Road to Vallon-Pont-d’Arc

In the morning we left towards Ailefroide, a very popular bouldering and climbing destination in France. We were planning on parking in the village and fixing a place to sleep later in the evening. But it turned out that the village consisted of pretty much only the campsite. It is one big campsite with a few cafés, climbing stores, a supermarket and bakery and that’s it. So we figured it would be worth trying to get a space on the campsite that would double as our parking for the day. The campsite is reasonably priced and we didn’t mind the idea of having a shower for the night since we would be having a very active day. The lady at the reception was very kind and we were able to sleep on the campsite. Upon arrival we saw the gigantic rock faces and already spotted a few people climbing some of the multi pitch routes around the campsite. We quickly packed our bouldering stuff and headed out to the woods. On the way we bought the local boulder topo as a way to support the local business and we picked the closest section to go bouldering.

The river was being diverted right where we, and all other climbers, had to cross it. The workers were kind to let us all pass and we found the woods we were supposed to be in. A French guy saw us struggling to locate ourselves in perspective to the topo and pointed us the way to some easy, beginner boulders. Sadly, his sense of direction wasn’t perfect and we were still lost. But at least we had a fun conversation with him and knew we were in the right section. After spending a bit more time searching we located ourselves and found some great boulders, one of which a 6a overhang. We sadly weren’t able to top it but made it a nice project for the day. After a while it was time to have lunch, we had dinner for lunch so we were fueled enough and ready to go back out there for the rest of the day. While packing, Julian found some beginner sport routes on the internet and he had already seen that the climbing store in the village had huge sales going. Contemplating for a bit, we came to the conclusion it would be best to buy the rest of the climbing gear we need here and practice at the well-attended beginner routes here in Ailefroide.

The staff-member of the climbing shop was extremely helpful and helped us decide on what we should buy. After quite a while we got everything we came for and even got some tips on where would be best to start climbing. When we were done with all of the gear, I also decided to ask for help on buying new climbing shoes. The soles of mine had come loose and I kept slipping on them. After trying all possible shoes he had available, the last pair, standing outside, finally fit. Buying all this means our monthly budget had been pretty much spent in one day… But, at least we can properly climb now.

We brought along all of the new gear and headed up towards the rock-face the employee pointed us to. It was a very steep walk up to the routes, but absolutely gorgeous. We saw a deer on the way, he wasn’t even afraid of us and just stood there at the edge of the path. The path also looked over the entire campsite and over to all of the rock-faces that were being climbed. We arrived at the start of the routes and it was very busy, but the easiest one wasn’t being climbed so we untangled the rope (for the first time withing 15 minutes) and checked if everything was okay and safe. Julian had looked up how to safely clean a route and we felt comfortable going to the top for the first time. Some kind Brits coached us through whenever it looked like we weren’t fully secure with what we were doing and before we knew it, Julian was at the top. For me it will take a couple more days to be comfortable with the height and everything that comes with it. This is also due to the fact that most beginner routes are slabs, which I have always found terrifying, but I’ll get there someday. Julian safely cleaned the route and we talked to the Brits a bit more about where they recommend we should climb tomorrow and they gave some tips on safety. We rushed packing up a bit to get back to the van before dark and had a small dinner before heading to bed early. Tomorrow we will cross the broken bridge to climb at l’ecole fissure.

Today we went climbing at l’ecole fissure, a rock-face suggested by both the store employee and the Brits that we talked to the day before. We had our breakfast and left towards the “broken bridge”. We somehow went to the wrong broken bridge on the first try and had to walk upstream to find the right broken bridge, and luckily we did. The bridge was however, very broken, and we had to do some parkour to get to the other side of the water. Once we were there, the rock-face was easy to find and we got ready to climb. We are slowly starting to get the hang of keeping the rope untangled and we could start climbing surprisingly quickly. Julian was doing great and climbed up a few times, I wasn’t doing so well and had trouble getting up there. It was a slabby wall, and I hadn’t slept that well and just didn’t feel that well. We tried going up to another face since the wall would be a bit more vertical there. The way up was terrible, extremely steep on lose rocks and I was not having it. I started to get shaky and tried to at least reach the start of the routes. But I was not secure enough to belay or climb, so sadly we had to walk back down.

Getting back to the van, we packed up and started our drive to Gap. We arrived in Gap, Julian went into McDonald’s to work and I did some groceries for our hike the day after. We planned on going to a parking near McDonald’s but unfortunately there was a bit of a weird vibe over there. We did decide to have dinner already and afterwards we went to Basic-Fit to do our calisthenics workout and Julian found an overnight parking on the trail of the hike of tomorrow. After our workout we went over there and it turned out to be completely empty, except for a drug deal going on at the other side of the road, but they left quickly. I made pasta for lunch tomorrow and found out the water tank was empty… This meant no dishes could be done, and we just cleaned as best as we could with kitchen-roll and went to bed.

We woke up at 7 to get ready for the hike. As soon as we opened the curtains we saw where we parked the night before and it was beautiful. Also, turns out it is a busy parking lot during the day and before 7.30 half of the parking lot was in use. We had parked in like 4 places and decided to move the van. There was a bathroom and a water fountain so we could easily prepare for the hike. The trail was supposed to start at the trainstation in Gap, but we were parked halfway up the mountain. This gave us the choise to walk up, then all the way down, and up to the van again. Or, walk down, then all the way up, and back down to the van. We opted for the latter and walked down to the city. This way we got to see some of the city and it was very cute. All the way through the center, pass the church and walk out the city again. At this point, we already walked half of the distance of the hike and we felt great. The way up started, and sadly this was along the provincial road, which meant a boring first ascend. Some cyclists passed us, of course Dutch, and we were all struggling to get up the steep mountain. We had some food next to the road and soon we arrived at the park where the biggest part of the ascend would start. Most parts of the ascent were as steep as 35-40% and it was around 30°C, we were not ready to say the least.

We ate some pasta, filled up our water bottles and cooled our heads by the water fountain and decided to just go for it. The first part was okay, but it kept getting steeper and every time it started to get only a bit less steep we thought we were there. But it kept on going… We eventually got higher than the trees and arrived at the first top. From here on it was scrambling with steep slopes on either side and I was really quite scared. Julian was mostly just tired, but we held it together. At some point two huge birds of prey soared above and before us. At this point we also hadn’t seen any people on the mountain yet and the landscape was so alien to us. We were also way higher than the other mountains around, which is something we are not used to on our hikes in the Alps. We had more pasta at the top of the mountain and started the very hard descent.

The descent was also really fucking steep… And it just kept going. Luckily we didn’t have to get all the way down to the city, but only to the van halfway up but we were not having a great time. After a few breaks and lots and lots of water and electrolytes, some raisins and lots of complaining later we arrived at the van. Here we quickly grabbed a cold Tourtel (alcohol free flavored beer) and a bag of chips while sitting down in the shade.

I tried going to the bathroom but got caught in a line of elderly French women all trying to go before their touring car would leave again and it took like 30 minutes before the line cleared. This meant 30 minutes standing in the scorching heat and I was not happy about it. I also had to go fill bottles of water to pour in the water tank to fill it up just a little bit so we could finally do dishes and wash ourselves again. Then dinner was made, chicken burgers while watching Lupin and before 9 we went to sleep. The next day we will continue our way towards Vallon-Pont-d’Arc.