Céüse

Once we got bored of Ailefroide we took a bus a couple of hours down the road to Gap. From Gap we could see the cliff of Céüse, often called the best sport crag in the world. I could see what all the hype is about, perfect rock with pockets everywhere, its like it was made to be climbed. The big drawback of Céüse is that its a gruelling hour and a half walk in (for us) to get to the base of the cliff. The first time we walked in was the worst, maybe becasue we took the wrong way, but I seriously had my doubts if it would be worth it once we were up. But it definately was.



The climbers campsite, Les Guerins, was pretty intense. It seemed like every strong climber travelling around Europe was there. There were climbers from all over Europe, the US and Canada, even Asians and South Americans. It was easy to tell where some of them were from because they were often in teams with matching tracksuits representing their country (i'm not joking). There were a lot of very serious climbers there. It seemed like the average climber was climbing 8b and had about 2% body fat. Laura and I felt pretty out of shape in a place like this which is pretty ridiculous. There were quite a few sponsored climbers there I recognised, and some guys from a couple of the climbing dvd's I have; Underdeveloped and West Coast Gimps, so that was cool. We even ran into Aline a friend from Edinburgh who we had climbed a lot with last summer in Squamish, so it was fun especially for Laura to climb with her again.

Me fighting through the steep crux of Bibendum 7b+

At first it took us a while to get used to the climbing at Céüse, there were often quite scary runouts towards the top of routes. I did a long 6c+ called Mawoi (to the second chains) that had two bolts in the last 20m to the chains, it was vertical climbing on shallow slopey pockets with no chalk on the rock, I was very tempted to bail but I'm glad I finished it off. It seemed that often the worst run outs were on the easier routes, so Laura had a tough time committing to some, nevertheless she still sent some proud routes including a 6b+ flash, and a 6c redpoint. In the first few days I fell off a 7b and a 7b+ that I thought felt quite hard, which got me a bit worried. But then I got on some steeper stuff and seemed to do a lot better. I onsighted Lapinerrie a classic steep 7b, it didn't feel too hard, the crux was probably waiting around it the queue for the route without ruining the onsight. A couple days later I tried Bibendum an awesome looking 7b+ that I'd been told was onsightable and my style, steep and juggy. It was a real fight going through the steep bulgy roof on good (and occasionally not so good) pockets, before I managed to find a rest in a big pod where I could get a half decent knee bar and sideways arm bar that was just enough to de-pump before the pockety headwall. I was really chuffed to onsight this route, I certainly wasn't expecting to onsight a 7b+ in Ceuse. I met Dave Redpath from scottishclimbs.com up there and he kindly sent the photos of me on Bibendum, my camera had broken somewhere between Ailefroide and Céüse so these are the only photos I have from there.


After I did Bibendum I asked Robbie (from Edinburgh) and Eric (from Sweden), a couple of strong young guys who I was hanging out with, for a good 7c to get on. They had both onsighted the classic Céüse climb Vagabond d' Occident, and were always saying how easy it is. I got on it and was expecting a jug ladder to the top the way they were describing it. But I soon found out 7c in Céüse is not easy no matter how easy people make it sound. I got back on it for my 2nd go attempt a couple of days later and this time I cruised it. It made a big difference knowing what to expect and shaking out on the good holds. I was really glad to climb 7c in Céüse and to do such a classic route there makes it all the better. According to the routes database on 8a.nu Vagabond d' Occident is the 3rd most climbed route in the world!

Me on Bibendum just after the rest

I did Vagabond right at the end of our time in Céüse, if we stayed there a week or two longer I'm sure I could have climbed even harder. But I think if we stayed any longer we would have gone crazy, there is only so long we can take living out of backpacks. We're back in Scotland now, its nice to have a warm shower and a comfy bed to sleep in. We fly back to Seattle in a few days. Its been a great trip but I think we're both ready to get back to real life.