Marianne and me have been Brain storming for some time to go on a BIG climbing trip.
The Idea drive the Syncro van true Asia to China and back through Russia around 2015. And climb as much as possible!
And we think its crazy.. guess what.. We are not the only crazy Syncro drivers.
Because of the France national day on the 8th we had a nice long weekend.
With a weather forecast that was predicting nothing but rain around Grenoble.
So we took a 300Km drive south to Chateauvert.
An interesting ride. We run out of Diesel drove true big hail storms to find a perfectly dry crack
A great climbing spot with loads of roadside cliffs.
A lot of nice routes but not that “much” bolts..
It’s an old climbing crack with old-school bolting. But with loads of great lines witch where not very easy.
Marianne combining 2 grade 6 lines into one beautiful 60M line.
An other night off the road on a great camping spot.
For the full story check: Marianne’s site
Just above Crolles there is loads of climbing.
The top part of the great wall under le luisset La Dent de Crolles is great for any level of climbing.
Last weekend I climbed on a part thats is kind a difficult from 6C up to 9 something.
And climbed some very nice 7a’s .
This weekend I climbed on a easy part of this big wall were the level starts at 4b.
And climbed loads of very nice 6a’s with a crux start on all of them.
Together with a lot of exchange student from the Grenoble university. Great sunny day after 2 weeks of rain 
.
My house on wheels under La Dent de Crolles.
So this weekend it was great weather again.
My Colleges from Petzl Guillaume and Antoine took me along to Pont de Barret.
In the sunny south of France only 160 KM from grenoble but so different climate and vegetation.
A very nice crack from grade 4 up till 8b+ topo available at the local”bookstore/bar”
So any one in for great limestone climbing in a very nice surroundings:
Last weekend we tried to climb the Jackson route on Les droites. After a slow start it started to snow around 3500M . And at 3700M the spindrift small avalanches and altitude problems made me decide to retreat.
So a rock hit me in the face on the decent.. such a nice trip 
.
The Ginat/Jackson from Marianne van der Steen on Vimeo.
The last day of our 2012 iceclimbing trip.. But a Good day.
After waking up having no motivation what so ever. Sore muscles and being really stiff we decided to go to Ueschinen any way. Being sure to regret having a rest day when back home.
So skiing up took foorreeever.. So we arrived at 12 a clock.
Not too much time to climb. Marianne dived straight oin To the Twin towers..
Working out all the moves climbing it in 3 sections.
I was watching really close. When she worked out all the moves it was my turn.
Not being warmed up it was so nice to move in to the freehanging in the middle of the roof to get a rest.
From here its “only” 4 hard moves in to the next overhanging ice. I found the hooks first try made some big dynamic moves and found myself in the curtain on the end of the roof. I climbed the icicle careful being scared to waist my Flash attempet. YES made it. First M10 flash.
After that it was Marianne, a lot of pressure on her.. Because I flashed the route she “had” to climb it in the second go. The first part to the first pillar with a big move into the ice she climbed nicely. Having a good rest in the middle. But here the nurves kicked in. From the freehanging to the next little “torque” ledge she couldn’t find the good spot. To figure of four from. So she moved back.
This repeated until Marianne was really nervous and totally frustrated hanging arms shaking in the middle section of the route. She tried to move in to the figure of four again. This time to find it kind of stable. Feeling confident enough she moved to the next hold a long reach from the figure of four. Then she get a very bad pump.. hanging there over 10 Min shaking one arm then the other.. To find some energy.. but there was none for this big move.. knowing that an other figure of four was going to be to much. She finally found some small hold in between. moved up found the next hold screaming and swearing…and made it to the last icicle and climbed the last ice to the top a 45 Min battle for her especially a mind battle..
About a week ago we started climbing the first pitches of AlmenDudler a 300M+ multipitch mixed line M9+M10 WI6 . But retreated after the first 2 M9 and M8 pitch because we didn’t feel to good. Thanx for the cold Gordon .
After some climbing in Kiental and skiing with Rick we went back yesterday. I almost climbed the first pitch in my second go just falling off the last move before the easy ground. After climbing the M8 pitch we found out that the WI6 was not thick enough. I climbed an 8meter 40cm thick freehanging. But we both didn’t dare to climb the 20cm thick freehanging after that… So we Bailed again….
But today we climbed a nice 250m WI6 above Blausee. Probably the last ice of our season because it’s getting warm again..
Ice ICe baby!!
Yeah finally we found some ice ..
Not really fat but O’K ice. Yesterday we climbed the nice Couloir Lillaz. With some funny mixed ground in the end.
Today we wanted to climb an other easy route to start but there where already 3 partys in it. So we tried some harder stuff. Some M7+ /WI4 we climbed the dry part but the second pitch in to the ice was in very bad shape so we bailed.
Then we took a look at the Stevie Haston Hard ICe M10 by climbing the first 2 pitches WI5+ to the start of the cave.
