Based on a true story

1 Introduction

During the Easter break of 2011 members of Imperial College Mountaineering Club (ICMC) departed on a 14 day trip that would take them through 3 different countries in their quest for climbing. Taking the union minibus these brave adventurers drove 2276 miles through tunnels, over mountains, off road and even on the flat. Due to several members dropping out and several other members lacking just one of the requirements to be able to drive there were only two drivers of the minibus for the duration of the trip. Most of the team returned with no injuries

There were several aims and objectives for the tour, primary aim of the tour were to take members of the club to a number of locations and climb on a range of rock types and in styles unusual to that of the UK. Other aims were for members to improve their ability and to climb in styles that they were not so used to. The Pyrenees also offered some longer multipitch climbs that are far larger than anything available in the UK and these were the main target of some members of the tour.

Four distinctly different rock types were seen on tour, these were limestone, sand stone, granite and conglomerate however within these broad rock types there were a range of styles from slabs to overhangs. All members felt they had improved and were stronger towards the end of the trip. Certain crags offered very interesting routes which combined different styles of climbing such as steep over hangs into technical slabs which was very rewarding to climb on. While multi pitch climbs were done by all members the attempt at Enfants de la Dalle (a 1000m+ route) was called off for concerns about the safety of the attempt. The Pyrenees mountain range has a lot to offer in the way of climbing, another tour could easily be run and not have to climb in any of the same areas. It would also be of value to return in the future and climb some of the routes that defeated the climbers this time around.

For future tours there are some lessons to be learnt. While taking the minibus is a reasonable way to travel it is slower and more tiring than flying. The minibus did have the major advantages of being able to take all of the equipment and did allow the tour to visit a lot more areas than would have been practical if flights had been used. The main problem was the lack of drivers, only having two drivers meant that they were very tired at the end of long stretches of driving.

A final issue, which only became apparent after the tour was finished, was the amount of things done on tour. So much was crammed into the 14 days that an extensive tour report was required to describe the events of the tour.

2 People

The people who went on the tour were:

• Matthew Lees (Murray)
• Edward Stott
• Tristan Pollitt
• Jonathan Price
• Elliot Carrington (Choss Master)
• Adrian Jeakins*
• Michael Jones (Fails)
• Jonathan Mason (The American)
• Justine Courty*

All people on the tour were full members of ICMC at the time

*These members were not present for the entire trip

3 Tour Diary

3.1 Day 1 – Beit

While most students were finishing up for the term and moving over to the union to relax and have a few drinks before going home for Easter the ICMC members were busy packing the bus and getting ready for their 2 weeks away. Murray had spent the morning chasing various Sabbaticals and union staff for money, bus keys and tarps and had managed to get it all together in time for the bus to be packed and make a slightly delayed departure at 7 pm. Heading towards the euro tunnel took from South Kensington took the bus through central London which was packed. Eventually the motor way was reached and the lack of a 6th gear became annoyingly obvious with the engine droning away in 5 th.

The euro tunnel was reached in remarkably good time considering the traffic and late get away. The spare hour was used by most to wonder around the terminal but Ed took this opportunity to climb on top of the bus and have a snooze. The train was boarded just before midnight and departed on time

3.2 Day 2 – Font

Arriving in France shortly after departing and not being entirely sure of the time anymore Ed took the wheel and headed towards Fontainebleau; we arrived much earlier than expected. Since it was still dark all the members decided to find their own sleeping spots and have a good sleep before the day’s bouldering. Some members slept in the bus, some in the woods, and Ed chose the top of the bus again. The people who had chosen to sleep in the woods were woken first by the numerous dogs that went to investigate.

After a good breakfast of cereal the group moved off into the forest to find the boulders they had come looking for. Murray, Ed, Fails and Choss Master set off on the purple circuit which proved to be just the right difficulty. There were some interesting problems as well as a high ball part and an impressive tunnel to crawl through. At lunch time the 4 decided to head back to base camp for food and while walking back Choss Master had a disagreement with a rock, the disagreement escalated into a fight. Choss Master decided that the best option was to head but the rock but this proved to be a bad idea. After sending someone for ice at the cafe and making Choss Master sit still for a while they continued back to base camp.

That afternoon Fails found an impressive looking roof section that he managed to climb after a few goes, Murray and Choss Master both climbed it afterwards. Ed and Jon both slept on top of the roof being climbed while The American did some impressive spotting for those on the roof. After everyone had climbed themselves out for the day they got back on the bus and headed for Targasonne stopping in some services for Chilli.

3.3 Day 3 – Targasonne

After some more speedy driving at 100 kph by Ed and Murray Targasonne was reached ahead of schedule and again people decided to sleep by the road instead of going straight for the climbing. Just when everyone had got to sleep it began to rain, most people dived straight into the bus but Jon and Ed had other ideas, they slipped under the bus to use it as a shelter and both slept there. A couple of hours later an angry French man turned up and told us we were in the wrong place, the bouldering was further out of town, and he told us to get out of the lay-by we were in. Seeing the rain hadn’t stopped and not wanting to get in trouble the decision was made to make a break for the border. On the way there was a rather long tunnel and the tunnel game was introduced to all (where one holds their breath while in the tunnel), unfortunately the 13 km tunnel proved far too long for anyone to finish.

Later that day the bus rolled into their new home for the next week and set up camp, this time in the right place. On the Spanish side the weather was much more favourable with no sign of rain, not wanting to waste the rest of the day everyone jumped back into the bus and went to the closest crag that had things easier than 7a; Crestes De Conill. After getting spanked by the easiest of climbs and blaming it on being tired and on unusual rock the team returned to the campsite. Homemade burgers were on the menu that evening, after burning all of them in an effort to avoid food poisoning everyone turned in for the first good night’s sleep to be had in a couple of days.

3.4 Day 4 – Conglomerate

After waking up to surprisingly good health after dinner the night before a relaxed pace was adopted for this days climbing. The destination was an area called Collegats, quite a large area of conglomerate climbing. Most of the routs had a boulder start, easy middle and a difficult top section. The conglomerate rock had an interesting mix of hidden jugs and a lot of traps. Fails and Choss Master decided to demonstrate their punter like skills by setting up a top rope on a 6c and did not attempt the lead. Murray tried a 6a on lead but had to retreat and let fails rescue his quick draws.

Some refreshing rain started at the end of the day making the decision to end climbing and go back to camp for everyone. Dinner that night was a tuna and tomato pasta dish.

3.5 Day 5 – Lleida

This was the first time breakfast had been porridge on the trip. The plan was to have a rest day and go into Lleida to pick up Adrian who had flown in late after needing to finish project work. In Lleida the food supplies were restocked and lunch consisted of 2 Kg of mystery meat purchased at the reasonable sum of €4. Decathlon was next on the shopping trip for people to restock on climbing equipment they had decided they needed.

After a phone call from Adrian saying there was a delay and he would be getting into Lleida 2 hours later than originally planned the idea of a rest day was scrapped and the guide book was reached for. The closest climbing to Lleida was a cave with a number of routs ranging from 8a to unclimbed, deciding this was a bit hard bouldering a bit further away was chosen. After about half an hour driving on a dirt track into the desert leaving a massive dust cloud in the wake of the bus the boulders were discovered with the tell tale chalk of a long history of being climbed. A number of hard powerful problems were climbed and many remained unclimbed even after ridiculous back breaking beta was used. Once Adrian was picked up from the train station and the short journey back to camp completed dinner was put on, this time it was carbonara.

3.6 Day 6 – Accident

The destination for climbing this day was Camarossa. Being a road side crag made access very easy, luckily the road lead to a hydro electric plant and had very little traffic on it. Being at the bottom of a valley there was no direct sun for much of the day. Fails had spotted a short 6c+ that had a powerful crux, ideal for the Westway climber. After some working he eventually got it clean, attempts were made by Murray and Choss Master but were unsuccessful.

While climbing elsewhere Ed took a rather large lob (4 – 5 m) whilst trying to clip a bolt. Unfortunately during the fall he inverted in the harness and hit his head on the rock below, he was not wearing a helmet at the time. At first glance the injury was quite bad; there was a lot of blood on Ed and the rock. On closer inspection while the cut was deep it was not through to the skull so it was bandaged up. Within a short period Ed was feeling much better but decided not to climb anymore that day.

Further up the road from the crag was an interesting looking cave which had a couple of inches of water in the bottom. The cave was large enough for a car to drive down and the tell tale tyre marks at the entrance confirmed this had been done. The cave extended about 100 m into the rock, made a turn and ended. It was concluded that this was a secret government facility with a concealed entrance and we would all disappear if exploration continued. Dinner that evening was a BBQ which was enjoyed by all.

3.7 Day 7 – Schorchio!

The morning was spent in the town of Balaguer stocking up on food. While the team were shopping Fails took decided to go for a haircut. On the return from the hairdressers to the bus he managed to get lost and needed to be rescued by Ed. Fully stocked the team left the town to find some climbing.

After parking next to a bee hive the team walked up to the climbs at Cubells. This was by far the hottest day of the trip. The crag was south facing and right a t the end of the foot hills, from the base of the walk in the land was flat for as far as the eye could see. While the climbing was very good the heat was exhausting and the constant bees following the climbers up the crag were annoying.

Returning to camp a curry was cooked up and eaten in very little time. Just before going to bed some members decided to take showers, one of these members was Fails. It turned out that fails had forgotten his towel and thought that the best solution was to dance in front of the hand dryer in his boxers until fully dried. This matter was not aided by people flicking water at him.

3.8 Day 8 – Birthday

After a day of being roasted by the Spanish sun a rest day was called for. Various activities were devised by members. Revision was a popular idea but very little was achieved. Some members went on a walk around the camp site and found a chain of 65 caterpillars following each other nose to tail. Attempts to join the 2 ends of the chain together failed so they were left alone.

Later a trip was organised into Balaguer to restock on food again. While in town the idea of ice creams was put forwards, unfortunately at a mere 32 o the local ice cream shop felt it was too cold for anyone to buy ice creams and had not opened. While wondering around town a rather unusual shop was discovered that had many sweet deals, fails was in heaven and splashed out.

Once all the entertainments of Balaguer were exhausted swimming in the river was suggested and all members agreed this was a perfect way to cool off, near to the camp site was a lake that looked ideal. At the entrance to the lake a small bridge crossed, at approximately 5 m high it was a good height for jumping into the river from. After extensive testing by throwing rocks of various size into the river it was deemed safe enough for Fails to jump in. Driving the minibus off the bridge and into the river was also put forwards as a more conclusive test but the barriers next to the road prevented this. After Fails jumped into the water with a small Spanish audience and survived it was then considered safe enough for the other more valuable members to enter. Murray took the longest to get over his psyche problem but did jump in the end. The water was very cold and quick exits were made by all.

After some issues with the stoves catching fire due to leaky petrol canisters chilli was served but, rather unusually for ICMC, there was also a desert on offer. The desert was a quadruple chocolate cake hand crafted for The American’s birthday. It consisted of 2 chocolate sponges glued together with melted chocolate, covered in more melted chocolate, with chocolate eggs on top each with a soft chocolate centre. Candles were fashioned from the left over cheese wax wrapped around sticks and soaked in petrol.

3.9 Day 9 – Policía

This was to be the last day spent in Spain. The tent was packed up with impressive speed and everything was ready to go so fast that the reception was not yet open. After waiting for reception to open and paying for the camp site ICMC was on the road again. Heading north towards France they stopped to check out Pachamama, Chris Sharma’s famous 9a+, all were amazed at the size of it and how over hanging it was. While having lunch it was realised that more people had been to the moon than had climbed that piece of rock. With that sobering thought they got back on the road.

The crag for the day was located on an abandoned stretch of highway that was left to crumble after the new highway was constructed that tunnelled straight through the rock rather than winding around the valley. The abandoned highway could easily be from a scene in a post apocalyptic film and as such everyone was on guard for zombies or gangs who might want our supplies. The walk up to the crag was steep and had a lot of loose rock, once at the top everyone immediately found a bush to hide behind as the sun was beating down again. Finishing climbing early as there was still a lot of driving to do that day they got back on the road and played the tunnel game, again being defeated by the 13 km monster.

While on the road heading towards France the bus was waved over by the policía, they asked for the drivers licence and there seemed to be some problem with it not being valid for the type of vehicle being driven. Trying to explain it only had 9 seats so was not category D failed due to the language barrier. One of the policía seemed interested in what we had on the room and after shouts of “escalada” their attitude changed and they waved us on. Deciding that they would not hang around long enough for the policía to change their mind they made a break for the border. There was an interesting detour from the main road that the sat-nav seemed to think was better, while being a lot more picturesque it was unclear if it was any faster. Arriving at the very cheap camping municipal after a long hill climb in the bus the team settled down for what might be a rather cold night due to the altitude.

3.10 Day 10 – La Dent d’Orlu

Waking up to a surprisingly warm morning considering the altitude the first views of the new scenery were seen and impressed all. There was still snow on top of many of the mountains and the ski lift was running. The plan for the day was to check out a mountain called La Dent d’Orlu, on the south and east faces were many multi pitch climbs, one of which was of particular interest: Les Enfants de la Dalle. This rout had been chosen by Murray and Jon as their main target for the tour, the total height was 1100 m of rock made of 28 pitches all needing to be done in 1 day. Today was going to be a reconnaissance trip in order to climb some smaller routes and work out where then needed to be for the main ascent.

The town of Aux les Thermes was called at for fuel and food before heading to Orlu to find the mountain. Parking in a large car park at the bottom the first views of the climb were intimidating to say the least. A huge face of dark stone that looked much higher and steeper than expected with the top few hundred meters capped in snow greeted the climbers and they had not even done the walk in yet. The topo suggested a 30 minute walk in but this was more like an hour and 30 up steep woodland with a difficult to follow path. Reaching the bottom of the climbs a well deserved lunch was had. Part way through lunch a rock landed a couple of meters away from the happy picnickers, from the sound it was estimated to be going very fast and about toaster size. Helmets were donned by all who had them and the guide book was placed over the head of the one member who had left theirs behind.

While scoping out routs, rain drops could be felt and the weather looked like it might be about to take a turn for the worse. Large seepage patches could be seen and few bolts could. The decision was made to abandon climbing here as it was unsuitable for teaching multipitch and would have been potentially dangerous even for the experienced climbers. The walk out was no better than the walk in and would have been near impossible if the sky had opened.

A crag much closer to the camp site was located with a good selection of climbs and even some multipitch. It turned out to be an interesting mix of some technical slab and powerful overhangs and was very enjoyable. Fails and Choss Master climbed a 6c, when Murray attempted it he slid down the slab section losing some fingertips. Jon and Murray climbed a multipitch and had a difficult conversation half way up, they decided that it was not a good idea to climb Enfants as it would be too dangerous and getting benighted was a certainty.

Returning to camp after an exhausting day of walking up hills everyone was in the mood for a less strenuous day the next day so bouldering was again on the table. Dinner was carbonara.

3.11 Day 11 – The Mountain Pass

Deciding to take an easy day after all the fell wondering the day before a group decision was made to do some hard bouldering Targasonne. Realising that it was on the other side of the 13 km an alternate route was looked for to avoid the toll, a mountain pass over the tunnel was found which was open so this became the new route, the sat nav objected heavily. Driving up the zig zagging roads was reasonably fun until the bus entered fog that was as thick as pea soup, then the drivers realised they had made an amazing decision and the trip was to be a lot more fun. After some time of driving with about 15 m visibility the bus suddenly left the fog into the sunny clear air on the other side of the mountain, turning a corner the team got a view of what they had just driven out of. It looked rather like someone had dropped a large amount of dry ice on France and the smoke was pouring through the cull.

Arriving at Targasonne and not having a guide book meant finding the climbing was rather difficult, driving along the road many small boulders were pointed out until rounding a corner a gigantic boulder field appeared and it was obvious where they were meant to go. Parking in a road version of an oxbow lake, the bus was unloaded and everyone headed off in the direction of the closest boulders. The plan was to wonder around and find cool looking problems to try and not worry about grades or what was possible, a plan which proved to be excellent. The first big boulder that base camp was set up at had a number of problems on which were all enjoyable. The top out appeared flat when climbing but long chalk streamers ran down the top of the rock that guided the hands to hidden jugs. People wondered around for a while each picking out their own rocks of interest. Fails and Adrian found an impressive problem that they spent most of the day working requiring difficult moves into under cuts and a top out that was not particularly friendly. After many attempts and almost at the end of the day Adrian almost made an ascent but failed at the final move when he tried to pull onto the top but found there were only prickly bushes, making a dynamic retreat all the observers saw his grazed torso caused by the top out. Inspired by this effort fails put a tee-shirt on and managed to top out the problem grading it V6+ or V7. Several other problems were climbed and not climbed and overall everyone had a very good day.

The sharp granite had taken its toll and everyone’s fingertips were feeling very thin. The journey back involved driving back through the fog again which was no thinner. Dinner that night was another BBQ. Some members decided to eat in to the next day’s lunch rations and cook some bananas with chocolate.

3.12 Day 12 – Choss

Looking through the guide book for some multipitch climbs that everyone could do the location Sinsat 1, Le Pubis, sector GR4B+ was chosen. Upon arriving the discovery was made that the climbs were half way up a mountain, the long walk in the baking sub began. While walking up the foot path it was noted that a number of the climbs on different walls could be linked to make a multipitch ascent which was much longer than the guide book had first indicated, some French climbers were doing this. The topo used for the Foix area was printed from the internet, if pictures had been included it would have been easier to identify the crags and it may have been noticed that the various climbs could be linked up sooner. The climbs were good quality with little polish. This was some member’s first experience of the slightly sparse nature of multipitch bolting.

While climbing Fails and Ed reached the top anchor first, this anchor was shared between two routs and Murray and Jon were on the other route. While Murray and Jon had set off first, Fails and Ed had the advantage of one less pitch. Murray and Jon’s route finished with a good jamming crack that would have been a quality trad lead. With the French climbers closing in from the bottom Murray had to unclip some of Fail’s quick draws after Fails was safely on the anchor and build his own as there was not enough space on the existing one. The top out was covered in choss, some of which was knocked down by almost everyone.

After the first set of groups topped out they began their walk down so that they could rest and prepare for the next climb. The second set of climbers topped out and descended without trouble. This left the Choss Master and the American as the last group to finish the climb. The Choss Master had earned his

name previously by knocking off vast quantities of choss onto his b-layers all trip, and this climb was no exception. Using the radios to warn of the large quantities of choss descending the cliff allowed everyone time to run for cover, after the first load helmets were replaced. During the descent the two climbers took a wrong turn, after some time the other members became concerned about their absence. They were on the far side of a ridge, so radio contact was useless. After some time radio contact was re-established by walking to the top of the ridge and all was well.

The decision was made back at camp to travel back to Font that evening so as to have more bouldering time. A curry was cooked up by fails and the tent packed in record time and ICMC were on the road again.

3.13 Day 13 – Loughborough

Arriving at Font very early in the morning a few hours sleep were had in the forest again. Another member of ICMC would be joining for just the 1 day of climbing; Justine who lived in Paris got the train to join us. Numerous problems were climbed including one with many monos in it, finding the monos difficult to hold Murray climbed it without the m. A slab next to base camp was found and it had few holds, a few finger nail crimps and smears, it was alto slightly slimy. Attempts were made by most people who all slid down its face. Murray used the incredible friction of his stealth onyx rubber to climb it using the crimps and later eliminated these as well proving once again that 5.10 make the best rubber.

Going to a real campsite this time ICMC met Loughborough university mountaineering club. It turned out that they were on their annual trip to font for 10 days. They were all very impressed by our big red bus and were even more amazed after they found out what we had been doing for the last two weeks. Some members of Loughborough had slack lines and were very skilled at it, one member having a 100 m long one at home. The evening was spent sitting around the camp fire exchanging stories eating chilli with a slightly soapy taste.

3.14 Day 14 – Blood, Sweat and Washing up Liquid

Having a lazy start to the day everyone stayed in bed for a while before getting up and showering. While preparing breakfast washing up liquid was found all over one of the boxes and needed cleaning out, this explained the interesting flavour in the previous nights meal, on the positive side the cooking box was the cleanest it had been since it was new. The tent was packed up one last time and farewells were said to the Loughborough climbers.

Travelling to a different area of Font this day. Jon was feeling very ill so spent most of the day asleep. A blue circuit was attempted but it was poorly sign posted so was abandoned. Murray found an even bigger, steeper smoother slab to climb which took him quite a long time to work but he got it in the end. A large overhanging bulge was found by Fails and Adrian who worked out beta and climbed it, other members tried and Murray managed it after many goes. While driving back to a different car park to have dinner Murray had a random nose bleed while driving so pulled over and let Ed finish. The last supper was carbonara and everyone was full to bursting after eating it.

Setting off on the drive back to England the decision was made to avoid the toll roads since there was so much spare time before the train left. Most of the drive back was on minor roads and through villages, this didn’t have much impact as the speed limits were all 100 kph so the bus was maxed out anyway. Arriving at the terminal 4 hours early the bus was upgraded for free onto a much earlier train so that they arrived back into the UK in god time. Arriving at the union shortly after dawn the bus was unpacked and all the equipment dumped into stores to be sorted at a later date. Keys, first aid kit and minibus documentation returned to the SAC, all the members went their separate ways to get a proper sleep in a bed.

4 Finances

4.1 Income

Item Price (£) Quantity

• Full price ticket 225 7
• Cheap ticket* 175 1
• Union Grant 129.54 1
• IC Trust 238.93 1
• Total = £2108.

*Adrian flew in 4 days late so didn’t pay full price

4.2 Expenditure

Item Cost (£)

• Minibus 592
• Fuel 560
• Guide Books 56
• Camping 365
• Euro Tunnel 116
• Road Tolls 100
• Food 420
• Total =£ 2209