Arran

Arran has been on the agenda ever since I got my bike, and with summer rolling by the window of opportunity wasn't going to be open for too much longer. Finding ourselves with a Saturday that wasn't already committed, we decided that this was the day for riding round Arran. The weather looked promising - sunshine and clouds, oh and a 22mph westerly...

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The alarm was set for stupidly early, and we arrived at Ardrossan in good time for the 9.40 sailing. Around the car park a scattering of other cyclist could also be seen unloading bikes, donning lycra, and looking at the wind and clouds nervously.

On arrival in Brodick we waited for the cars to unload, and click clacked off the ferry in our not designed for walking in shoes. After looking at the wind we had decided that we should get the headwinds out of the way early, and go anti-clockwise round the island. The first few miles are nice and flat, a gentle warm up. Every time I come to Arran I'm desperate to see seals, and every time I have to make do with being excited about the seal sculpture at Corrie, which I'm sure they put there to keep kids (like me) happy that they got to see some wildlife.

After Sannox the road starts to rise, it was about this time the headwind and the rain also started to exhert themselves. From sea level 'The Boguillie' rises to 200m in 5km, with the steepest section rising 100m in just over 1km . It was quite hard. There is then a long decsent down to Lochranza, an ideal place to stop for a break and enjoy views over the castle. There were also deer grazing on the shore while we were there. The road round the north of the Island is mostly flat, staying close to the sea, although there was a head wind.

Flat roads at the North of Arran

As we turned south the wind seemed to have veered north a bit, meaning a tail wind and we fair flew to Blackwaterfoot, and our planned lunch spot. We ate an excellent, if perhaps too good a, lunch at the Kinloch Hotel.

In my head the south of the Island was flatter and easier - actually it's pretty lumpy, and some of the hills are fair steep. It is not easier.

Second half - not easier

Now started the race to make the 16:40 ferry - and maybe regretting the leisurely lunch (it was good though). On every hill our pace dropped and it looked like we weren't going to make it, then we'd peg it down the hills and it looked on. At Lamlash the 3 miles to Brodick sign gave us hope, which quickly disappeard with a final just a little too cruel hill. Over the top, and I surpressed the fact that I hate going downhill fast and peddled like crazy. We made it to the ferry as the cars were boarding (bikes go on first usually) and joined a group of other late arrivals - all glad not to have to wait until 19:40 to go home.

Tired, but on our way home

Vercors Climbing

des Allières

A small crag, with an easy walkin - not the most picturesque location (althought the valley is), but for what it's worth in my book ideal first day crag. Its situated above the Village of Lans en vercor, and next to the fire road leading to the des Allières Auberge. Much used by groups, softer grading, and in the words of Mike "where you want a jug, there are three", all make a good confidence boosting start to holiday. And the best thing about this crag? In the shade until about 2pm.

Presles

Wow! The cliffs here are BIG. 300m in places. If you aren't impressed, then you probably aren't a climber. Presles is a catch all name for a multitude of sectors on these impressive cliffs which sit below the village of Presles, which inturn lies on the plateau above. We stayed at the municiple campsite at Coronche, which lies in the valley bottom. 2 of the days we where here it was hot hot hot (doh - that'll be July then!) So we stuck to climbing in the morning and evening, at the Tina Dalle sector. it's a little polished in places, and the gradings quite stiff - but plesant.

Salad Days. Does this count as one of my 5 a day?

Our third day here we spent at the less accessible Sector Guarany. After bushwacking down trough the steep wood, we found lovely if slightly 'salad' like climbing (some of the best all holiday I thought) - shame rain stoped play after just 3 climbs.

In summary, Presles is one of those places that makes you want to be a much better climber - there clearly loads of amazing routes in far out places- and despite it being great to climb there, doing easy stuff on polished single pitch sectors seems a bit of waste.

Lans en Vercors

A deceptively large crag, with loads of different sectors, and a wide grade spread (3b to 8a). From the road you can only really see the Sector des Trous (sector of holes), but round the corner there is another 5 sectors. We climbed mainly in the Sector Humour Noir, and the Sector des Trous.

Lans Pierre in the Sector des Trous

The crag reminded me a bit of a Guadi cathedral or a Sudano-Sahelian mosque - It's hard to explain, but have a look at pictures of these buildings and it might be clearer. At an altitude of over 1000m we never really found it too hot to climb here, although the weather was less hot in general while we were here.

Les Trois Pucelles

You can either translate this as the three virgins or the three maidens depending on your sensibilties. Les Trois Pucelles dominates the skyline at you look up from grenoble to St. Nizer.

The first 'getting' lost happened in the woods on the way up - which is a thin trail up through the woods, and then up the gully. You start the route round the corner in the gully then traverse left to right, to get to the base of the middle virgin. First pitch, fell to me - a sparsley bolted traverse, when you set off you have about 5m of space below you - by the end of the pitch about 50m, but all OK, because even if it's slight pokey, the climbing is easy. The second pitch is more wandering through a wood attached to a rope (think the 2nd pitch on Little Chamonix - but longer). The third pitch we never found. We thought we found it - but it wasn't bolted. We tried some alternatives - random bolts leading us down dead, vertical soil, ends. In the end we abbed off, and went up the gully. This turned out to be a whole big adventure in itself - of the loose rock and caving variety.

In conclusion The Vercors is a good climbing destination - but probably best not to go in July.

Reiff Break

Have wanted to go to Reiff for ages - Coigach is such a lovely corner of Scotland and the climbing at Reiff has a big reputation. Luckily for me some mates didn't take much (read none) convincing that a weekend trip was a good idea. Leaving Edinburgh at 4pm, stopping for chips in Aviemore, and being witness to an amazing sunset as we travelled the last stretch, we made it the 235 miles to Altandu before closing time.

Roinn a'Mhill

Saturday dawned, and with about one good nights sleep between four, we rose groggy but keen. An overcast sky wasn't ideal, but a stiff breeze made up for it. Predictably, because it's the first area you come across and has the shortest walk-in, we headed to Pinnacle area of Roinn a'Mhill to start off. By the time we had got organised and Fiona had led her first route, Helen and Tim had got 2 routes under their belts [note to self: faster pussycat!]. On Helens recommendation I opted for Diagonal Crack (VD)* as my first climb - just as I was about to set off both rain and midges decended. In these situations the best thing to do is just crack on with it (geddit?) and get to the top sooner. Steepish but steady climbing that required a bit of thought - worthy of it's star.

Roinn a'Mhill taken from the cliff top at An Stiuir

A few routes later we headed over to the Marriage area to find Junior Groove (VD). It looks a bit like a mini version of Inverted V at Stanage, but tucked away in a gully. Fiona decided half way up that this wasn't the route for her. A few more short routes later and hating unfinished business I found myself back in the gully and on Juniors Groove (did i mention that grooves really aren't my thing). Actually it was quite nice - and as the 7th climb of the day, finished what for me was a pretty high route tally, on a high.

Route Tally

Decent Route (Diff)
Diagonal Crack (VD)* - Lead
Special K (Diff)
Sandstone Shuffle (VD) - Lead
Something Blue (HS)
Something Borrowed (VD) - Lead
Juniors Groove (VD) - Lead

An Stiuir

For day two we headed further along the coast, away from the crowds, to the Sea Cliff in the An Stiuir area. We did know the tide times, but when we arrived it was still much more 'in' than we would have liked, so some time killing ensued. We did some scouting around the diffrent sectors - the Seal song wall is immense - and at Severe overhanging crack has got to be on my wishlist. Eating lunch in the sun, scanning the horizon for dolphins, we managed to pass an hour or two easily.

Time dead, and the tide had pulled out to reveal solid ground to climb from - so we abbed in and got on with it.

Fiona led Sea PInk (VD) then my turn. Sea Phylis (VD)** looks well tough from the rock fin, but looks better from underneath (look mum, hold's and everything!) - it climbs very well too. I'm not sure what the other routes we did where - there was an easy groove, just left of the decent coner (possibly Sea Quim), and then Fiona tried what we thought was Sea Weed (VD) - but in retrospect might have been Sea Stytis (S). Whatever it was, it was more like a tough Severe than a V.diff, both to look at and to climb.

A dropping breeze, signaled a retreat, and the long road home.

Route Tally

Sea Pink (VD)
Sea Phylis (VD)** - Lead
? (VD) - Lead
? (S)

The end of the second day

Cheers guys for a lovely weekend, and Reiff = defintaly worth a return trip. In fact I'm already working on my wish list...

Mt. Ventoux

Back in the planning stages of our trip to France we realised we would be there while The Tour was on - and that we wouldn't be too far from the penultimate stage. Mount Ventoux! Why not work that into out plans?

So we did - we went.

Leaving the relative altitude of Lans en Vercors brought with it heat as we made our way South. Soon enough we hit the day-glow arrows marking the race route, and followed them with some glee. "It says this is a 4th category climb -"seems quite steep - "this is a third - " I reckon that other one would be harder. And then...

Shit that hill is steep - and long.

It just keeps going.

Of course bits of it are really steep - think 'wouldn't look out of place in the lakes' - but mostly it just doesn't stop - ever. I think you really would have to make like Randolph Finnes on Everest and just believe it was eternal.

Traffic management kicked in at the Chalet Reynard and we got sent down the road towards Sault - finding parking not long after (and bonus it was almost level). But it's hard to only go half way up - so we decided to walk the rest. A 12km round trip later (plus a few more down the side road) and we were footsore and hungry, but we had seen more campers than ever before and made it to the top.

Race Day

Being in the UK with access to the interweb makes following anything easy, but having been living on a campsite for 2 weeks in a country whose language we didn't really understand, meant that perversely we didn't really know what was going on - our few Tour facts where gleaned from poor translation of Equipe headlines. Whatever happened would be a surprise to us

Sun block liberally applied, clothes ranging from 'French heatwave' to 'Scottish summer' and enough water and food to last all day packed , and the 'stoke of genius' bouldering mat , we once more headed up the hill. Twas fair windy up near the summit, but we were early enough up there to colonise and improve a drystone windbreak, which effectively turned the hill side from cool, to pretty pleasant. Padded out with afore mentioned bouldering mat it was close to luxury.

Soon the gendarmes start to clear the road, and move everyone over the barriers, the the promo caravan comes past (free tat anyone?), but the forest fire is more exciting, then you start to see the helicopters coming nearer. I expected to hear the roar of the crowd, but in reality all you can hear is the wind. Then...

Two figures in the distance, barley standing out against the pale hill side . The motor bikes provide the most accurate marker of where they are. They come closer, then more cyclists appear where they were before. Soon the leaders are passing, the the yellow Jersey group - then Bradley Wiggins (much cheering) - then stragglers in ones and twos, then the autobus. Then it's over and we make out way down the road to join the worlds biggest camper van queue.

Mike's already making plans to go back next year - to watch even more stages. I'm thinking of getting fitter.

It was all pretty exciting though.