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General Climbing Discussion

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Dirtbagging around europe 24-Jan-2017 At 11:05:34 AM Ariel

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I lived in France for a while and dirtbagged around Spain a bit. Camping in public spots (ie crags) is generally illegal, and there's bugger all infrastructure in terms of access to water anywhere I went. It's usually possible to find somewhere to put a tent, but your life would be made a tonne easier with a van. Also, bizarrely enough tent camping seems to be illegal throughout France/Spain, but van and RV camping is promoted :/ .

I'd recommend:
* The area around Montpellier, FR has thousands of great sports routes within 45 minutes of the city. Tourists don't seem to really get to this area, but I don't understand why. My favourite spot was Thaurac, but there's tonnes of others. The Thaurac alone has 800ish routes.
* Mont Sainte-Victoire near Aix en Provence is incredible. Heaps of sport and trad on really solid limestone. Some really cool alpine-style adventure routes of 300+ metres.
* Les Dentelles de Montmirail in south-central FR. Likewise heaps of sport and trad on solid limestone. Awesome setting.
* Les Calanques around Marseille. As above, but even more amazing setting. You can do some stupendously long multi-pitch traverses above the ocean if you want.
* Les Gorges d'Heric nearish Toulouse. Not world-class, but if you're in the area it's a really pretty nonetheless. I never climbed here (only went for a wander through the park) but there's supposed to be plenty of decent trad/mixed granite stuff.

The whole east coast of Spain is incredible. I can't remember the names of everywhere we went, but the cragging around Oliana is incredible, and El Chorro is phenomenal for winter. If you just drove down the east coast with a pile of guide books though you could easily enjoy yourselves for a few months.