half my size climb a relatively reachy hard route.

Well stoked to go back early next year to get stuck into some of the Biographie wall routes. Think a 5/6 week trip is in order and would recommend anyone able to do so to do the same, the campsite is excellent and very cheap although we did hit it when it was very quiet. As well as my own reasons for going there I’m keen to get Ryan Pasquil to try and finish off 3 degrees of Separation (a Sharma 9a) which he was getting close to afew years ago after he completed another desperate route there Baa Baa Black Sheep (8c+) along with Smitten. I can’t envisage any moves hard enough to stop Ryan and if I were him I’d have 3 months there and do every route on the Biographie wall. 
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