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General Climbing Discussion

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Help educate Ti and enter another discussion 3-Sep-2008 At 10:53:52 AM prb

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Just a shot of my latest secret crag in the Adelaide Hills...only kidding, here's another Mont-Aiguille
mini TR.

There was a break in the weather and we needed to head back to Provence so we left the Mattertal
early and got to the village below Mont-Aiguille about 2pm. Hadn't realized that, from there, it was a
1000m of up to the top of the Mont. No guidebook but I thought the normal route started near the col
on the NW side and we were at the start by 4.15. Polished holds and a giant ring-bolt thing suggested
we were on track. After a couple of pitches we spotted the cable so it was hard to get lost after that.

The top chimney was cruxy, perhaps several grade 12 moves, and we summited about 7pm. It was
quite a buzz for Richard (pictured) who now lives in France and only climbs when I'm over there. I think
we sometimes forget that what we do as climbers can seem pretty amazing to non-climbers.

We were down by 9 and back to the car by 11, facing a tortuous drive to Avignon. Is it known if the
normal route is more-or-less the 1492 route? I guess route descriptions weren't always recorded back
then, but the King's men must have gone up in the same general area.