Presles or Paques Celebration

3 days - and what better spot to visit than Presles, this Vercors gem? I fell in love with the place since my first time there last year. Some people might think the routes repetitive, but i am almost certain this is my type of paradise on earth. So much rock, all hard, all demanding, and than the moment you turn your nose 180 degrees from the rock, happiness gets a hold of you with the ocean of grean and stone and cows below.

My loving Presles certainly didn't stop it from kicking my butt - starting with the first route, Pillier de Charanches. We noticed it in Petit's book and decided to give it a try with all our good cams and nuts. The descent down the Choranche ramp was pretty bad. First pitches were good though, with cracks and cracks and cracks. Second half was harder and more overhanging - less fun IMHO. Underestimating routes has always been my problem - sure we were at the last traverse pitch as it became pitch dark. Surprise surprise, to get back to the trail we still had around 150m of scrambling to do up crappy terrain with rocks, trees, bush and all...Back at the car at 11 calmed down our enthusiasm to try another route recommended by Petit, but a bit harder - Cons qui s'adorent.

We opted for a more classic Coucou nous revoilou the day afterwards. Very nice climbing with awesome pitches at the top and pretty hard 6cs in the middle. A short storm scare, and we were in time for Ezio's lasagne.

Last day we wanted to do shorter, easier climbing to be ready to leave quickly enough in the afternoon. Something i wanted to do since last year - Supercouloir, seemed to be a good idea. The approach with the new Tapis Vert rappels was pretty comfy - but unfortunately we went down too much and had to start with a strenuous 6b to get to the beginning of Supercouloir. This one proved a very nice route - last surprise being the difficulty to get back to the trail - a 7b chosen randomly finally let us out after hard efforts of aiding. First drops of rain caught us at the car. Good climbing - good w-end, but O my god, i'm out of shape...