We’ve been in France for the last few weeks, climbing in the Verdon was definitely one of the highlights! It was a hell of a drive from Pembrokeshire, being over 1000km, but once we were there it was clearly worth it! Being Sophie’s first big climbing trip abroad, we opted to not get drain get into the Verdon gorge itself, and instead spent a few days getting used to climbing in the Verdon on some of the more amenable outlying crags…
The view from the Verdon outlying crags
Basing ourselves around the Lac de Sainte Croix, a lake this hard to believe is man made, we spent the first few days climbing at the single pitch crags that were in our Rockfax guidebook for the area (the Cote D’Azur) – now we definitely missed a trick not buying the specific guidebook for the area – there’s an unbelievable amount of rock here!!!
Climbing in the Verdon Gorge
It was a top few days climbing at crags such as Les Hauts Vernis, the sun shone, the Rock was great and the crags always empty! With some more confidence and having had too much fun exploring around, we decided to head to the main gorge itself.
Warming up for the Verdon Gorge
Spending the day driving around and sussing out the area is very worth while. As you cannot see the cliffs as the road goes along the top, you need to know the abseil or scramble descents. Standing on top of the gorge with 300m of straight air below us and the gorge floor, Sophie realised this was a pretty big step up to what she was used to!
Abseil access into the Verdon Gorge
Being on a tour of the whole region, we decided not to spend too long climbing in the Verdon gorge, as it’s worthy of coming back for a trip itself (can’t wait!) so we did a few of the easier more straight forward routes, but with a view that’s far removed from any UK setting, warm and sunny, vultures soaring around and fairly friendly yet adventurous sport climbing – this is a destination I’m looking forward to spending more time in!
Big exposure climbing in the Verdon