Five weeks since I last blogged, where does the time go? We left the Cote d’Azure in good order and had an excellent two weeks at Climb France with Ollie and Jess. It was years (and years) since I have last been to the Buis les Baronnies area and it was pleasant surprise - we never drove more than 10 miles for the week that Dave Gregory was there and climbed on a different crag every day.Then it was of to AlpSun another Brit run set-up (Pete and Helen) not far from Briançon, right up in the mountains. The weather has let us know we are back in the hills, we have had rain and snow plus some glorious sunshine. Plenty of good quality cragging and a Via Ferrata or two - recommendable! Chamonix tomorrow.

Had a great week with Dave Gregory - only a bit knackering - I think 21 routes in the first two and a half days was probably overdoing things a bit though! The weather was kinder than on his last visit, and doing 30 odd routes (and at 72 and 3/4) was more than he would have got done in the UK. The biggest shock to the system was a visit to a great looking limestone crag at Chateaudouble - the guide’s 25 minute approach took us over and hour up an interminable scree slope - the climbing was good, but the descent was equally horrible - not sure my knees will ever recover.

Thursday we dropped Dave of at Nice airport and he had an uneventful journey home - jet-setting was never easier. On our return, the fat package in the post box was the brand new Northern England - nice! OK there are a couple of (very minor) caption errors in there - or are they simply Easter Eggs? Either way I am pleased with the way it looks - two years of enjoyable effort.

I have to admit, the older I get and the more places I visit, the more convinced I am that we got the sh1tty end of the stick in the UK when they were dolling out the rock resourses - and don’t get me going on the weather!

We took a ride up to the Gorges de Blavet, about 30 minutes from St Rafael today, to have a wander round. It looks mighty complicated in the new guide, and it is. though a couple of hours spent exploring the area soon had it sorted out in my mind.

I had never heard of the place and I bet 95% of UK climbers haven’t either, 300′ granite walls, a sunny side and a shady side, a downhill approach and heaps of great looking routes many in the upper grades.

There is even a sunny beginners’ cliff a short distance above the road, a bit of something for everyone really! And is it on the circuit - not a chance!

Then there are the many fine limestone cliffs around Toulon, we have pretty much had to ourselves during our weekday visits - they are at least as good as their vaunted counterparts on the Costa Blanca and a lot less polished too. Have we heard and English voice there - of course not!

Thorbjørn has been and gone! An intense two days of pouring over the Lofoten manuscript looking for Nørwegian spelling miståkes on a chugging laptop left me knackered, it is surprisingly tiring just sitting staring at a screen for 12 hours, and sure brings on a quality headache! Long working days lead to late night drinking sessions (just to unwind of course) and 2am is too late to bed for a man of my years!
Thorbjørn was especially impressed with the way we utilised iChat to talk things through and shunt files back and forth, he said he almost expected to see Alan sat there with a big white cat on his lap, controlling his far flung minions! What an odd way to work though - Alan sitting in Sheffield would ask us, sat in the south of France a question about the book, then Thorbjørn would phone Arild Meyer up in Lofoten or Odd-Roar Will sat on an oil rig in the North Sea, and a few minutes later all would be sorted.
Alan is working his magic and the book is beginning to look stunning - possibly the most visually attractive book we have ever done. Even the locals back in Lofoten are starting to get excited - though apparently they have been asking whether we just do guidebooks or are we real climbers!

That’s Northern England put to bed - well just about! Three years of nagging to get Alan interested and two years of steady work, many trips to ‘the North’ - and we are just about there - its always a great feeling. Of course I have Lofoten to finish off (due out April/May) though that isn’t a huge job as I have been working in parallel on the two book for the last 18 months. Thorbjørn is going to call in some time over the next two weeks to help me sort out my pigeon Norwegian - overall he appears pretty pleased with the way it is looking so far. Then what - well I guess it will be time for a rewrite of Western Grit.

We headed down to the coast, had a walk out to the Cap d”Amont and watched the sunset - glorious - and according to the forecast is set fair for the next ten days.

Colin and Dave Gregory had a reasonable 11 day trip to visit us, seven decent days, in which we got a heap of climbing done, both in the local area and a little further afield, on a fine mixture of granite and limestone cliffs. The weather has been cool and occasionally showery, and views of the big hills to the north have revealed stacks of fresh snow.
Then just as were were fit(-tish) and fired up we got two days near solid rain - probably the wettest spell of weather ever in our many visits down here. Saturday morning I delivered them to Nice airport, and it was still hammering down - the motorway was just like driving in the UK.
By the time we got back to the pad, the sun was out and the forecast is set fair - sorry about that lads!

Colin and Dave Gregory arrive on the first day of the year and we had two busy days on the rock before the rain set in! A couple of damp days gave me chance to crack on with Northern England (not long now!) and check the local Decathlon where I discovered three climbing guides I hadn’t come across before - including one the are right behind the pad. The lads did a bit of local logging to keep the home fires burning.

During a drier spell we tried one of the cliffs, nice red granite, well-bolted and in a sea-side setting - very pleasant. The following day was better again, looks like it is coming good. OK - the weather hasn’t been the best - but I have done almost 30 more routes than I would have if I had stayed in the UK!

The last day of the year and another glorious one so we decided on a walk up to one of the tops in the Massif de l’Esterel, a range of granite hills right behind the house. The Pic du Cap Roux (1620′) fitted the bill, and gave us a pleasant three hour round trip, with great views out over the Med, and from the summit, along the coast to Cannes and Nice and on to the snow-plastered peaks of the Alps Maritime over 50 miles away. The ever-keen (ever-green) Colin and Dave Gregory arrive tomorrow (along with the rain if the forecast is to be believed) so we will doubtless be going climbing whenever possible.

After a few grey days, the forecast was right on button and we woke to be greeted by wall to wall blue sky. I decided a gentle day on St Jeannet might be the ticket to ease back into things - the last time I touched rock was a cold grey day on Burbage North well over a month ago!
St Jeannet and its soaring rock faces dominates the country north west of Nice, I first visited the place with Graham back in 1984 and 85 when we did amongst other routes the magnificent La Mafia. With eight pitches up to 7a+ it was described in Pete Livesey’s guide of the time as very difficult to free climb - we managed it though.
Today’s plans were much more modest - but who cares, six routes in the sun were pleasant enough - and every Renaissance has to start somewhere!

Sherri packed in work (for good this time), left school at little early any by 5:00 we were in Hull ready to board the Pride of York. Considering it was the middle of December, the crossing was as calm as you could have wished for - though Zeebrugge was a shock, foggy, -5 degrees and everything covered in hoar-frost. Things went well enough until Sally SatNav blotted her previously good record and took us towards Paris; by the time I realised what the game was - it was too late! The three hours spent crawling around the Periferique were a lesson never to be forgotten - Hell on Earth. Eventually we got on the E6 and 530 miles from Zebrugge, and several hours late we booked into a hotel in Chanas - knackered!
The next day went better and by 2:30 we were in St Rafael having passed some fine looking cliffs on the way down - the most interesting of which (consulting Jingo Wobbly) were at Orgon, looked well worth a visit some time soon.
In a re-run of last year the rain started when we were about an hour from the pad - never mind though - a couple of days rest are what we need for starters.

Then the sun came out - which was nice!