Day 5

Day 5 we hoped would bring good weather as reported but we woke to see the forest covered in a thick fog and drizzling raining. We all set off to find some dry rock, half the team ended up at Bas Cuvier and the rest went to Hautes Plaines. At Hautes Plaines there was a few dry problem but not many. This half team split into two, Deb, Steve and B set off to walk (what turned out to be a mini adventure) to Cuisiniere to try and find more dry rock. Lou and Steph stayed to work on left sit start to Surplomb de la Coquille (Fnt7a). Lance managed to do this and then started to work the right sit start (Fnt 7a+) with robin. They both got close but couldn't quite do it. I repeated this to show them the Beta and then did the Dyno finsh to this Problem. I also tried Mur Lombard the day before which was just up the path so I went back to do this, which I did topping out onto the very wet top. I then decided to try Deux Faux Plis en Plats Reels (fnt 7b+) overhang as it was dry and looked a really nice line. But is was hard and I had no beta and struggled to make any progress on the last two moves.

By now it was midday and decided to go and catch up with the others at Cuisiniere who had found most of Bettle Juice(Fnt7a) was dry. B was doing really well of black 4 (fnt 6a) next to this but the top was so wet you could not top out. Steve and Lou managed to do this all but topping out. Steve, Deb, Rob and Lance all had a go at working the sequence for Bettle Juice, but only Deb managed to all the moves up until it was to wet.


Next we thought we would catch the other team up at Bas Cuvier for the last hour of light. We found them as we thought under Canarge boulder. They (Sam, Adam, Sie, Tam) had spent most of the day ( apart from a short detour looking for Apremont and not finding it) throwing themselves at Helicoper (fnt 7a) know in the dark with head torches but with no luck. Dean again had spent most the day trying Carnage (Fnt 7b+) but had now success. I quickly tried Le Biceps Mou (Fnt 7b) but the holds were still a bit damp. So I went back to see if I could repeat Carnage to help Dean with beta, which I did and then just as we thought he had had enough he had one more go, off a doubled up matt and forced his way to the top.

But the biggest question of the day was all about reach?

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