Gorge Du Verdon

So with our feet a little sore for more skiing we decided it was a good opportunity to go South to the Verdon Gorge for a few days cycling. We found a camp site which has to be the biggest campsite in the world. It has its own swimming pool, resturant and WIFI! that is how I am doing this. It is 9:30pm and I am sitting out side the van with my head torch on typing this. I must make a strong recommendation to others for Grimbergen Beer! I apologise for my spelling in advance!

We tried to find a small ish loop around the gorge as it is very hilly!

Lara looking in to the gorge, I was not aware that it is the second largest gorge in the world second to the Grand Canyon. at places it is over 700m deap.
If you look on the bend you can see Lara. The views were stunning. It was not a fast bike ride as we were stopping the whole time to look at the views.
about two thirds of our way around the weather changed and it started to rain. it was freezing rain as well. Just as luck has it as well we had done all the climbing and we only had the long decent left, so going down hill was really cold!!!
Even more of Murphy’s law saw that at the last bit of flat back to where we parked the van the sun came back out. At least we managed to thaw out.

This really is a very pretty gorge, very dramatic with huge walls. we did not bring our climbing gear as we did not want to subject our feet to our climbing shoes with the state they are in.

Afetr we got back to the van we drove back to the village we are staying (Castellane) and had some late lunch in the square and then went and booked ourselves in for some ‘Naige en Eau Vivre’. which basically means we don wetsuits, flipper, helmet and hold on to a float and swim down the gorge tomorrow! so must go and get my beauty sleep! Will let you know if the wife drowned later tomorrow.

Back to Orpierre we went.

Lara woke up this morning and announced “we are going climbing in Orpierre today” (so much for the ‘we make joint desicions like a married couple’ that I stated yesterday). So we bundled into the car and drove the 40 or so minutes there, the weather was looking like it was going to be a great day and it did not dissapoint.

Our aim for to day was the ‘Quatre Heure’ sector which has lots of easy multi pitch slab climbing for us to clock up the miles on. Lara Above at the end of the first pitch on ‘Super Mouton’ a two pitch 5a and 5b.
Another one of the wife at the top of a two pitch route which for the life of me I can not remember and do not have the gudie book to hand. It was a great afternoon, only stopping from climbing to eat the Fucas that we had bougth from the local boulangerie at home for lunch. think we managed to do four 2 pitch routes and 2 single pitch routes. Not bad for the notouriously slow british climbers!
Lara abseilling down off the top pitch of our last climb of the day. Was a great day, saw many lizards and ants the size of hamsters! These ants were quite angry little things that came for you, and when they did, they were great fun to flick off the rock! tee hee hee. I am an animal lover honest.

So got home and I cooked dinner, and have found that both our shoulders are a little bit pinky from the sun. It is probably the first time my back has seen the sun for some time as has Lara’s. Looks like the weather is finally picking up then!

Wonder what I will be told we are doing tomorrow…..

Tour de Charance

So after faffing around this morning doing bits and bobs, finally managed to round up the wife and get all our stuff in the van to go for a bike ride.

Having spent the last few weeks on the internet and infront of maps I have found / devised a route (amongst many others) that goes around the back and up Charance (local lump near us). So off we went.

Lara climbing out of Rabou. It was turning into a lovely evening. In the distance is the Pic de Gleize (the first lump we skied up and also the pictures from the first post on this blog), the snow is defintely going.
Lara turning a hair pin and getting closer to where our plans changed…..
So when we got about two thirds up there was still loads of snow on our path, too much to ride though. So after a group decission (thats what us married folk do now) we thought it better to push / carry the bikes up the direct route. Lara above nearing the col and at the end of the hike a bike.
Us at the Pic de Charance, you can see Gap in the back ground. It was going to be a long and good descent!

Me on the descent, unfortunately the light was fading fast so the pictures are not very good. It was about 8pm at this point.
Lara on the awesome trail down, nearly all singletrack and all fast and great fun. I think I am going to like riding around Gap! So got back down to the van with massive grins on our faces but rumbling stomachs, so hot footed it home for grub!

Lainie – from Zero to Hero in a day

So after a very silent journey to Orcierre Merlette, where it was honestly the first time I think I have not heard Lainie talk for over half and hour. The poor thing was obviously very nervous. Once we arrived at the ski reort it was very obviously very late session but there was more than enough snow for Lainie to try her hand at skiing. After a quick lesson of how to put the skis on and off and how it works we were off….. So first off I pulled her up the hill. she was so nervous to get any speed up she was hardly moving. After an hour or so of trying we decided it was time for lunch.

In came plan B, so we plied her with cider over lunch and decided it was time for the lift…. DNW_1531

Amazingly she found it no trouble at all and never fell off DNW_1545
So once at the top it was time for her to use some of the grrrr from watching last nights monster trucks and get on with it.
So following the ski instructor (aka Lara) she really got the knack of it!

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She learny that snow was not evil and it didn’t hurt when you fell over!
I think it was at this point the cider was really kicking in and she was loving it.

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By the end of the afternoon she was loving it turning with no problems what so ever. So Euan, I apologise but I think I might have cost you some money and you might have to be taking your wife on a ski holiday. If you have to, I would suggest the cider approach!

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One happy ski instructor happy with the fact that she has got her mate to ski (I even think Lainie over took her once……)

Playing with Lainie

So for Lainie’s first day we decided to take her on her first Via Ferrata. We went to Guillestre and there is great little Via Ferrata there that goes up a deep gorge DNW_1490

Lara and Lainie going along the gorge
Lainie climbing up the side, after a little nervousness she found her legs and loved it and was running up and down the place with out a care in the world!
The water looked great, if not a little cold.
Lainie and I traversing around the gorge, was hard to hear each other due to the noise of the water

In the evening we went to the monumentous show that was the french monster truck show! where we saw things like this…… DNW_1506

The oh so mighty POWER SPEED TRUCK!!!!! It was awesome. Then this got bettered by this….

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The ROAD BOSS!!!! The biggest monster truck in the world, it made such an amazing grumble when they turned it on. But in all honesty the thing was too long and could only go forward and backwards in the small arena. But still a very impressive machine. So much so the girls fell in love with it

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After watching all the testorone and big growling engines the girls where feeling the grrrrrr and tapped into the Nar DNW_1512
I must sign off now as I have some serious googling to do to see if I can get some mods for the van to get some big wheels on it and jack up the suspension if I am going to win my wife back!

Another day on the bike

Weather was a little in and out today. We decided to go for a blast on the road bikes. Original route was to do the ‘Tour de Ceuse’ but there seemed to be a mass of cloud hanging around Ceuse so we decdied to ride to the Dam at the Lac De Serre Poncon. Turned out to be a good choice as we were in the sun for the majority of the ride.
Lara next to the lake, we didn’t really look at the maps and was taken a little by surprise at the amount of climbing we had to do! Still it is all good for the legs and waist line.

Lara at the Col Lebraut our high point of the day.

The afternoon was spent going to the square in Gap and having lunch in the sunshine, which was very pleasent. Lainie is arriving tonight, Lara has just left to go and pick her up in Marseille so I better get on with cleaning the house!!!!!

back from a little bit of climbing

Sorry for being a bit lame at updating this, have not been up to a great deal. Lara’s cold is still holding on a bit so not up to too much. So what have we been up to.

On Sunday I met up with the local bike club and did a road ride around the Lac De Serre Poncon. was a great ride but with no pictures as they were going way to fast to be able stop and get the camera out. Was in a group of 12 and I was the only one with non shaved legs – so watch this space (only joking……… or am I)

Monday we went for a search for trails around Ceuse. when we got there the route we wanted to do was still covered in snow so we opted for another route. I don’t think many people have been up here yet as there is still a lot of debris from fallen trees etc across the trails, so hopefully in a few weeks things will be better, we still had a good fun ride with the promise of the some really good trails when the weather gets warmer

Lara on the climb up, the cliff is really impressive.
And on the way down.
So Ceuse – we will be back when the weather has melted some more of the snow.

Tuesday we got in the van and drove just under an hour South west to Orpierre. This is a little town surrounding by climbing. We had two fantstic days climbing here, unfortunately the camera did not see much action, I really do not understand why, but we are dead keen to go back and climb some more there so next time we will definitely take more pictures.

Picture form the camp site. Things we learnt over the last few days:

Lara is very good at climbing off route and going up harder routes as a result
Dave is still a big girls blouse when it comes to climbing, but is getting better
The rain on the roof of the van makes funny noises which sounds like it is leaking , but it is not.
limestone is very grippy
and, beer after a long days climbinG goes straight to ones head.

So, with a lot of rain last night, it looks like the mountiains have had a lot more snow in them! time to break out the skis again!

Easy going in Gap

Well Lara still has the remains of a cold, over the last few days she has just pottered around home and I have done pretty much the same with the odd small excursion out on the bike. This morning she got up and felt better so we decided to go climbing. The weather is a little iffy at the moment with the odd rain shower but we thought we would give it a try.

We went over to the ‘Falaise de Gicons’ a large crag near Devoluy. Was a lovely place with not a very long walk in and the weather was kind to us, it only splattered with rain one time and the rest of the time was not to cold with the odd bit of sunshine. Nothing too strenuous as Lara is getting over her cold and I am getting my head back into it, a great day though.

Above is lara at the of the crag. DNW_1424

Me at the anchor point at the top in one of the sunny spells. The snow is starting to dissapear quickly so we are going to try and grab some more skiing before it is too late over the next few days.

Another Great day Skiing

After yesterdays fun but short lived ski tour up Rocher Rond when we got two thirds up it and the weather turned so like cats, we both put our tails between our legs and hot footed it back down. By the time we got down it was snowing and you couldn’t see a thing.

Today we woke up to another great day so decided to go and ski in the Orciere area as we had had a bit of snow over night. Lara and I went up the west facing side of the valley L’Ubac. Picture of Lara climbing through the trees

The sun was hot and I was sweating buckets (for a change), I had a few problems with the snow melting and sticking to my skins, so off they came and I gave them a good rubbing with wax and it seemed to do the trick. Note the 70’s style sweat band! Lara hates it, I say it is pratical

After we got to the top we had a great ski down on spring snow and some great powder lower down in the trees. legs are starting to strenghen a bit but there is still a way to go yet!

The weather forecast is again good for tomorrow so hopefully we will get another good days skiing in.

So for the first time.

Finally got myself into doing this, promised I would so here it goes. We got down to Gap with no problems, was a bit of a mission in driving (2 x 10 hour days). but we finally got here. So we loaded Gruber up to his full capacity and brought all our toys down. This included skies, 7 bikes, climbing gear and just about every other thing in our house!
First day here we went skiing to Vars, a small resort about 40 minutes away, we were greeted by great snow and a hard way to break in the legs. Both our legs were sore by the end of the day. Lara had no problems in remembering how to ski the pow!
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Friday we went to Rissoul, as there was still loads of fresh powder to be had by easy lift access. Again another great day with a bit of hiking and loads of great soft snow, again, legs were trashed afterwards. But massive smiles and hoping that our legs will strengthen up quickly!

Sunday was our first tour. We decided to climb to ‘Pic de Gleize‘ an easyish climb of 800m vertical to try and break our legs in. We were welcomed by glorious sunshine and great spring snow.

Lara on the final ridge up to the top. and below is us happy to have made it, all we had to do now was to try and get back down. Needless to say, by the time we got back down to the car are legs were shot. Spring snow is heavy and hard work to turn in!!!!

The Blog of Dave Lara, Ellis and Freddy

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