Climbing Section:
What do you want to climb today ?^®

I spent 8 months in Alaska, working at the Geophysical Institute of Fairbanks and doing some hiking, biking and climbing. Summer '95. Among the climbs I've done there: a solo ascent of Denali in 9 days, Mt Hunter and some first ascents on Mt Prindle.

Ecuador is a nice country, not only llamas and volcanoes. July '94. 6 summits including a new route on the south face of Mt Chimborazo and Mt Cotopaxi.

Numerous ascents in foul weather in autumn '94, 2000 and 2005 including Mt Cook and Mt Tasman via several different routes, a 54 hour epic on the north ridge of Mt Sefton, Elie de Baumont, Hoerchester Dome, Malte Brun, Mt Aspiring, the walk through the Copland Pass, some northern volcanoes and always plenty of wildlife such as birds, whales and diving with blue sharks.

We moved to Fort Collins in November 2000 and started climbing everything around the nearby Rocky Mountains...

Go read the stories and see the other pictures about various cultural rants and rock climbing, Mountain climbing, the ascent of the Casual Route of the Diamond, the Scenic Cruise in the Black Canyon of Gunnison, some Backcountry skiing, Ice climbing and a hike down Grand Canyon.

What can one do in Las Vegas ? Climb at Red Rocks of course. We went back more than once on this amazing sandstone and bagged plenty of Classics: Crimson Chrysalis, the Prince of Darkness, Epinephrine, Ginger Crack, Eagle Dance, Levitation 29, Solar Slab, Inti Watana, Resolution Arête, Unimpeachable Groping, Power Failure, Rock Warrior and more.

A couple trips to Wyoming in 2001~2002 on 3 separate pages: getting sandbagged on Vedauwoo's offwidths, some rodeo pictures, a quick tourist trip to Yellowstone, the Wind River Range, Devil's Tower and its amazing cracks, the full Exum ridge up the Grand Teton and the needles and Mt Rushmore in nearby South Dakota.

A 4 months road trip ended our stay in Colorado in 2003 and caused the addition and update of many pages:

• Wyoming (Wind River Range)
• Idaho (City of Rocks, Sawtooth mountains)
• California (Tahoe, Tahquiz, JT...)
• Tuolumne
• Yosemite with the Salathé wall, the Steck-Salathé, Half Dome...
• Arizona (Granite Mountain, Cochise Mountain...)
• Red Rocks again
• Zion
• More desert towers...
• Smith Rocks in Oregon and a little side trip to White Rock Overlook in New Mexico.

Numerous winter climbs: waterfalls, ice gullies and mixed routes. I'm not going to waste my time putting pictures of things seen hundreds of times. If you want some, just open any climbing magazine... Well, I only put here my best climb, the central pillar of Freney, probably the hardest way to climb one's first Mt Blanc !

In 2004 we moved to Briançon in the heart of the Alps, near the Ecrins National Park where excellent rock climbing, ice climbing, backcountry skiing as well as mountain biking abounds. There I started a consulting business. South of there is plenty of climbing in Provence, particular the cliff of Ceuse.

2007, moving yet again to Grenoble, the big city of the Alps. Plenty of interesting mountain ranges within spitting distance: Chartreuse and its green liquor, Vercors and its fighters (and the famous cliff of Presles), Maurienne and its ski, Belledonne, Diois, Devoluy, Grandes Rousses, Taillefer, Vanoise...

Besides the Alps, there are plenty of other climbing spots in France, such as the Ardeche or Corsica.

When it gets too cold to climb in France, it may be a good idea to head farther south to Riglos, Spain or Kalymnos, Greece.

Jenny had wanted to get me to climb in the Dolomites for quite a while, but we managed to find the time only last summer. Great climbs on Civetta and the 3 towers of Lavaredo, but it rained every single day ! August '99.

Towering at 8201m, Cho-Oyu is one of the fourteen 8000 meter peaks in the world. Not the highest, not the hardest, but quite hard enough for a first experience of high altitude mountaineering without sherpa or oxygen. September 2000.

"I don't have any friends, and my nuts are too small."    — Anonymous climber on a bad day.

You might be a mountain climber if:

• you read the funny posts of rec.climbing (about El Cap and altitude training)
• you know why climbing is better than sex
• you use the climbing quotes on every occasion (especially to try to get dates or climbing partners !).
• you also read the other quotes about risk or climbing in litterature,
• you survive getting bored at base camp.
• you can feed yourself when high up

Well, I didn't do much climbing there, except for a couple of icebergs (positively the worst ice in the known universe), some crevasses (a little unstable, he Grosnitho ?) and some bouldering on penguin shit with plastic boots. But the center is dead flat, hopeless for climbing, although when I flew over the Transantarctic Range, I saw some mighty mountains and big walls awaiting their first climbers.

Anyway, don't miss my iceberg climbing pictures.

I spent 7 weeks in Cordillera Blanca in summer '96, around Huaraz and climbed (or tried) 9 summits including the first solo ascent of the north face of Huascaran nord, in a day, the solo ascent of the south face of Huascaran sud, the 2nd ascent of a Slovenian route on the north face of Ranrapalca...

40 days climbing in scorching heat in Australia in early 2006: Blue Mountains, Arapiles, Mt Buffalo, Grampians, Point Perpendicular...

On the other hand, no climbing story for Tasmania, but some hiking on the Overland track and the southwest rain forest, an ascent of Federation Peak, biking on Brusny island and some pictures of cool animals (kangaroos, Tasmanian devils, fairy penguins or this Tawney Frogmouth on the right). Dec '92, Feb '94 & March '98.

Several interesting areas in Arizona: The Mace in Sedona (Dec '01, just 45 years after the first ascent), Granite Mountain, Mt Lemon and the beautiful winter destination of Cochise Stronghold.

Besides Colorado, we are also exploring nearby areas, like Moab in Utah. A place of sandstone towers in the middle of the desert, super cracks, soft sandy rock, John Wayne hotels and so much more... May 2001.

Go read the stories and pictures about the Six-Shooters, Indian Creek, Castleton, Arches NP, Ancient Art as well as climbing Jah Man and Moses Tower, more desert towers, the unmistakable Zion and hiking through the Anasazie ruins of Grand Gulch.

Part of our 2003 road trip where we saw 3 areas: the very nice City of Rocks, the smooth SuperSlab and the quality long routes of Elephant Perch in the Sawtooth mountains.

There is more to California than just Yosemite, but it took me 8 years to notice:

• 1st Yosemite trip ('95): the Nose of El Capitan (1100m, 5.8 A2) in a very long day, the DNB of Middle Cathedral (600m, 5.10 A0), the Snake Dike (5.7) of Half-Dome free solo and more
• 2nd Yosemite trip (2003): the Salathé Wall of El Capitan (1000m, 5.10 A2) in 3 days, the offwidth packed Steck-Salathé, the long regular route on the NW face of Half Dome, plenty (Frenzy, Stoner's Highway, E-buttress) on Middle Cathedral and more.
• A side trip to Tuolumne for the classic on Fairview Dome, the harder Lucky Streak on that same dome and an easier approach to Crest Jewel on North Dome.
• And also Joshua Tree, Tahquiz, Suicide, Lake Tahoe, Lover's Leap, Sugarloaf, the magical Needles...

Teaching Jenny to ski in the Sarek National Park, in northern Sweden. Nice place but bad weather. April '99.

Numerous ascents on long rock climbs and winter climbs in the Gran Sasso chain: some first descents on monoski and lots of mountaineering ski in the Apennines, first solo ascent of Meridionalizziamoci (250m TD+ VI+), solo trilogy of the 3 longest routes of Apennines, several first ascents on the Pollino in the deep south of Italy, farther north the Val d'Orco is one of the too rare crack climbing areas in Europe.

Read my paper about Gran Sasso in and or read three climbing horror stories (also in )...

7th and last continent: Africa. A month climbing in Madagascar on the scenic Nosy Hara islands and the Tsaranoro big wall under the stare of Lemurs, chameleons and other (bitting) critters.

• Italian to French and English
• French to Italian and English
• English to French and Italian