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Gorges du Tarn, France


phil_nev

22-Aug-2011
2:03:31 PM

A little TR on a recent trip to the amazing gorges du tarn, in the south of France
http://captainsofcrushaustralia.blogspot.com/2011/08/gorges-du-tarn-2011.html

maxdacat

22-Aug-2011
2:08:30 PM

Cheers - did read it a while ago. Interesting point about the crowds at Ceuse. I had always thought the big walk up the hill put people off.


nmonteith

22-Aug-2011
3:51:50 PM

Great TR Phil! Glad to see it lived up to the hype for you.

Ceuse can get incredibly crowded, especially in the easy sectors. This is a pic of idiots climbing in the blazing summer sun. We went elsewhere.


phil_nev

22-Aug-2011
4:07:25 PM

Climbing in the sun is crazy, we got caught one or two days cleaning routes, it was horrid. Amazing what a difference being in the shade makes!!


cruze

22-Aug-2011
4:59:12 PM

Thompson's descent gully walls and Shipley Upper can both look that bad mid summer.

Wendy

22-Aug-2011
6:01:15 PM

I thought Tarn was way, way better than Ceuse, but you shouldn't ruin everyone's delusions about Ceuse for them, lest the crowds all turn up at Tarn ...

7a/23!!! What sort of down grading of all the hard routes I've done are you trying to do to me here! It's at least 24 ...

One Day Hero

23-Aug-2011
12:42:44 AM

On 22/08/2011 Wendy wrote:
>
>7a/23!!! What sort of down grading of all the hard routes I've done are
>you trying to do to me here!

Pet hate #1) People who pepper their trip report with numbers.........in fact, people who pepper their climbing with numbers

Pet hate #2) People who sandbag all the grades they warm up on, but prop up the grades they project.........i.e. if you want 8a to be 29, 7a doesn't really work at 23. Most probably the 8a's were only 27 or 28, but downgrading those would make the number-dropping heros seem less heroic........can't have that, can we?

Pet hate #3) Captains of what?


phil_nev

23-Aug-2011
8:51:21 AM

On 23/08/2011 One Day Hero wrote:
>On 22/08/2011 Wendy wrote:
>>
>>7a/23!!! What sort of down grading of all the hard routes I've done are
>>you trying to do to me here!
>
>Pet hate #1) People who pepper their trip report with numbers.........in
>fact, people who pepper their climbing with numbers
>
>Pet hate #2) People who sandbag all the grades they warm up on, but prop
>up the grades they project.........i.e. if you want 8a to be 29, 7a doesn't
>really work at 23. Most probably the 8a's were only 27 or 28, but downgrading
>those would make the number-dropping heros seem less heroic........can't
>have that, can we?
>
>Pet hate #3) Captains of what?

Fark me mate, wtf is your problem?!

1) First off, I couldn't give a toss what the grades are and their relative conversion in Ewbank is, I was just psyched to climb some amazing routes in a pretty special place. The grades are simply an indication of difficulty. Despite what you might think mate, more often than not if you are talking about a route, people will invariably ask the grade, hence why I listed them in the TR.

2) As far as I'm aware, 7a is 23 and 8a is 29... If the grades are out of whack, it's certainly not intentional.
http://www.google.com.au/imgres?q=climbing+grade+conversion+table&um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&sa=N&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&tbm=isch&tbnid=fazieS2krO0fnM:&imgrefurl=http://www.alpinist.com/p/online/grades&docid=NGzNUTPBAjLJzM&w=344&h=524&ei=FNtSTtS8F--NmQWa-5joBg&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=391&page=1&tbnh=167&tbnw=110&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0&tx=57&ty=47&biw=1227&bih=639

3) Captains of crush make those hand grip thing's
http://www.ironmind.com/ironmind/opencms/Main/captainsofcrush.html
A few of us thought it would be a fun name for a climbing blog.

I met you a long time ago damo, and you seemed like a pretty decent bloke. Clearly I was wrong... Trolling, sledging for no reason and generally being a douche, I can never understand why some people feel the need to bring others down.... I didn't realise that writing a little TR about my first big OS trip would make me a number dropping hero.

Wendy

23-Aug-2011
9:48:13 AM

I've never heard 7a called 23 before. I have heard it debated whether it is 24 or 25 though. Inevitably, those silly foreign grading systems don't fit neatly into our grades, but if I pick up the nearest available guidebook (Araps) written by that font of all knowledge, Simey, it has 7a at 24. I've never climbed a 7a that felt like 23 either. Although I've climbed some 23s at the Mt that felt like 7a. Or maybe even 8a.

I find all systems are messy in the mid grade comparisons. Actually, they suck in the low grades too, largely because there aren't enough numbers in most systems to accommodate the range of easy routes. That might well suck in the hard grades too, I just never have to deal with that. They should all just admit our system is the only one that makes sense and adopt it.

In the meanwhile, this chart best reflects my experience of the grades:
http://www.warwick.ac.uk/~masfz/Grade_Table.html

Pommy

23-Aug-2011
9:57:43 AM

ODH peppered his post with a numbered list - I really hate that.....

chalkischeap

23-Aug-2011
10:02:49 AM

Phil, I have switched on the ignore user option for One Day Hero. He has been polluting this site for years. Please don't quote him in your posts - I wanted to read about Gorge Du Tarn.

To One Day Hero........not listening mate, fingers in ears.

widewetandslippery

23-Aug-2011
10:05:10 AM

Do any of you see a dermatologist about your thin skin?

chalkischeap

23-Aug-2011
10:16:42 AM

I don't recall you ever making a useful comment either.....bye bye


phil_nev

23-Aug-2011
10:33:19 AM

On 23/08/2011 davidn wrote:
>Phil, good on you for being positive and excited. Apparently Damien's
>long since lost his sense of excitement about climbing and life, and seems
>intent on inflicting that sense of malaise on everyone else. Shrug it
>off.

Thanks mate. :)

>Regarding the numbers though... I agree with you, keep the grades in,
>but if you're talking about a route you've done, might as well say 'we
>warmed up on a few climbs' as 'i climbed Jeux de Page, Tressor du Zebra
>...' because neither one really says anything about the climb itself.
>I've noticed this in Rock magazine a lot recently, where the climb seems
>to be only about the grade or a very short, uninflected description e.g.
>
>"Techy moves up a blunt arete" - unexciting!

Yeah fair call there, the only problem is that everything we did from F4 to F8a (Based on the local guide) was amazing. Didn't do an overage route really. I could easily rant and rave about almost every route, but i thought for the purposes of a concise TR, best to stick to talking about a couple of routes in detail, and simply mention a few of the other classics for anyone who might be interested in a visit at some stage.

maxdacat

23-Aug-2011
10:38:45 AM

On 23/08/2011 One Day Hero wrote:
>
>Pet hate #1) People who pepper their trip report with numbers.........in
>fact, people who pepper their climbing with numbers
>
>Pet hate #2)
>
>Pet hate #3)

I take it you do see the irony of decrying the use in "numbers" in a trip report by making use of a numbered list?


Eduardo Slabofvic

23-Aug-2011
10:40:02 AM

Cats are my pet hate


rodw

23-Aug-2011
10:41:02 AM

I thought it was blue tarps?

chalkischeap

23-Aug-2011
10:42:38 AM

On 22/08/2011 Wendy wrote:
>I thought Tarn was way, way better than Ceuse,

Better than Ceuse!

I spent 10 days at Ceuse a few years ago and it was far and away the best place that I have ever climbed.

That's settled then, I'm going to Tarn next July.


phil_nev

23-Aug-2011
10:45:51 AM

On 23/08/2011 Wendy wrote:
>I've never heard 7a called 23 before. I have heard it debated whether
>it is 24 or 25 though. Inevitably, those silly foreign grading systems
>don't fit neatly into our grades, but if I pick up the nearest available
>guidebook (Araps) written by that font of all knowledge, Simey, it has
>7a at 24. I've never climbed a 7a that felt like 23 either. Although
>I've climbed some 23s at the Mt that felt like 7a. Or maybe even 8a.

Personally, I don't agree. By that token, 7b is 26/27?? I have done quite a lot of routes graded 7b in europe, and the 7b's there feel like 25's ive done here. Regardless, It doesn't really matter as they are just number anyway. :)

>I find all systems are messy in the mid grade comparisons. Actually, they
>suck in the low grades too, largely because there aren't enough numbers
>in most systems to accommodate the range of easy routes. That might well
>suck in the hard grades too, I just never have to deal with that. They
>should all just admit our system is the only one that makes sense and adopt
>it.

Agreed.

Thanks Mike, yeah you are probably right. Glad you enjoyed the read. :)


phil_nev

23-Aug-2011
10:46:40 AM

On 23/08/2011 chalkischeap wrote:

>That's settled then, I'm going to Tarn next July.

I'm coming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

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