But I also know that momentum can be a powerful ally, so the next day after finishing Biographie I put my draws on an incredible route I was hoping to climb over on the Berlin Wall - it's a stunning line that homeboy Dave Graham bolted a while back, and was eventually opened by David Lama in 2010 and to the best of my knowledge has resisted any repeats since. Lülü is a low(er) angle, finger tweaking, resistant, hyper technical, airy masterpiece. It's brilliant! Some of the most run out hard climbing at Ceuse that I've done, and some of the rarest holds and generally in your face throughout, I really loved piecing it together. Quite hard for 14c no doubt, maybe it's harder? who knows. Hopefully my chalk will inspire another repeat.
Lülü |
Next up for me was a super classic over on the Demi-lune that I had yet to check out. Dures Limites 14b is one of the areas most coveted hard routes - bullet stone, cool hold variety and two well separated nice punchy cruxes. It's been warming up here a lot recently, so I was really pleased to finish it in a day before it got any hotter - this route has some very small grips on it. Next I wanted to revisit Chronique de la Haine Ordinaire 14b over on the Biographie wall. I had tried it once back 2 years ago and found the opening boulder problem to feel super hard! I was hoping that in my current condition it would be much easier but I was wrong, ha! This route was super hard for me. Maybe it's my size, or maybe it was in part that I had poor beta until just before my send go, but I had to fight for this thing and I got a gnarly flapper in the process.
Chronique de la Haine Ordinaire -- http://bearcammedia.com |
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The crew shares some Rosé on the Med. |
And that basically wraps up my time here in Ceuse.... I absolutely love this place - my favorite cliff on earth no doubt, but I'm also excited to move on, and explore some other new zones. I feel very fortunate and grateful for my time here, and I trust will find more incredible routes and rad people as I work my way towards Switzerland!
But first, a weekend at the Arc'ademy in Chamonix... Hope to see you guys there!