UKC

Hi,

I'm going to be heading out to Nice at the end of the week until Christmas. I was wondering if anyone had been there before during this period and could suggest what the climbing is like, can recommend any crags, or if its too cold to bother? Also if anyone is out there and wants a weekend climbing partner for sport/trad I would be keen.

Thanks

 

In reply to george327:

Hi George,

I've no direct experience but my understanding is conditions are primo in winter (providing it doesn't rain obviously) at crags like Castillon, Peillon, La Turbie... For partners try the Partenaires rocher section on camptocamp.

Are you bringing a trad rack? If the weather plays ball I'll head this way early December and would love to do a weekend climbing perfect cracks at Annot, where two racks of cams to #3 are the bare minimum! (Only have a single rack)

In reply to george327:

This is one of the best times of the year to climb in the Cote D'Azur. A lot of the tufa may be wet or will be wet soon, but there are a lot of crags that will be dry and are in the sun for all or some of the day. I've climbed there in Oct, Nov and Dec and had some awesome conditions. It can rain for a day or so at a time, but then is dry for a while.

From my experience, there aren't that many British climbers in the area, but there are a lot of very keen locals. Perhaps check out the climbing walls and try and meet some.

I may be out in early December for a week. If so I'll give you a shout.

TJB.

 

In reply to george327:

Weather has been perfectly ok - we've been around the New year several times. La Turbie is reasonable in windy conditions, especially the crags down west. For multipitch where you might use gear, head to St. Jeannet main face.

In reply to george327:

Hi I was at La Turbie over the weekend, and a lot of "Le Grand Face" was wet, and was bitterly cold with the wind blowing in. I reckon it would have been fine if the wind was a different direction. Not sure if the seeping tufas will dry up though. 

In reply to george327:

Thanks for all the replies, I will take some gear and hope to sort out an opportunity to get out on the rock!

Adrien, TJB: yhm

 

George

In reply to SFrancis:

Does anyone know if there is "safer" parking for La Turbie maybe a bit further from the crag?

I'm thinking of somewhere you could park a GB van and not feel quite so vulnerable.  The UKC/Rockfax database suggests the main parking is a bit dodgy.

In reply to BruceM: there's a small parking beneath La Loubiere in one of the hairpins ... no idea if this is safer. We usually go with an open door policy that served us well.

@SFrancis, that's why i said the crags down west (La Loubiere etx) ar a better bet in windy conditions.

In reply to BruceM:

We’ve parked here in the past https://w3w.co/posting.wizards.distract without any issues. Be discreet though as it’s residential. Great pizza takeaway just up the road too. 

In reply to mark catcher:

Thanks Mark.  That's the kind of thing I was thinking of.  Maybe hard to find a place like that empty enough, but worth trying.  (Hadn't heard of 3 words before -- interesting idea.)

tj: yes, the open door thing doesn't work too well with a GB car enroute avec toutes les stuff inside.