UKC

The third book in the Rockfax France series is now available for pre-ordering at a special offer price of £21.95 (normally £24.95).

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/news.php?id=4163

In reply to UKC Gear:

To anyone who knows the area; is this somewhere you could base yourself and use a car to get around a good selection of the crags without spending most of the week driving, or would you need to focus on one part of it realistically?

I found the Haute Provence guide great, but the Toulon one (Cote d'Azur) too spread out really.

In reply to JonC:

Hi Jon

This is quite an extensive area but it does offer some smaller areas to focus yourself on to avoid too much driving.

The Ardeche has enough for many weeks of climbing and it is very compact.

Less compact but still perfectly acceptable would be the Jonte, Tarn Boffi crags - all reachable from a central location and some great climbing.

Orgon, Mont Gaussier and Mouries would also be a good compact location and there are other crags in that area that we haven't been able to cover like Fontvielle and Cavaillon. Even Buoux is within striking distance from Orgon TBH.

The central crags are a bit spread out although I did once spend a great week at Claret awhere we also climbed at Thaurac and Russan - a fair bit of driving though.

Hope this helps.

Alan

PS. We actually had a great place in the Cote d'Azur area that allowed us to get to St. Victoire, Calanques, Chateau Verte and Chateau Double but getting to the Nice Area or the Verdon would have been too far. These guides aren't meant to be ticked in a single trip mind

In reply to JonC:

The crag locations marked on the map here http://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/news.php?id=4163

Are not exactly correct, which gives a false idea of how the crags are grouped.

Logical groupings of crags for a weeks visit (bearing in mind that Millau is about 2 hours from Montpellier/Alès) would be :
Around Millau : Tarn/Jonte/Cantobre/Boffi

Around Montpellier : Claret/Thaurac/Hortus (plus St Bauzille, St Jean de Bueges and a few other places)
Around Nimes/Alès : Russan/Seynes (plus Collias, Pont St Nicolas and others)

The Ardeche : Chaulet/Mazet/Actinidias/Cirque des Gens/Les Branches

Around Avignon : Orgon/Mt Gaussier/Mouriès (plus a few other small local crags and not that far from Buoux and the Dentelles)

In reply to TimB:

Aren't they?

Which crags are misplaced?

Alan

In reply to Alan James - UKC:

The Tarn is correct, but Jonte should be further south, where the 'e' of Cantobre is.

Cantobre is a tiny bit too far north (not much though)

Thaurac is about right (maybe a bit too north), but Hortus is too far east. There's a useful map here: http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crag.php?id=17208

Claret is too far north-east - the arrow points to Quissac.

Russan is right, but Seynes is a bit too far east.

All the Ardeche and Alpilles crags are bang on.

Mostly small errors (apart from the Jonte!) but they make a difference to how the groups look.

In reply to Alan James - UKC:

Jonte's out of place.

In reply to Alan James - UKC:

I spend a lot of time in Bagnols-sur-Ceze so climb regularly at some of the crags mentioned; for what its worth I can comment as follows:
I’m glad Seynes has been given due recognition because it is a brilliant place (apart from road noise and summer sun);
I’m surprised Orgon and the Alpilles crags are included (in Provence surely) as they would be best attacked from a base near Aix-en-Provence, combined with the excellent Mont St Victoire and Calanques;
I notice that the Cevennes hinterland seems to have been ignored which is a shame because there is great multipitch granite climbing in the beautiful Chassezac Gorge and at Vialas;
Meanwhile in the Gardon, I much prefer climbing at Collias to Russan (and not only because of the "relaxed" sunbathing there) so I’m surprised it doesn’t seem to have been included, but then I maybe am not hardcore enough;
Finally, I’m afraid I’ve had nothing but unpleasant experiences on the Ardeche crags, finding the moderately graded routes there (like at the Alpilles) as polished as English limestone - I hope the guide carries a health warning.
Review copies welcome.

In reply to UKC Gear: does it include anything in the south of the area, eg. Narebonne?

In reply to Alan James - UKC:

Hi,
There appears to be a large section of Languedoc-Roussillon that is not covered in the guide.
Vingrau, La Caroux, Fauzan, les Fenouilledes and Clape to name a few.

In reply to Christheclimber:

The crags covered are the ones that appear on the map. L

Like the other two books in the Rockfax France series, we only cover some of the crags in the areas. The guides are meant to give travelling some great crags to visit which will hopefully lead them to explore and use local guides as they require more from an area.

Alan

In reply to UKC Gear:
Just to note,have not seen the guide yet but have just returned from the tarn area.
Some sectors remain de-bolted.These are Oasif,Planete causse,some of the rts in and around Moulin d'huile,Amphi,calmez vu,Navire and le grand toit.
There are other areas in the gorge to climb as well giving superb climbing(but these are on private property-so no widely published info).There is also the Jonte where there are also new developments(single pitch) and of course le Boffi.
The locals are waiting for funding so they can re-bolt the above crags I would imagine alot of this might be done in the winter perhaps?

In reply to witnessthis:

Yes, we have been in close contact with Olivier in the Tarn area and the information in the guide is up-to-date with regard to the current situation.

Alan

In reply to Alan James - UKC:

Alan, when do you plan to update the Rockfax site database?

In reply to TimB:

Working on it over the next few weeks.

Alan

In reply to Alan James - UKC: Showing 21 sample pages which cover mainly routes in the black spot category won't attract a lot of lower or even middle grade climbers to buy the book, I suspect. You talk about "years of climbing" to go at, but does that assume you can climb up to mid-7s?

In reply to Rog Wilko:

Well there are 70 non-black spot routes at Le Boffi and also plenty more crags in the book with many more routes in the mid-to-low grades.

If you take a look at the other sample and go to the last DPS then you can see the crag breakdown with numbers of routes etc.

http://www.rockfax.com/book-previews/france-languedoc-roussillon-intro/

Aaln

In reply to Alan James - UKC:

Having been on a couple of the research trips for the book I can back Alan up entirely here - there's plenty of sub 7s routes at Boffi, and nearby tons more in the Jonte and a few at the Tarn too. Orgon and it's surrounds have loads of Fr6s, Seynes has lots too, as does Russan. And there's plenty of them at Thaurac and Hortus too. You won't run out quickly...!

In reply to AJM: I might - I only climb 6s in Kalymnos!

In reply to UKC Gear: Just bought my copy as thinking of heading that way early next year. Great guidebook, I even got Gorge de Tarn twice in my copy!

In reply to JPGR: Now noticed although I have Gorge de Tarn twice I'm missing 29 pages of Gorge de Jonte............

In reply to JPGR:

Whoops?

In reply to andyathome: Yup, back mine goes to the shop

In reply to JPGR:

I think you'll find it's 32 pages - a full section.

This is an occasional occurrence with print runs - think of them as Friday afternoon jobs. The feed to the collating machine picks up the same section twice and misses one of the other sections. We get around 4 or 5 copies on most print runs.

Return to the shop and they should replace. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Alan

In reply to Alan James - UKC: Cheers, guess just unlucky, will get it swapped at the shop tonight.