Divine Providence – A hard but satisfying journey

The G.P.A. on the left and the arête de Peutrey on the right that leads towards MB de Courmayeur. 

My calves were screaming for some flat ground, we had been climbing on a 40° snow arête for about 3 hours on our third day climbing one of the best climbs I’ve ever done. When I looked up I saw Tim just pulling over the lip of the mountain. It was Mont Blanc de Courmayeur. Tim was on top and screamed loud, I still had to climb 20 meters before I also topped out. Those 20 meters were amazing; the view, the sun, the feeling, the satisfaction, the relief,… Most of all knowing we had just free climbed ‘Divine providence’  (ABO 7c, 900m) on sight and where going to top out on the Mont Blanc for our first time. What a magical moment. 

One of our objectives for this trip was to try and reach the top of the Mont Blanc climbing one of the most difficult and complete lines. We were told of ‘Divine providence’, a route that climbs the 900-meter wall of the Grand Pilier d’Angle on the Northeast side of the Mont Blanc. The two most important reasons we wanted to attempt this classic but difficult climb was to climb the nine amazing crack pitches in the middle free and reach the top of the Mont Blanc for our first time. 

François Marsigny and Patrick Gabbarou have opened the route in 1984 at a grade of ABO A2/A3. Lately it has been free climbed more often and the route became more popular. 

Me from belgium, me not trust 'serac'

Although the Grand Pilier d’Angle is on the Italian side of the Mont Blanc, we started our trip at Aguille du Midi. Most of the time people attempt the route starting from the hut ‘La Fourche’, which is pretty close to the base of the Grand Pilier d’Angle (G.P.A.). From Aguille du Midi we had to hike three hours more before reaching the base of the wall. Sunday morning at 7 o’clock we took the first cabin up, nervous and full of excitement we hiked passed the Combe Maudit, were we camped a week ago, towards our objective. Passing two col’s (the col of the hut La Fourche and col More) we arrived at the glacier underneath the G.P.A. Crossing the glacier was the part of the whole climb we stressed about the most. Above this glacier a lot of ‘seracs’ (=huge overhanging package of snow and ice) are ticking as a time bomb before falling down. 

The Grand Pilier d'Angle where you clearly can see the good rock!

Once we rappelled down of col More, the Mario game started. We had to run across this glacier as quickly as possible. With tons of adrenaline and focus we ran over towards the base of the wall. To reach the wall we had to cross the ‘rimais’ (crack between the snow and the base of the wall). I was going ahead, I chose to cross towards the safe rock passing a snow bridge over the rimais. While I was crossing the bridge I talked to myself: ‘This is not going to break when I cross, this is safe, it will go, this is safe’. But than, before I knew the snow under my crampons disappeared and so did I. I didn’t fell to far, the good reflection to smash my ice axe into the snow stopped me from falling farther. Climbing out of the rimais I told Tim that everything was fine. Reaching the rock I made an anchor and belayed Tim who at his turn also fell into the rimais. 

Mid-day; we reached the wall, crossed the glacier underneath the ceracs safely and were ready to climb this piece of rock. The first 400 meters of the wall where easy climbing, 5^th grade with some 6^th grade sections. We climbed the terribly lose rock, both with a backpack on just until we reached the first bivy ledge at 10 pm. Although the rock was loose the climbing was interesting. Instead of pulling on your arms and hanging on rock it’s important to stem between the rocks and try not to put to pull too much on the holds. Scary … I feel the last few weeks gave me a lot of confidence climbing on granite. I feel comfortable and can stay calm in awkward situations.

Just melted some water for the day!

Our first night on the wall was amazing. We found a good bivy ledge, cooked a little dinner and drank some hot water with bouillon (soup). Also we were lucky to find a little snow near the ledge that we melted and used for cooking. The next day we started late, at around 8 am we started climbing the nine pitches in good and solid rock. The scrambling from last day was over and we were ready for some perfect classic cracks. A big solid, steep granite wall was waiting for us.

Great sunrise in our exhausted faces!

With porridge on our stomach we started the day with an amazing chimney with a tunnel move behind a huge block. Not to bad for a warm-up. The next pitch was some more serious business. We got woken up completely with a short 7a+ of 15 meters. The climbing is technical and precise on this kind of granite. We also didn’t climbed with the heavy backpacks anymore. This time the rock was steep enough we could haul our sleeping gear, cooking stuff and food up the wall. For some harder free climbing we needed to be free of heavy bag packs.

I'm hidden in the chimney behind one of the blocks!

Me in the technical 7b pitch of the overhanging dihedral! 

One more amazing 6b leaded us towards the highlight of the wall. A big overhanging dihedral was looming at us. The dihedral was split up in two long pitches, a technical 7b and an endurance 7c in the last and steeper part of the dihedral. After one long day of hiking and climbing we finally reached the crux pitches. The goal was to try and climb those two pitches free and on sight. I took the lead and went for the on sight attempt. The first dihedral pitch demanded a slow but controlled climbing style with a little crux at the end. Successfully I made the anchor and Tim followed smoothly. The second and hardest dihedral pitch was more overhanging then we thought. Quickly and efficient I climbed past the hardest moves in the start of the pitch and speeded up the long dihedral that leaded into a perfect crack at the end. Pumped but satisfied we realised we both climbed the hardest pitches free! 

Tim in the last part of the crux pitch.

Now only four more pitches followed. The last harder pitch was a short 7a with a little roof. The sun was gone and the cold temperatures of the mountains started to hit our bodies. With cold hands and feet, Tim climbed the last hard pitch and even linked it accidently with the last 6b. Frozen I followed him up to his belay. Now the real crack climbing was over, 250 meters of easier ground followed. From now on the hauling was done and the big backpacks had to go on again. We took of our climbing shoes and switched them for the mountain boots to be lighter and have warmer feet. This next part is what seemed as an endless part of the climb. Easy but loose scrambling with sometimes some snow we climbed simultaneously up towards the top of the wall. 

Me on the belay of the crux pitch. 

Reaching the top of the wall didn’t mean we were done climbing. Still there was the ‘Arête de Peutrey’ that leads up towards the Mont Blanc de Courmayeur (the summit just before the Mont Blanc summit). The first part of the arête was rocky and loose. Slow, really slow and tired we scrambled at a height of 4000m altitude over the exposed and loose arête. This is the part that scared me the most. We had climbed and hiked two long days, were tired and did not know exactly how far we still had to go towards the top of the Mont Blanc. A couple of hours further we arrived on the big snowy arête of the mountain. I went ahead with Tim about 20 meters behind. Climbing with one ice axe on the steep snow I realised we were not going fast. Every step I made I sank away in the snowy arête. Walking in this powder snow is not only really tiring but is also scary on this exposed arête. It was 10 pm and it was getting dark when Tim screamed: ‘Siebe, is it smart to go on in this kind of shit snow? This arête has been in the sun the whole day, it’s going to take ages before we reach the top!’ After we discussed our physical situation we decided to return from the snow and go back towards the rocky arête to find a place to spend the night.

Our 'body tensioned' second bivy!

A bivy ledge like the one we had the night before we were not going to find again. We took the best spot we could find between tons of loose blocks and installed a little anchor. After some pasta an epic night could begin! In some kind of sit/lay down position we tried to sleep close to each other using some body tension to stay in position. The frustrating part was that once we would fall a sleep, we would literally fall off because we lost body tension. An epic night I would say. 

At 5 am we made another porridge and prepared our backs to attack the snow arête. We both were wracked and felt like shit sleeping in this awkward ‘body tensioned’ position whole night. I have to say we had a hard time finding motivation to continue on the steep arête. But once started, things were different. The snow was hard and frozen because of the night and hiking up this thing was ten times easier then the night before. Climbing on the 40° snow arête was hard with some parts mixed rock and ice but this time we climbed fast and efficient. Besides suffering we also took our time to enjoy the scenery at this elevation. Climbing a mountain is something strange, so many times you ask yourself the question: ‘Why am I doing this? I’m so tired and exhausted, it hurts and I have no longs or calves anymore!’ But other moments you realise it is the thing you want the most. You go for something you’re not even sure you’re capable of doing it. But still, you do it. Pushing yourself and testing what your possibilities are makes me satisfied, whatever the results are. 

The last 20 meters!

Then, we’re back where I started my blog post: 20 meters before the top of the Mont Blanc de Courmayeur. I found new energy and ran up the last few meters towards Tim! A big high five and some victory shout expressed our proud feeling on climbing the hardest and most complete climbs we both have done! We still had to top out on the Mont Blanc and go down taking the ‘route de Trois Monts’ towards the Aguille du Midi but the relief and satisfaction was huge. 

Tim, excited en reliefed on the top of MB de Courmayeur.

Twenty minutes after topping out on Mont Blanc de Courmayeur we arrived on the summit of the Mont Blanc. We melted some snow, drank and ate our last bar and started the ‘endlessly’ descent of the Mont Blanc. Suffering but proud we moved slow. The cool thing about this kind of goals is that your mind is focussed on one thing: climbing to the top. Besides that the way of doing it counts: climbing it free and clean. During this trip those where the only things in mind. It’s just you, your partner and the climb! 

We got it! Courmayeur! Still 20 minutes to the MB!

The glacier and amazing view underneath G.P.A!

Tim in the pitch after the crux pitch.

One of the breathtaking views from the top of MB de Courmayeur.

On the top of the Mont Blanc homies!!!!

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Gran Capuchi Style!

At six o clock in the morning I woke up in the middle of a glacier with the sun on our tent and I heard a Spanish guy screaming: ‘Capuchio…, Capuchio…, Capuchio!’. I couldn’t sleep anymore because of the thought the Spanish guy was drinking an amazing cappuccino in the sun. Two days later I realised he was just excited to go climbing on one of the best granite peaks in Europe!

And yes indeed… summer is coming! We have to climb! It’s been a long time since my last blog post. I got plenty of good reasons. In June I had like every other student some exams to study. For me the exam period is a period I enjoy because of the daily rhythm and structure. Studying about 8 hours a day followed by some training in gym I try to get good results in school and focus on getting stronger for the summer. I can proudly say I finished my first year studying social work with some good results. I proved now to myself that I can combine my study’s with a lot of climbing and travelling. This is reassuring for the following years. 

Getting in to it…

After my last exam I left towards Chamonix and Switzerland where I climbed a little bit of everything. First of all I had to recover a little from the training and studying. In Chamonix I met up with Sean, Nico and Stéphane. Because of the insecure weather in Chamonix we left towards Petit Clocher du Portalet where we climbed for about three days. We split teams and did some of the classic lines. The first day I climbed together with Stéphane, we did the most famous line in the Petit Clocher du Portalet, état de choc (7b) six pitches. One of the pitches that I led was an easy offwidth with one wider part. In the wide part I made the mistake to crawl completely inside the offwidth. Similar scenario as two years ago in ‘the harding slot’ of the famous route Astroman in Yosemite I got stuck with my head out of the crack. Again I had to take off my helmet to get out of it. Nasty, those small offwidth’s.

A view in the tent of 'Le dent du Géant'

It felt nice to climb on granite again, the jamming technique is still in my body but placing my feed on tiny crystals I had to relearn. The start of the summer made me realise I want to climb a lot of granite and multipitch. It’s time to get more experienced in multipitch climbing in the mountains. The whole game of combining hard crackclimbing in long days with mountain conditions, snow and ice is attracting me. The first time I did this kind of climbing was in the Bugaboos, Canada. I feel it’s time to try it again. Right now I’m in Chamonix together with Tim De Dobbeleer and we are both motivated to climb and crush big and long routes on the Mont Blanc massif. The climbs and atmosphere with Tim were amazing and I have the feeling some cool projects are going down soon! 

Gran Capuchi Crushing…

During one month, Tim and I are going to climb some mountain cracks together! The first days of our trip our eye fell on Chamonix and more specific the ‘Gran Capucin’. This last one is one of the cleanest rock peaks of the Mont Blanc. We got information about the weather at the mountain guide office in Chamonix and bham, like the Frenchies will say: ‘grand beau’ for four days in a row! 

As two luxury dirtbags like we are, we looked for a free (and dry) place to stay in the valley of Chamonix. Good news, we found an empty carport out of wood that we claimed as our little house. In about 5 minutes all the gear that was nice and packed in the car, was hanging and laying all over the carport. Preparing all the food, organising the gear and making plans of which routes we wanted to do we made our heavy bags for the next five days to come.

In the evening we hiked in two hours from Aguille du Midi towards the base of Gran Capucin where we pitched our tent in de middle of the glacier. This was amazing, I love the clean snow that stretches out for about 2 km around us. The snowfields end in some snow couloirs leading towards big granite peaks. A dream campsite I would say. With pots and pans we dug a whole in the snow to put our big 4-person hotel down. Luxury boys. 

The next day the climbing started, but not like we expected. We wanted to climb ‘Elixir D’astaroth’  (in Dutch we had fun saying: ‘Elixir d’a strot!’). I guess we finally climbed Elixir but after some epic search on the wall. From the fourth pitch on we got lost. Gran Capucin has so many lines, so many possible lines and so many ankers and pitons that we missed the right line a couple of times. Doing pendulums, huge traverses and climbing some pitches more then ones (up and down) we reached the top at 10 pm. Pretty late for a 14 pitch climb that should be all right. This was the first day Tim and I climbed together and it was hilarious, we looked like two analphabetic children in their playground! Although we were slow and often confused we had a great first day and the teamwork and spirit reached a high level.

The following day we were up for some short but a little harder route. We climbed ‘Les Intouchables’ (7b+) of six pitches. Like the French film, Les Intouchables as a route on Trident is amazing! The 5^th pitch is a perfect slightly overhanging hand crack of 40 meters! Amazing, just put you on mode train and crack climbing is easy (exaggerated). The rest of the route wasn’t easy either, a start pitch 7b woke us up, leading into an amazing 6c finger crack with perfect locks! Followed by a long thin 7a pitch where a lot of technique is required. When the second day was over Tim couldn’t stop talking about the free can ravioli we got that morning of some German guys who left the glacier. Although we carried up fresh veggie’s Tim fancied the can. I still don’t now if he liked the can more just because it’s ravioli or because he kicks on ‘free’ food.

On top of the airy block of the Trident du Tacul after climbing 'Les Intouchables'!

I’ve always been a morning person. I love mornings. I love food the most in the morning. I like climbing in the morning more. I don’t mind waking up and getting ready for the day. Tim though is more of an active evening guy. When I’m melting the snow at 5:30 in the morning to make porridge he snores slowly a little bit more. But when I’m wracked of jamming whole day long, he melts some snow for the polenta and beans dinner. This made a good team.  Wracked but motivated we started our third day in the classical 14 pitch route in Gran Capucin, ‘Voyage selon Guilliver’ (7a). This time we where informed better and we decided not to get lost, it worked. We didn’t get lost and climbed the route smoothly to the top. That day we were down early and enjoyed the sun next to the tent, joked around, ate and reinforced our hotel. Because of the melting snow every day our tent quickly lost its tension. Like I said earlier, it was ‘grand beau’ time. I new it could be very hot in the mountains but I didn’t expect us melting on the granite and even in the snow. The conditions were great!

Tim dancing up the last pitch of Les Intouchables

Me in Bridwell Crack!

One more day at work we left for a 6 pitch climb called ‘Bridwell Crack’ (7b+) on the petit clocher left of Gran Capucin. The route starts at the top of a snow couloirs. Hiking up the steep couloirs was scary with the melting snow above, snowfall was possible every moment so we had to hike fast. Once started in the route we realised it could be harder as expected. The pitch before the crux pitch was an amazing 7a roof traverse with slopy feet and a tricky move at the end. The crux pitch it self was amazing, again a perfect vertical crack with amazing fingerlocks, ringlocks and handjams. Also on this fourth day we realised to onside and free climb every pitch we tried. 

Ma dalton, We'll be back!

The next morning it felt like the Frenchies took there snowplows up to the mountains and started driving over our tent that night. We were wracked from climbing. That morning we took away our hotel and hiked back with the heavy bags over the glaciers towards Aguille du Midi. Passing the Aguille du Midi our eye fell on this amazing roof crack, Ma Dalton (7c). We paid a lot of money to take the lift from Chamonix to Aguille du Midi up and we wanted to get the money out of it so we still tried Ma Dalton. But on that fifth day we could feel the four long days of climbing in our body’s and brains. Tired I made my way up in the roof needing to figure out some of the methods. Tim did the same thing where after we decided we had our dose climbing and it was time for some almond croissants! 

Those five nights and days up in the mountains were amazing. I’m excited for the next few weeks to climb some harder, longer, scarier and even better lines at an altitude of 3800 meter. We have more objectives! If they are going to be done all at the end of the month I don’t know but we’re f*cking motivated to go for it all!

Check also Tim's blogpost on Mountcoach.

Tired on top of our first day epic search ascent of Elixir.

Ready to crush!!!

Me following Tim on the perfect 7b handcrack of Les Intouchables.

M. Jackson is a life high in the mountains, we've seen him!

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Melloblocco and last edition of 'Into Climbing'

Val di Mello town!

Back home from a long and ‘unexpected journey’ I feel fresh to focus on my studies again. Due to the amount of thoughts about what I want in the future with climbing and studying, I found new energy for to following exam period.

The last 6 days I’ve spent some time in Val di Mello with bad weather but did didn’t take away the fun of my journey. Without a tent or nothing else to sleep in I arrived in Val di Masino, where the Melloblocco event is centred. In dashing rain I searched the valley roads for a big white van of a British friend, Josh. The van is recognizable thanks to the flashy red-yellow lines on the back with a writing that says ‘Highway maintenance’. 

Frustrated, such big walls and not able to climb them! 

Not completely sure if he would be in the valley I was relieved to see his van on a parking lot. I found him and some other people bouldering underneath a tarp in the rain. I quickly joined them and we bouldered the whole afternoon on a little piece of rock inventing some moves and eliminating holds to make the climbing more interesting. I found myself being mentally a little lost on boulders. It’s been so long ago that I had bouldered and I had to come back into the mindset of trying one or two moves over and over again and cranking on hard to do a move. This made me realise I should boulder a little more because it’s a lot of fun to be out with a group of people braking our head (and skin) on single hard moves on a piece of granite.

Basically I climbed only a couple of boulders on those six days due to the bad weather. I have to say that even me, as a Belgian, was really impressed about the amount of water the sky pored down on the heads of many climbers during this Melloblocco festival. Because of all this wetness outside we climbed a lot indoor on a 30-degree training bord, crucial to keep in good shape! I also used the rainy weather to study everyday, trying to keep track of the classes I missed last weeks. 

I'm so excited! 

My study room during those six days! 

I walked around in this big valley and the granite walls look so amazing! It’s like they say the little Yosemite in Europe, I’m excited to return and try some of the big faces in Val di Masino and Val di Mello! Basically I came here to do some traditional climbing but with the big amount of rain it will take a while to dry out. Tradclimbing in this valley will remain a dream! And yes, I will come back!!! 

100sations Blocs and Into Climbing

Right now I’m back home for a little bit and tomorrow (4^th of May) is the last time I will give the lecture ‘Into Climbing’! This time it will be in the climbing gym ‘Entre Ciel et Terre’ in Louvain La Neuve. The lecture will be following the boulder competition ‘100sations Blocs’. This will be a friendly competition where 120 climbers get the chance to climb 100 boulders in three and a half hours! The coolest thing about this is that you get to try a lot of boulders who are spread out over the whole (big) climbing gym, the gym offers a lot of space! 

So I would like to invite you all to come climbing tomorrow, boulder as hard as you can, have a lot of fun in so many boulders, and afterwards enjoy this last edition of Into Climbing where I will share experiences of my trips with the highlight of the Venezuela expedition. For more information take a look at the blogpost ‘Into Climbing’.

The lecture will be in my best French ever! For people who don’t speak French and wanted to see this last edition, I can secure you it’s still worth to come and look! The images are amazing and my French is a basic French, you will understand! 

Trailer - Big Ass Jungle Climbing from Siebe Vanhee on Vimeo.

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The North Face Kalymnos Bolting Fun!

‘Kalymnos... A climbers paradise.’ I have to say this place is one of the only places I’ve ever been were everything is about climbing. Kalymnos is a tiny island with a lot of rock, a lot of sun, sea, good food, super friendly people and a lot of routes. I can also subscribe it as a sport climbing ‘vacation’ destiny. It’s not the kind of climbing area you should go to when you want adventure and hardcore climbing. 

When I first heard about Kalymnos I had the impression there were only steep routes with big tufas and stalactites. There is a lot of those but in fact, Kalymnos has a lot of slightly overhanging and vertical sectors with good grey rock and a crimpy climbing style. 

Thanks to Jacopo (check out his cool blog!) I could join The North Face in its organisation of their relatively new event ‘The North Face Kalymnos Climbing Festival’. Our job was to develop a new crag and open new routes for the PRO competition of the festival. The goal was to find good routes of all grades with specifically some hard ones for the competition. 

Once arrived in Kalymnos I met Hansjörg Auer and Iker Pou who joined us for some bolting. Not knowing any of the two we made a good team and had a lot of fun bolting and joking around. With the four of us we rented some scooters and raced around the island to complete our job. 

First we started to explore the island with the help of Claude, who is a Frenchmen living on the island and developing new areas, we found what we needed. This local helped us and The North Face a lot, thanks man! 

Starting the day with coffee and Greek yoghurt and ending with a king’s dinner we bolted almost 10 days to establish the new crag. I can’t say a lot about it yet because of the friendly competition format of the festival but soon we will announce the guide of the new crag. 

I wasn’t planning on bolting sport climbing lines this trip but I’m happy I did it. It was a nice experience in an amazing place with a lot of fun people and I have to say we added some amazing new climbs to the Kalymnos sport climbing island. I’m glad I could help and enriched my own experiences too. 

Hansjörg's hands: You think the new crag will have tufa's?

Right now I’m in Val di Mello. After when we came back from Kalymnos I still had a week of time to get some climbing done. I went on my own towards Val di Mello but some bad luck that fell over my head. Since the three days I'm here it has just been raining. The good thing is that the Melloblocco festival is going on and there is a lot of people and some other things to do besides climbing. We could climb a little bit on the competition boulders who are covered with a tarp and protected against the rain.

In three days I'm going home and I really hope the weather turns out better soon! Good there is a little gym here so I can keep on climbing! :)

I also would like to thank Jacopo to let me use his pictures on my blog! All the nice pictures from Tom et je Ris are taken by him, thanks man! 

Scooter Fun on the island!

Me laughing with Iker before he decided making a backflip with the scooter! 

The victory picture on top of 'Tom et je Ris'! I quickly stole it from his blog :)

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Verdon classic - Tom et je Ris

The Verdon was great! After Millau and the world cup bouldering Jacopo and I were glad to be out in nature again to enjoy some climbing and amazing environment. The Verdon is really big, when I saw it I understood why its second name is 'The grand canyon of Europe'. 

From the first day we both saw one obvious line in the canyon: 'Tom et je Ris' (8b+). Jacopo and I both got to know the Verdon and especially the amazing line because of the famous poster of Nico on the big (and sharp) tufa’s of 'Tom et je Ris' (read also Tom et Jerry). 

After we did some classical multipitch routes on the technical and vertical walls of the Verdon the tufa line was dry and waiting to be climbed. The climb is on the east side of the canyon and has an approach of 1 hour and 10 minutes. You have to approach the line from above and it is really hard to find the anker of the line. Before going up we searched some information about the approach on the internet, apparently it was hard to find the anker and a lot of people rappelled down the wrong line on their first go. 

We were not the only ones in the Verdon, the other climbers mostly were Belgians, and this resulted in a fun group on ‘Camping à la Ferme’ in La Palud. Two of those were David Leduc and the forever travelling Tim De Dobbeleer. Always a lot of fun with those Belgians! On his last day, David joined us on the hike, search and try of Tom et je Ris. 

Once we found the anker, we rappelled down de amazing 60 meter tufa line into open space. Due to the steep wall we had to do an airy rappel down to the anker where the route starts. Rappelling down the beautiful line with perfect limestone tufa’s and the bolts nice and far apart was really intimidating. I was the first one trying the line, warming up on it because there is nothing else to warm up on, I went from bolt to bolt. 

The moves where amazing, following a slopy tufa with some 'sharp' crimps going into three other perfect tufa's. Climbing from one tufa to the next some endurance climbing and little cruxes resulted in one pumpy journey. Because of the huge length of the route and the bulgy overhang it was impossible to see the belayer from halfway up (30m). This gave me an amazingly free feeling, climbing on my own in a hard route somewhere high up, magically. You really have to do it al on your own!

'Sharp' rock! 

After that first day Jacopo and me where psyched to try this intimidating line again. On our second day we got to know the moves a little better and could place the many and almost similar sequences in a row. Still we couldn’t send the line. After only two try’s each day my skin was completely destroyed, it was like I had been touching some coral riffs in the sea.

We took one day off, ate a lot of French bread and pastries, drank too much coffee and enjoyed one of the first hot and not windy days! That same evening with our belly’s full of pastries we hiked up the hill and slept at the top of Tom et je Ris to give it our last tries the following morning. We did this because we had to leave the next day towards Bergamo (IT) to catch our flight towards Kalymnos (Greece).  

Waking up in nature on top of a big canyon with the huge birds flying by we prepared for our last tries. We both gave the line one warm-up try where after Jacopo gave it a burn. Walking his way up through the hard start he realised to fight in the end against his exploding arms and made an ascent. Now it was my turn, happy for Jacopo but focussed for my try I gave it everything. Fighting through the hard sections and shaking on the many rests I managed to send this line too. 

This is one of the best sport climbing lines I’ve ever climbed in my life. The approach, the airy rappel, the intimidating line, the height, the steepness, the big rocky canyon, the far spaced bolts, the climbing style and the perfect rock made this climbing experience better then every other sport climb. It’s all about ‘everything’! 

I tried to get those tufa's closer to each other! 

After our Verdon experiences we left that same last day towards Bergamo, slept on the side of the road and caught our flight the next morning with ‘The North Face’ team towards Kalymnos. No climbing this time, but searching the island for a new crag where we were going to bolt many new lines for the ‘The North Face Kalymnos Climbing Festival.’ 

More about that on the next post … 

David Leduc on our first day. 

Jacopo giving a try!

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April and the unexpected journey...

During the last two months I got to deal physically with some bad luck. After Siurana last winter I injured my wrist a little bit. I could keep on climbing but not at my normal level, bouldering I couldn’t do at all. When the pain in the wrist was almost gone my whole body was protesting me being an active Duracell bunny. Apparently I had a little virus and my immune system was kind of resisting fighting against a cold or a fever. This made me being tired really quick after a little climbing session or taking the bike to school. 

Those little things have been holding me from training and getting in good shape for my April-trip. This was kind of frustrating but I’m glad I’ve never been that sick I could not go on this trip. 

So now… what about this trip? Like every climber knows, meeting people and travelling is the best way to make new plans and discover new areas just from talking to other climbers. This is how it went for me for this April-trip. In Siurana I met Melissa Le Nevé, talking to her about some future plans and goals she told me full excitement she had a boyfriend at home who had similar plans as me but having a hard time to find a climbing partner. I decided to contact him so we could try and climb a little together. The guy I’m talking about is Jacopo Larcher, a young Italian climber full of motivation to try out unknown stuff and push his own limit in all disciplines in climbing. 

We quickly made some plans to meet each other. We decided to go climbing in April in Cadarese, Italy and Switserland so I bought my ticket to Innsbruck, Austria, where he and Melissa live. But the thing that can happen when you plan a trip happened, due to this crazy long and wet winter, Cadarese and our plans in Switserland were soaked! So we had to find some new plans right now. 

Enjoying the Innsbruck mountains. 

I still went to Innsbruck where we were forced to climb in the gym. A great training gym I would say, now I understand why all those strong competition climbers from Europe move over there. Besides that, even more important then the gym are the mountains. Apparently there is so much climbing, sport, trad, ski and alpinism around that town.

Climbing in the gym between all those top competition climbers was frustrating because of my bad shape but also motivating me to become better and start training more specifically next winter. 

The main wall of Cantobre

So the plans changed. We stayed two days in Innsbruck and then we drove towards Millau to watch Melissa compete at the bouldering worldcup this weekend. After the qualifications on Friday, Jacopo and I drove towards Cantobre, a small but beautiful climbing area 15 minutes away of Millau. Luckily the weather wasn’t so bad and the rock was dry. We were both so happy to just be outside and be able to climb a bit. Today the weather was too bad to go out in between the semi-finals and the finals.

Sunday evening Jacopo and I will move on towards Gorges du Verdon where the weather will be good … we hope! The Verdon is a famous valley with on both sides big rock faces of 250 to 300 meters. Climbing started here in the sixties when they used pitons and nuts to find their way up the high cliffs. First they just climbed routes on the faces where cracks could be found. But in the eighties sport climbing became popular and they started to rappel down the high cliffs and bolted routes on amazing vertical faces. Now hard routes have been climbed mostly on the upper part of the cliffs.

Les Gorges du Verdon

Our goal is to find some classic and exciting multi-pitches that start ground-up! Let’s respect the old school style! With tons of motivation and sweating hands I’m excited to do some multi-pitch climbing with Jacopo. 

After that Jacopo (who is also in The North Face team) and I will go towards Kalymnos, Greece. The plan is to bolt a new crag for the next ‘The North Face Kalymnos climbing festival’ in October. Thanks to Jacopo I will join the bolting team and open new sport lines at a complete virgin crag. With my bolting experience from last year at the Petzl bolting trip in Piedra Parada, Argentina, I’m psyched to open my eye on some new lines. 

But what is ‘The North Face Kalymnos Climbing Festival’? 

A picture from the festival of last year.

The festival is a place where climbers from all over the world can meet each other, climb together and enjoy the amazing atmosphere on the Greece Island. Each year The North Face searches for a new virgin crag and opens around 30 new routes with as main goal to leave a new crag behind for the Kalymnos climbing community. The festival is a combination between some friendly competitions like a marathon of climbing and a more pro comp where invited climbers try the new hard routes together. In the evening there is a lot of activities like lectures, movies, parties and concerts. Fun guaranteed! After bolting, I’m definitely psyched to go out there in October!

For more info, check the TNF website of last edition in 2012: The North Face Kalymnos Climbing Festival 2012

I’ll keep you up to date about our wet climbing activities in France right now! Hoping for good weather next week so we can crush some of the Verdon rock! 

Here you can find the places i'll visit this April-trip 2013.

View April 2013 in a larger map 

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The North Face and Avventura

With this post I would like to bring the news that from now on I have a new brand and a climbing store who will support me in my climbing and on my next trips. With a lot of fun trips and new goals in the future they will help me to make all this come true. 

I would not be lying if I say that The North Face is one of the most famous outdoor brands. Everybody knows it as an innovating brand always ready to develop their gear more to the needs of the outdoor people and especially the climbers. I’m excided to go out climbing this summer with the help of their technical gear. 

Avventura is one of the first outdoor stores Belgian climbers could enjoy. The first store was opened in Gent and started really small but fast became popular due to the large offer in climbing gear. Soon after that two other Avventura stores opened in Brugge and Brussels. I like the store because of the same spirit we share. Making the Belgian climbing world live and spread out ideas and information about climbing and all its possibility’s. Like I already said a couple of times, climbing is more then a sport and is rich in all its facilities. 

From now on just until September I will be travelling a little more again, so much projects and so much new areas I want to visit. This summer the dolomites and Chamonix are waiting on me. I’m excited to go back to the mountains and try out my ice axes and crampons on some snowy approaches. 

For the moment I’m travelling too, but where and with whom I will make you clear the next post. 

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