Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - Trip Reports

Tells Us About Your Latest Trip!

Topic Date User

Rod's Euro 2009 - Trip Report ~ with updates! 17-Aug-2009 At 7:33:32 PM rod

Message

just had a cracker of a week!

laurent monnet and i hooked up and took his 1956 vintage jeep for a run over into france. this thing is wild - its a real chick magnet! we went over the pass at monthey, through chatel and turned right up the hill at abondance...so well named. 10 minute walk and we were underneath a 3 pitch route comprising one overhanging pitch of pockets, one very technical slab and the final wall which rears up from technical slab to vertical and then a final overhang with a bit of a dodgy rock finish. top climbing 6b plus obligatory, 6b-6c in general with the slab in pitch 2 defeating both of us on lead and second so we don't know the actual limit but morphology dependent I reckon that pitch at 6c plus to 7a - old slab heroes would probably give it 6a plus. lunch and we moved over to a 7a or 7b route on a pillar - 35 metres of pure manna from heaven. laurent lead and pulled the silver jugs to glory through all the cruxes, i had a crack and couldn't nail the main crux once but bagged the rest. i'd love time to work it into submission, one of the better 7a-b's I've come across, demands everything in the kitbag and its nice and long. magnificent setting and absolutely deserted. topo on the web, PM me if in the area and want details for the site access. driving back was a blast, stopped in monthey and laurie tried to pull the barmaid but she was totally wise to the old dog...

the site in abondance

bouldering in saleina, val ferret with sandra, 6b-6c plus one good looking problem in the 7b or 7c range called power lard but overall i didn't dig this site.

off with laurie again this time we went to the back of Les Dents du Midi to a site that we didn't end up climbing because he forgot his shoes...i was SO relieved, it looked rubbish. off to chibloz underneath gr chavalard for some alpine style rock and intimidation...good routes but the suspect rock put the wind up me a bit, finally got it together though and onsighted all of his routes. the poor bugger seemed a bit disappointed because he'd been gradually piecing them together over the past 10 years but not redpointed one of them yet. a surprisingly large amount of alcohol needed to tame the nerves at the end of the day though, unlikely i'll go back to this site despite the quality of the setting because the rock is simply too hit and miss.

laurie's 1956 jeep

interview regarding swiss passport then 2 days partying in awesome weather that was too hot to climb in.

sunday passed with a trip to the alpine limestone of fritzland with christoph, alex and ruedi. another awesome site with cowbells clanging, flowered meadows, glacier scenery, aqua coloured lakes, marmottes and naked maidens. the rock here ranged from pretty good to inspiringly good. despite the partying induced fatigue we all had a very good day of onsighting and i can imagine staying up there in a tent one of these years with the objective of sending every route in the place. the following photo links show the staggering beauty of the spot, one photo shows the average route style and the final one is a full topo.

http://www.hikr.org/gallery/photo86172.html?post_id=9059#1

tired today, might go for a boulder at the hermitage but may just end up in a hammock beside a lake...