Stuck in the Middle......

Friday we headed back towards Peillon but due to a rather threatening sky we side-slipped to Le Trinite. Colin was a bit bemused, a quarry AND north facing AND under the motorway AND in the rain - but Carrière en Fer à Cheval this wasn't. Great routes on amazing juggy rock, steep and long, plus with the added attraction of loadsa bolts - the French do things so well!
Mind you the big news is the ash - thanks to Iceland's latest export almost all flights in Europe are cancelled. Colin was supposed to be heading home tomorrow - but that ain't going to happen! Current best bets look like:
1) wait a week for the next EasyJet availability
2) get the train - nothing for at least three days
3) hire a car and drive

Time will tell!

Nice Work If You Can Get It.

We escaped the grandeur of the Verdon and wound (bloody roads) our way down towards the coast. We are in a superb pad close to Vence and spring is well on the way down here, unlike up in the hills; it is a good four degrees warmer in the day. We have visited a new cliff each day and a couple of them have been real belters; Peillon and Gorbio are outstanding venues - how come we have never been there before?
Colin is climbing as well as ever, and I am bobbing along in his wake - same as it ever was!
The contrast between the coastal area with its traffic, and these superb mountain villages is amazing. Once away from the car parking it is like stepping back a couple of hundred years.

Verdonski Beat

The 3 a.m. start was a shocker, but by mid afternoon we were established in Moustiers - a bit groggy but it was great to be back. Monday was hot and sunny, the crag of Felines was excellent, we ironed out more of the errors in the local guide and did some great routes as well.
Tuesday it was up to that big hole in the ground. It was 20+ years since Colin had been there, and he had never done a route. We headed for the Dalles Gris area, but there was a bit of a log-jam on the abseil so we doubled back and set about some of the short single pitch offerings under the rim. They look a bit trivial, but 30m pitches in such a dramatic setting are not to be dismissed - exhilarating stuff!
Moustieres is a great place to stay, central to a lot of good climbing and quaint enough to be living in a film set.

Photo left: the man surveys his empire.

Quick Lime

Seven weeks since we left Kalymnos, time has really flown by. The weather has been pretty friendly, and we have been busy too. Sherri has done a fair bit of supply teaching (money in the bank) and I have managed to photograph almost of of the Peak limestone cliffs, ready for a new guidebook now that Northern Limestone has sold out. It sold much faster than we expected so we are splitting the next volume, one for Yorkshire and one for the Peak. Getting the cragshots in the bag early has been bonus.
Before that there is the small matter of finishing the Cote d'Azure guide. Hopefully a month down there (in the sunshine!) should sort it!

Sharp Shooting

A long dry spell, the lack of leaves on the trees and some days with high milky clouds has given us the perfect opportunity to start getting stuck into sourcing crag-shots for the new Peak Limestone guide. I knew there was a reason we came back from Kalymnos early.
It has given us an excuse - if one was needed - for some lovely walks through Cheedale and Water-cum-Jolly, there were even a few climbers about making the most of the dry (but cold!) conditions. I have to admit that paddling across the river below Chee Tor was certainly enervating enough for me!
Another week of the current kind of conditions should have the job largely sorted. The fact that the spring is a month late has been a bit of a blessing - we just need to make the most of it before we head off to France.

Blue Wales

After a great team outing to Stanage on a glorious Sunday (weird how those routes just keep getting harder as the years roll) the farming forecast for the week was so good, especially for the west, we decided to head over to Wales for a few days, a chance to revisit old haunts. It was as good as hoped for; -6C at night, but crisp blue days and hardly a soul anywhere. The tops are plastered and spring is just arriving in the valleys - fantastic.
A day wandering around the icy wastes of Cwm Idwal contrasted neatly with a day clipping bolts in the slate quarries, lovely stuff, and the forecast remains cracking.

Bizzy Boy

Two weeks at home and it is busy, busy, busy - my To Do List is growing much faster than I can get through it; the French Guide, a Kalymnos article, half-a-dozen book reviews (the Norwegian one has got my fingers itching), an El Chorro update, a Lofoten update and a Peak Limestone guide. And that is before helping to get the new North Wales Classics ready to fly the nest. Back to France in a month (UKC/RF jolly) then there is the summer to sort.
Beats being bored though.