Up Back Next

6/29 Deep Water Soloing

On what was supposed to be our day off, we decided to go swimming at the end of the gorge where the river at its bottom empties into a large lake. When we got there, we realized immediately that it wouldn't be a day off at all. Cliffs rose straight out of the water all along the end of the river where the tourists were navigating little peddle-boats, and people were jumping from the rocks high above into the deep water below. We had no idea that we'd get to deep water solo on this trip-- much less in a speedo-- which (by the way) no one seems to wear in France anymore so don't bother trying to cute and to fit in. No shoes, no chalk, no ropes-- this might have been the most fun of the whole trip.

Along the road above the lake

A view up river from the brige

An early, timid attempt at soloing

Someone just offered Eric a job as her poolboy

AMOS CLMIBING AND JUMPING VIDEO

A harder route

Post-fall

This rock had some nice V3/V4 overhanging problems on it

Amos works the "Two Fins" problems

The fins are stalactite-like structures that bulge from the overhanging face

Getting high on the fins

Eric is actually in this picture

Amos looks for topless girls on the way to the next problem

This next route was pretty easy (V1) until the featureless prow about 4 meters up
from which we fell many times

Amos decides to bail out early

Eric's tryout for "Stone Nudes"

Heading off to the beach with scraped hands and feet...

Up Back Next