Vent de croix à Gréolières

Champagne update!

Still no success for Thib in this perfect slab... The least that we could say is that conditions are everything in this route, and the main difficulty of Champagne is to get the right perfect ones! Due to the location, right above the see and facing the sun all day, it's often to hot or damp...

The good part is that he has therefore motivated some climber from nice like Petr and Blaise to come with him and try. Blaise also felt in love with the route, and is also doing great on it! Both of them are trying to regain some skin right now... Psyche is high and they will be back on Champagne by the end of the week, pushing for the redpoint, so stay tuned!

Thib on Cornichon explosif - It seems he really likes perfect technical wall climbing...

Redpointing time in Gréolières!

These past few days, lots has been going on in Gréolières. First of all, the Australians are back, and their motivation is higher than ever... if that's even possible! Aurel is back on his full time climbing and drilling mode. Two days after he came back, he already bolted a new route on the right side of the central cave. It's called Daddy dundee and it's seems really nice.. short and powerful like always up there! Right after that, he redpointed his route Les plaies mobiles, quickly followed by Petr! Shape seems not to have gone too far... and sure that there soon will be tons of other new projects and sends in this beautiful cliff... Pure! 

The cliff also received the visit of the Riviera finest climber... Maxime and his bro Ben came back to crush respectively Le poinçonneur délira, and my route Dépucelage minéral! Route which was also crushed by Cedric Lo Piccolo and Kévin Aglaé both on their second go... The 8b grade seems to be more or less accurate. Cedric also did Les plaies mobiles on his second go, not bad at all for a come back session after two months away from climbing due to a finger injury. Kev wrist also seems to be completely healed since he did Le poinçonneur délira, Ura Nagé both flash to warm up before Dépucelage minéral, and then finished by an on-sight ascent of Les plaies mobiles! These two really are climbing machines!!!

Ben going for the first repeat of my route : Dépucelage minéral

Btw, for the grade, after a little talk with the concerned climber, 8a+ for  Ura Nagé, and 8a for Le poinçonneur délira seems to be more accurate to stay consistent with the other routes up there. Anyway there are both great routes which should be tried whatever their grade!

Zumozol - Love story is over!

I did it!!!! So pleased! Zumozol is the project I've been working on for... I don't know... maybe ten sessions! I'm pleased to have done this one first cause it's without doubt one of the best climb of the Riviera, but also cause it's super bouldery on underclimb... a style which basically doesn't suit me at all! Funny how these powerful short bouldery routes, which are definitely my anti-style, have recently been more and more the ones that really motivates me! I guess I just love getting from being incapable of doing the moves, to finally hike them. My problem is these kind of hard routes, is that I often need to be literally cruising the crux moves before being able to link them from the beginning of the route... and trust me it can get a bit frustrating! Anyway that way to me it's often a good idea not to just try again and again on a project, but also to climb on other smaller projects, with different climbing styles, to keep the psyche high!!!

To conclude here are some pics of Zumozol, a route which truly deserve a bit of publicity. Mathieu also did some video footage, so maybe a video will come out... Stay tuned, thanks for reading, hope you enjoy it and of course feel free to leave comments! ++

Zumozol first crux move - Powerful compression on perfect underclimb with shitty feet... love it!

Zumozol - Just before and after the move I kept falling till last Saturday... 

My favorite movement on Zumozol - A reachy move from two perfect tiny tufa pinches to a underclimb mono,
thanks to a perfect technical heel hook on the bottom of the right tufa!