Climbing in Guillestre, Mont-Dauphin, Simoust, Toernoux, Clapeyto, Rue de Marques

Hi beautiful people welcome back.

We take you along our Rock Climbing adventures in area of Guillestre and Brainçon in the south of France around the Alps. We did some new rock climbing adventurers in several crags sectors like Mont Dauphin, Simoust, Tournoux, Clapeyto and Rue de Marques. There is so much variety of different rock: limestone, granite and conglomerate. I made a large fall from a slippery pebble and had to heal for a couple of days. We invited some young ladies from the camping to go for their first climbing experience. We had mainly had good weather with sometimes a rain shower but mostly very nice.

We enjoyed the food and environment on our camping. Please leave us a comment if you want any information from us 😀 🙋🏻‍♀️🙋‍♂️ Sandra and Jan.

Rock Climbing Trip Provence France First Time Again

First Time Climbing again 😀. We take you along on our Rock Climbing Trip in the Provence in France this early spring. This is just part 1. We are both recovering from injuries. Jan from his shoulder pain and Sandra from here knee surgery. During the recovery period we made plans to go on vacation in the Provence in France. It was questionable if Sandra could walk on uneven paths and if it was possible to do some climbing. We rented a nice small Gite called La Bergerie Biciclette which was directly next to a vineyard and a limestone cave below the house.

The area's that we climbed on in the region of Mollans-sur-Ouvèze Part 1 were Baume Rousse, Baume Noir and Dentelles de Montmirail. In Part 2 we will show you other area's.

If you enjoyed this video, Please hit the LIKE and SUBSCRIBE button as well as NOTIFICATION BELL, and if you have any questions please leave us a message below in the comments. We really appreciate it! So please 🙏 do, we will be grateful.

Thanks for watching; Sandra and Jan from the 2 Small Adventurers 🙏.

 

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►Climbing Gear, we can give you advice on any trad climbing gear, just please give us a comment

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Drone DJI Mini 2:  Camera: Lens: Gopro: Mounting: Microphone: Gopro Water Case:

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Sandra's Knee Surgery Recovery: 3 months later start Climbing Again?

This is Sandra her story! 

Sandra was sitting on the floor next to the couch and tried to stand up when it happened. Her knee was hurt quite intens and she could not move at all. 

This was half September 2021 The diagnose was a “flapped” meniscus. It took more than 3 months and a knee surgery before she could start trying to walk again. Before it was a wheelchair or walking with sticks. 

A few weeks after the knee surgery she started recovery with guidance of physiotherapists of Bredero. During the recovery we made plans to go on vacation in the Provence in France. 

It was questionable if she could walk on uneven paths and if it was possible to do some climbing. She made progress, Please see the journey of Sandra to recover to be able to climb again. 

That's her passion, please see her journey on Youtube by clicking the picture here next 😀

If you enjoyed this video, Please hit the LIKE and SUBSCRIBE button as well as NOTIFICATION BELL, and if you have any questions please leave us a message below in the comments. We really appreciate it! So please 🙏 do, we will be grateful.

Thanks for watching; Sandra and Jan from the 2 Small Adventurers 🙏.

 

►Join us on our Socials

See our website:  

See also our Instagram: 

See also our Facebook: 

 

►Affiliate links, no cost to you and is only to support our activities

------------------

►Climbing Gear, we can give you advice on any trad climbing gear, just please give us a comment

►Camera Gear

Drone DJI Mini 2: 

Camera:

Lens:

Gopro:

Mounting:

Microphone:

Gopro Water Case:

►DISCLAIMER:

This description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, we’ll receive a very small commission if you purchase something with no extra cost to you.

Sandra and Jan traveling to the Ecrin Hautes-Alpes for Climbing

Welcome Back,

We are getting to slow with our blogs.

But we are more and more sharing our post, pictures and video's  on social media.

Main reason is our YouTube activities which is great fun😃 

This August 2021 we went to France and climbed in the Ecrin. 

What a nature!!!!

Sandra and I did outrages hikes and climbs around the region of Guillestre and Briancon.

Please check out our French video series on YouTube by pushing the links

And please don't forget to Subscribe to our channel, we really appreciate it if you do 👍

Exploring Val Durance in France 2020, are we Climbing or Hiking?

Hi All,

This summer we went again to the Val Durance area in France for a 2 weeks sport climbing adventure.We stayed in the neighborhood of Guillestre. Val Durance is called after the river the “Durance” that runs thru the area of Briançon  and Guillestre in the Hautes-Alpes. 

Our original plan was to do lots of sport climbing, but it became more a mix between hiking and climbing. In many occasions the hiking was extremely steep and exhausting but in the end it was great fun with great views and the weather was good.

Our resting day, was a steep hike in the Ski village Risoul doing the vertical trail “very steep” to the summit. Very nice and blue sky’s. We made some video’s and pictures there. The walk back was descending steeper and longer than expected. A nice refreshment in the touristic ski resort was a real threat. 

During our 2 weeks vacation we had heavy rainfall and San her air matrass became leak so we had to visit Briançon to buy a new one. Strikingly the world cup of lead climbing was going on where Adam Ondra made his victory in a wonderful show. We enjoyed that tournament.

Again we visited magnificent crags from which the views were stunning.

Mont-Dauphin:  Shade and sunny areas, conglomerate rock, sometimes technical and hard.

Jo Trango: New area for us, long ascent since you had to leave the car down below. Nice area but became to quick sunny and too hot for real serious climbing.

Le Ponteil: Always a top location. Great technical vertical routes and adventures long single pitches with great overhangs. Experienced some rain and thunder but achieved to manage some classic routes there.

Simoust: One of our favorites locations. Less crowded than Rue des Marques and super long exhausting routes, still a lot of development is going on.

Grand Bois: Long story, as we missed one day of climbing sincw we could not locate the crag good enough but too much hiking and wrong decisions along the way. A couple of days later we found it but were still searching for 2.5 hours. Climbing was good but we were too tired.

Saint Crepin: Our favorite, nice ascent to the crag, great views and quite unspoiled routes and very quit.

Rue des Marques: Both we still have problems with this area, too many people so very crowded and the routes are full of chalk. Nevertheless great climbing

Rocher Gafouille: Nice crag with great setting above the town Briançon.

If you read our blogs you must have noted that we started a You Tube Channel called 2 Small Adventurers. Small because we are not biggest climbers.

We offer people to watch our adventures which is more than only climbing but also all other kind of activities. We encourage you to watch our videos.

We hope that you enjoy the video’s and if you have any comments please let us know. To support us making videos and blogs please subscribe and ring the notification bell so you won’t miss another video. It’s all for free.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT6gN8jKZSI&t=77s

Our channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKV27nPiEusYylUz-wP4Euw

 Thanks for watching 

Jan-San-Climbing, 2 Small Adventurers

Bouldering Fontainebleau 2018

Hello Again, I'm slightly behind with writing my blogs because of I was quit occupied with a lot of different things. Again I picked our tradition of a long bouldering weekend with our friends in Fontainebleau.

Sven picked out a house for the weekend that was pretty close the some great bouldering area's.

I decided to go a little earlier since driving alone thru Paris, it turned out to be a good decision as it was relaxed arriving early in the afternoon at  the rented house. Meeting the host and placing my stuff into the house I went into the forrest for doing some easy boulders.waiting for my friends to arrive. They arrived and walked to me in the forrest. Great nice warm evening. We had a splendid long sunny weekend and although my shoulder said NO to bouldering I enjoyed every minute of it. Next time San will join again.

Haut Val Durance Climbing 2018

 

September Holiday,

With a pleasant feeling from the few days of trad climbing in the Pfalz we headed towards the south of France. The wetter forecast was encouraging and the mood was splendid.

We arrived late afternoon just before it became dark and picked our camp in the town Guillestre. No time to waste we put quickly our tent down and headed slight disorientated to a pizza hut to buy us our diner for the night.

Mont-Dauphin

Next morning we were overwhelmed by a clear blue sky and quit warm atmosphere. We made our breakfast and lunch and went to visit the first crag called Mont-Dauphin with the ancient fort on top of it. We wanted to climb in sun but the temperatures quickly became too hot. As usual the white skin became quickly red so a long climbing day was not expected. We had to rest anyway from our journey to the south.

Rue des Masques.

Next day we went to the popular crag called Rue des Masques just outside the town Guillestre. Nice view over the valley when you are at the top. Surprisingly it was cold in the gorge so we did first some route almost in the sun and headed to steeper stuff in the Gorge. Found some nice routes with big pebble's conglomerate but apparently very popular due to huge amount of chalk which made it slippery as ice.

St-Crépin.

Enjoying the landscape and hikes to the crags. One of the nicest walk that we did was the walk to the crag called Falaise de St-Crepin secteur 5 Les Lyonnais. Quit long and steep but beautiful rewarding overview over the valley. Nice little quiet sector with slabby 5's up to 7's that are definitely not easy due to the lack of traces. Please be careful with loose rocks here and there.

Le Simoust.

Another great crag is Le Simoust. Nice long routes on conglomerate rock that keeps you going deep in acidification of your fore-arms. Not real difficult cruxes but exhausting since you definitely used all pebbles, holes and crimps before your found the right grip.

Campsite.
Near to the town Guillestre we found a nice campsite that was very quit in this time of year. No large groups or children but mainly people that came for doing their sports or sightseeing in this nice area with luxury campers or caravans. We were a little awkward with our tent and primitive gear to cook. Strikingly all people made a little chat with each other and with us in very pleasant way that we did not experience during normal summertime vacations. We figured that people were more relaxed and had more time to enjoy the life they lived and are interested in each other.

Summary: We had a great vacation and time in the Val Durance, San picked up her climbing skills again and I enjoyed the relaxed way of life and enjoyed the pumpy routes. Definitely coming back. 

Annot, Crack Paradise, Trad Climbing and Bouldering on Sandstone

Yes we went back to Annot again, last year we were left with good memories from this beautiful place and the fun that we had with traditional climbing, sport climbing and bouldering. This vacation was concentrated around trad climbing and doing a little bit of Bouldering.

We explained last time where Annot is and what you can do to enjoy.

http://jan-san-climbing.blogspot.com/2017/05/annot-has-it-all-sandstone-crack.html

See the main crag.

Although it was chilly in April, the weather became quickly warm, specially when you walked up the path from the train station to La Chambre du Roi. We did this multiple times, so you will get well trained legs and will loose some weight with 15kG gear on your back. Hi Hi.
We started at La Cave again but this time no crowds of people. Super. Very nice easy crack starters like Adam and Eve to get ready for harder stuff. La Voie du Sage 6a+ but has a quit physical offwidth part. Look at the picture with the rope against the wall with 250-300 meters below you.

The other day we went to La Vire Inter and did some harder stuff. For Example Spitalgie 6C, it has big holes and grips but knotting the threads in it as protection is exhausting, puwh.

Mettrez Ca Sur M'ANNOT 6B

One day we went to Le Point de Vue. A very scary view into the deep. Even the trad 4+ seems to be harder because of this. Bouldering at Secteur Requim du Block, not that easy to find if you don't know the area.But nice weather and great boulders make it easily to forget the effort that it took.

Again we went to Offwidth Paradise but some of the routes were still wet, so I did Fastoche Diedre 6b+? I think it is harder. So I left some skin behind. In the afternoon we went even more up to Les Portettes where we both did the popular trad route called Les Portettes Face, nice hand jam, but slightly becoming to wear out.

The best we saved for last day in Annot, at La Vire Inter we started early in the morning since it would become warm that day, I spotted some days earlier a nice trad route  that appealed me a lot called Vingt 2, 7a. Starting with a small crack than passing some blocks going to bombe roof part with just some holes, Puwh that last part was hard.

San also proofed herself by doing 6a trad route called X-Files, super proud on her achievement even with a neck hernia.

Hope to come back soon again.

Annot has it all, Sandstone, Crack Paradise, Trad Climbing, Sport Climbing and Bouldering

In our search for places where you can do multiple climbing disciplines the name Annot in South of France popped up. The main interest for us was the traditional climbing possibilities (yes we ammit we are addicted) but Annot has also sport climbing and bouldering offerings that are well known.

Annot is a very nice little town on the lower side of the Alps in the Provence in France.

With its sandstone formations it is very special place compared to the rest of the area that mainly consist of limestone crags.

We surfed the internet in search for topo’s and guides but apparently they were only available locally. (You can buy them locally at the Tourist Office, Café du Commerce or Book shop.)

Nevertheless I also found some good info from the Dutch Trad pioneers like Niek de Jonge en Kris Schrijvers. They even opened some interesting routes in Annot.

Another good source is: http://tradannot.over-blog.com/

After the 1200km’s drive south we woke up in a very cold, chilly , freezing, snowing, hail, rainy and stormy weather in Annot. Dammed. Nevertheless we started to accommodate with some easy sport climbing routes (5-6a) at Meteores I. Well easy? The first few meters were pretty hard and eroded.

Next day we went off to do some trad climbing. But where to go?? We followed the hiking path leading to the crags but no idea which small climber path to take, and if it was save 300meter high on a small ledge? We went down in La Cave but it was overloaded with people so we searched for another crag. Going back we found some routes at La Vire Du Bas. Starting with SAB 2005 which was slightly wet, but still a good introduction to the area. In the sun I already spotted a great looking crack line called Chauffe Marcel 6a++. A couple of people that walked by told us that it was harder than 6a++. Ok? So I geared up and started. First part is a slanted corner that becomes smaller but still doable, but then the crack starts twisting. Definitely harder than 6B. Other routes are shown is this report.

To make our story not too long, we had a wonderful time in Annot with fantastic trad climbing, sport routes (pockets and steep crags) and a huge offering of boulder blocks with > 1500 problems.

We tried all the disciples with great fun and had a nice glass of wine in Café du Commerce in Annot after our sessions. Life is good. https://www.tripadvisor.nl/Restaurant_Review-g1700020-d4610541-Reviews-Cafe_du_Commerce-Annot_Alpes_de_Haute_Provence_Provence_Alpes_Cote_d_Azur.

For the Boulder people please look also for the weekend of 20-21 May 2017 for Annot a Block. It’s a great festival http://www.annotabloc.com/

https://www.8a.nu/Index.aspx?CountryCode=GLOBAL
Check Trad ranking (8th)

La Vire Inter

Chauffe Marcel 6a++ ?

Now things get complicated

Y Gauche

Took a while

Fanny L1

Fanny

San in Domino

Great Route slight off width





 

Annot, Trad climbing

Hi All,


Last week we went to France for doing some traditional, sport climbing and bouldering.
We started the week with some easy bolted sport climbing routes. Nice occasion on the second day, in glance I saw surprisingly James Pearson just walking by and his girlfriend Caroline Ciavaldini greeted us Good Morning at the train station of Annot.
Not knowing he was working on a project in Annot but now we know. Le Voyage
https://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item/71078/new_e10_7a_in_annot_by_james_pearson_-_le_voyage

We will come back with some more stories and pictures.

Bouldering Fontainebleau

Last weekend we spend our long weekend in Bleau.
It has become a yearly tradition to have nice weekend with our friends doing some bouldering in the forest.
Like always we start with easy circuits and we see what will happen along the way.
We where treated with beautiful weather that gave us a splendid weekend.
The evenings were fantastic as well, with fire and some food.
Definitely coming back.