This one's just for Helen Finn, who has been complaining I haven't posted it yet.
Helen reckons my music choice for my videos is "a bit dodgy"... So, at the very end of the Nice trip with the ultra-patient Alesia offering a final belay before we headed to the airport, Helen decided to sit, watch, and provide her own soundtrack by playing songs off her phone next to the camera. These are all the songs she chose, roughly when she chose them, edited with a bit of fiddlyness to try and keep a 15 minute+ climb down to a vaguely sensible time and still capture Helen's... wit.
#Climbing #ClimbingIsMyPassion #SportClimbing #LimestoneClimbing #Nice #LaTurbie #CoteD'Azur #Whipper #DJHels

All over the place with my posts; this is back to the last day, and this one is right next to l'Attrappe Rêve (my last post) on the "La Dalle à l'Oiseau" sector of the crag that went the day before. Did this one directly after les Gauchistes (posted a couple weeks ago) - theoretically the easier route. This was a pretty nice route and @Alesia, after giving me a solid belay made a really fine go of it, too. I'm pretty sure she'll agree this was definitely not the harder route!
#Climbing #ClimbingIsMyPassion #SportClimbing #LimestoneClimbing #Nice #LaTurbie #CoteD'Azur

I was kinda hoping the impromptu nap while waiting for the rain to pass might wake up my brain after a rather slow Sunday, but when the sun finally came out said brain was more reluctant. Got a couple fun routes in, though, took a whip on a third, then came to this nice line at the end of the day, aided by the patient and excellent Alesia on belay. Let's see if I can locate the light switch...
#Climbing #ClimbingIsMyPassion #SportClimbing #LimestoneClimbing #Nice #LaTurbie #CoteD'Azur

Nice (well La Turbie in this case) was a fun place to climb; most of the routes had interesting moves on them - even the "easy" ones, the company was good, and the weather (when it was climbable at all) was lovely (especially considering the forecast just a day before the trip!). The extra excitements of the rock being generally damp, polished, and my mojo having been washed away by alchohol and rain on Saturday night meant a slow start and not pushing too much so it's probably just as well the "easy" routes were fun! Finally found a little flow late on Monday, so this Tuesday climb was a bit better. Still, this little beauty was a fine example of the grading at the crag; poor technique aside, this felt around a full letter grade harder than advertised!
#Climbing #ClimbingIsMyPassion #SportClimbing #LimestoneClimbing #Nice #LaTurbie #CoteDAzur

So there was actually climbing on the Nice climbing trip, too (between the rain... which managed to be both more and less than expected...). La Turbie, as it turns out, felt really kinda sandbagged grade-wise (or maybe I was just sucking?)! But then the fun is in the movement and unlocking the puzzle, not the grade and it was a great trip with a fun bunch; Alesia Sidliarevich (with the excellent catches), Helen Finn, Carole Dawson, and Roy.
#climbing #ClimbingIsMyPassion #SportClimbing #LimestoneClimbing #Nice #LaTurbie

A rather fun few days in Nice on the "Finntours Two Helmet Holiday" with Helen Finn, Alesia Sidliarevich, Carole Dawson, and Roy. Just the one helmet for me, but still a great trip... Even the rain was fairly entertaining, though it did kinda cut down on the climbing a bit! Nice is a.... nice... place.
#France #Nice

And apparently the first shall be last; this was our first day in El Chorro and, after an early morning start and checking in a The Olive Branch, we climbed at Las Encantadas on the road above. Lovely crag with a whole passle of great-looking routes I'd love to try. My camera-pointing skills were clearly still asleep, though; this is the only route I actually captured (almost!) all of...
#Climbing #SportClimbing #LimestoneClimbing #ElChorro #ClimbingIsMyPassion

Final day in El Chorro, second climb; the excellent (and longer than Tall People) route, Small People (6b). Considering how un-braining my brain was that day, this one felt really easy and flowy, which was nice. This crag section was in a little "sheltered" bay, theoretically in the lee of the wind. Apparently, though, the big hole in the sheltering rock about 10m up let the wind through to bounce of the crag and blow right in your face... weird!
#Climbing #SportClimbing #LimestoneClimbing #ElChorro #ClimbingIsMyPassion

What do you do when you murder your shoulders on roof climb as hard as you've ever tried? Murder them some more (plus inner thighs) on a big overhanging prow compression route that's also as hard as you've ever tried, of course! This excellent @YannGenoux route was the second 7a+ of the day yesterday and hopefully I'll get a few more goes at it before it comes down... 'coz it's going to take a few, IF I can do it! Thanks to @JonKoplin for the patient belay as I hung around dogging almost every move... But I did them all first attempt! Yay!
#Climbing #LeadClimbing #IndoorClimbing #ClimbingGym #ClimbingIsMyPassion

First of two (yes, I'm that daft) 7a+ tries yesterday - the replacement for the black I never quite got. The "easier" route up the wall suggests the (higher grade) roof is gonna be super-tough. Not even going to call this a flash attempt; this one is firmly in the project-category likely being right at the top of my redpoint grade...
#Climbing #LeadClimbing #IndoorClimbing #ClimbingGym #ClimbingIsMyPassion #StalRoof

So... flushed with success from sending the route that had been annoying me, despite beginning the session "not feeling it", I decided to try flashing the much harder route on the next line along... What could possibly go wrong? Nice catching from Jeremy
#Climbing #LeadClimbing #IndoorClimbing #ClimbingGym #ClimbingIsMyPassion

Less "impressive rock" than El Chorro I'll grant, but I had fun finally sending this tricky, powerful, little wadi number on Tuesday having tried on a couple of occasions before... Especially when I "wasn't really feeling it". Always nice when you surprise yourself and it's a great route.Excellent catches from the excellent Jeremy Donaldson during a fall practice session that probably helped with the send!
#Climbing #LeadClimbing #IndoorClimbing #ClimbingGym #ClimbingIsMyPassion

I do like a good corner... :-D

This one was still day 3 in El Chorro at Escalera Arabe and, in fact, came before Bladerunner (which was the last send of the day before trying to break myself toproping a 7a in failing light). This is just one of those lines you look at an think, "Oooo! Gotta give THAT a go!"... So we did!
#Climbing #SportClimbing #LimestoneClimbing #ElChorro #CornerClimbing #ClimbingIsMyPassion

Rather out of order as this was actually day 3 at Escalare Arabe, but Bladerunner was definitely one of the more striking lines we climbed in El Chorro. Lots of fun and pretty firmly in my style, but I imagine it would have been firmly "type 2 fun" if it had been at limit! (Loooong run-out and biiiig drop potential!) Excellent belaying, though, by Jeremy
#Climbing #SportClimbing #LimestoneClimbing #ElChorro #RunOut #ClimbingIsMyPassion

Pictures from a climbing trip to El Chorro, Southern Spain last weekend
#Climbing #RockClimbing #LimestoneClimbing #ElChorro #ClimbingIsMyPassion #SportClimbing #Multipitch