Seynes

posted in: Climbing | 0

Here are some pictures from last weekend climbing with my brother Paul at Seynes in the South of France. What a crag. South facing, 325 climbs up to 8c, walls, tufas and even some slabs. We stayed close to Alès, which is the nearest big town to the crag and just under two hours drive from Marseille airport.

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The steep part of the crag (Nouveau Monde) from the approach road.

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So many good looking climbs. Paul eyeing up one of the 8c’s… actually a 6b+ leading to an 8c that we chose as our warm-up route.

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Myself on the red point of the 6b+ (Ca chauffe). Got pumped and fell off on the on-sight. We didn’t pick the ideal warm-up.

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We were so lucky with the weather on our first day as it can be very cold and windy in December.

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Looking for our next climb. One of the rules of sport climbing is not to let failing on easy climb put you off trying a harder one. We picked a 6c+ (C’est lisse hélas c’est là qu’est l’os) which I managed to on-sight. The tufas are a different style of climbing and required some getting used to.

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Paul starting up C’est lisse…

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The following day we found a 7a wall climb which suited our style more, Mat de Cocagne. I blew the on-sight but Paul flashed it. Staying away from the tufas saw me on-sight the excellent Symphonie de Nouveau Monde (7a) and Paul flash Masculin Féminin (7a+), which is the line left of Mat de Cocagne.

le-tube-neural

Our final climb was Le Tube Neural, a 6c+ ‘classic’. For a classic it didn’t seem to be getting much traffic; we didn’t see anyone climb it over the three days we were there. However as I profess to have a liking for awkward climbs I felt I should give it a go. It was not too hard but it was committing. The crux is figuring how to get out of the tube which is overhanging by about 20 degrees… I wouldn’t want to give anything away so if this sounds appealing I recommend you go and try it!

heading-off

And then it was time to enjoy a final Seynes sunset before heading home. Hopefully we’ll be back.

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