Me on the start of Direct du coeur 7c+ last year
Last week I had some hard work sessions on two 8a projects I really like to do. One is a "short" (25 meters) bouldery route and at the same time really demanding position climbing. This route is called La tordeuse de Mémèzes in Entrygues. This is a great crag situated at 1600 meters and north facing so temps are cold even in summer. Its becoming quite popular among the hard core "kids" and over the past weekend Enzo Oddo (http://enzo-oddo.fr/news.php) sent an old 9a+ project there that looks really cool. On his blog there are some nice pictures. The other 8a project I was working last week is the extension (50 meters) to Direct du coeur a 7c+ in Tournoux an other north facing crag at 1850 meters also really good if you are tired of hiking up to Ceuse... But who is?
After the projecting I went to St Leger to met up with old friends and try out the north face but after two days of working hard routes I was spent and five consecutive days of climbing proved to be a great recipe for not getting any thing significant done but it was super nice to see old friends from the mid 90th....
One day of rest was what I needed both for my body and skin. So when I got Ceuse with the Depeche Mode song "Precious" blasting out I was really feeling on fire, ready to send my project Tout n'est pas si facile 7c+. I had tried to send this route twice in mid May and at first it felt super hard, powerful and bouldery and I had to work some moves on top rope before being confident enough to try it. The route is about 35 meters with a really cool bouldery start leading up to easy ground and on to a few "low percentage" moves. Its not so steep but really technical and sequency climbing. My style!
As I had never managed to do the start before with a big margin I told Britta who was belaying me to watch it so I wouldn't hit the ground and break my foot if I fell off. So guess if I was surprised when I had past the first crux in spree of moves and found my self on "the" good hold. The rest was fine to the last hard move where I popped off twice before sending just before it turned dark. I have to say I had a huge margin when I finally got it together. It felt like a 7b on a good day. Strange and I was struggling like a newbie two days earlier in St Leger. I guess on a good day even hard stuff is really easy.
