Friday 18th: Leave the campsite (wet day) and head to Carrefour to do a weekly shop. Buy stockings (thermal underwear for myself - feel Super-manly). Spend afternoon in McDonalds surfing net and eat 3 burgers each. Get to L'Elephant and park up in the evening. No climbing done.
Saturday 19th: Wake-up to wet conditions. L'Elephant has soft sandstone so we respect the rock and don't climb. Walk around Dame Jouanne area and make notes of potential boulders to be climbed. Erect tarpaulin (badly - see illustration). Have portable Beastmaker session instead (work on the guns) and watch people drive passed in disgust at informal settlement on the side of the road...laugh at said people.
Sunday 20th - Wake-up to very wet conditions at L'Elephant (rained the previous night). Walk around looking at problems that are going to be destroyed if and when the rain stops. Rain does not stop...contemplate the universe instead...figure out Einstein is wrong. Black Hole's only exist when you fall into them...if you could have seen it then you would have avoided it...
Monday 21st - Wake up to sunshine. Finally! Get climbing gear and start warming up on easy problems at L'Elephant. Climb 3rd problem (L'Elephant itself) when rain falls. Get super-angry, throw toys out of cot and decide to go back to Roche Aux Sabots. Get there mid-afternoon, erect Beastmaker and have session in the car park under a well erected tarpaulin (see illustration)! Feel quite wrecked after session and walk around feeling smug about how cool our tarp looks.
Tuesday 22nd - Wake up to sunshine but don't get too excited (see previous days entry for justification). Sun sticks around so mad dash to get climbing done. I end up climbing Jeux De Toit Direct (Font 7B), Unnamed Font 7A+ next too L'Oblique and fall off last move on Les Jeux Assis (Font 7B) 4 times! Argh! Greg climbs his first Font 7A of the trip (L'Oblique) and Jeux De Toit (Font 7A/ 7A+). Meet some good people from Manchester (Cliff and company).
Wednesday 23rd - Wake up to usual overcast conditions. Get climbing when rain starts. Film Greg climbing L'Oblique. Film me climbing Unnamed Font 7A I flashed. Greg repeats this and is very satisfied as conditions aren't great...I feel the same when I climb Les Jeux Assis. Beast scream is given which echoes through the forrest.
Thursday 24th - Back at campsite, showered up and feeling human again.
So that's pretty much it in a nutshell...not the most action packed of weeks but we knew we would get times like this (it won't be the last) and it just emphasizes how important it is to take advantage of the weather when you get it.
We hope to get more climbing done this week, with more pictures and video. Hopefully the rain goes back to England so we can get some work done...haha!
If a certain someone is reading this...then please smile so we can get some good weather!
Here are 2 videos of our ascents:
L'oblique (Font 7A) Greg: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjCaSY5Xnbs
La Barre Fixe (Font 7B+) Chris: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdiYZgZV9FI
Stay classy San Diego,
Chris
How did you make the stand alone frame for the beastmaker? I've been looking to replace my current set-up which consists of a similar thing only it uses a door-frame pull up bar.
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