UKC

Seb Berthe has made the third ascent of James Pearson's route, Bon Voyage, E12. 

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In reply to UKC News:

What a great writeup.

Although I'm struggling to reconcile "On the last rest, you need to place the last piece of gear, a little blue Totem cam" with the picture of him placing the cam well above his head while the left arm is locked off on a hip-height crimp and the feet are on something invisible.  If that's a rest...

In reply to UKC News:

Good stuff. Anyone know what the area is like for trad generally? Nice looking crack in the background in the first photo...

In reply to Michael Gordon:

Iwas there last year and right out was very good, probably best for E1-E5 cracks. The offwidth you can behind BV is Fan de la Reine (6c).

In reply to Michael Gordon:

We asked Steve McClure what he thought of Annot after he climbed Le Voyage, and he was a big fan - his comments at the bottom of the interview: https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/features/steve_mcclure_repeats_le_voyag... 

In reply to Andy Reeve and Xa White:

Thanks folks. Offwidth eh, must be bigger than it looks!

In reply to Michael Gordon:

Are you asking about La chambre du roi sector or about Annot in general? Annot has trad climbing, sport climbing and bouldering, one hour something from Nice, you do not need a car cause you can take a train, stay in the village a walk to the cliff. There are around two hundred trad routes mainly in grade six, some sevens and eights, most of it on the walls to the right of the village, mainly crack climbing from thin splitters to offwidth and chimneys. Sport climbing goes up to 8c+, quite a lot of chipping in hard routes, but Exit in red is natural and one of the most beautiful 8a around. Biggest bouldering area is Piste of Argenton that start one mile after the village. You can climb there all year, just change the sectors to get necessary amount of sun. Sport climbing guidebook exists, but is over twenty years old and impossible to buy. Trad guidebook is still available, bouldering guidebook only exists online.

In reply to Michael Gordon:

It's brilliant. But bear in mind that 6as and 6bs can be E3 and E4 and 6cs E5

E

In reply to Xa White - UKC and UKH:

He had a little film on the area too. 

In reply to pbla4024:

That's a great wee summary. Thanks!

In reply to UKC News:

I note the rock is described as sandstone. Presumably a much harder type than Nesscliffe and other Uk types I have encountered?

In reply to DubyaJamesDubya:

Sandstone of Annot is quite hard with varied grain size. Voyage and Exit in read have tiny grain, extremely gentle to the skin. Argenton on the other side can have grain size up to few millimeters and will shred your fingers in few goes.

In reply to UKC News: I thought it quite soft - certainly softer than gritstone as a reference.  I've been there a few times as a location for geologic fieldtrips. 

In reply to wbo2:

I just wondered how it would hold up under trad gear as it sounded there was potential for long falls on Bon Voyage.

In reply to DubyaJamesDubya:

I took many falls in first part of Voyage and the cams did not move at all, the sandstone there is very fine grained and extremely solid. Then you move fifty meters to the right and Spitalgie looks like an emmental cheese  I have read some articles about geology of Annot and it was apparently formed by undersea landslides, where the material settled with large grain on the bottom and fine grain on the top. The thickness of each such layer was few meters, that would explain the very fast changes.