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6/21 La Palud sur Verdon

With these tedious preliminaries out of the way, we drove a couple hours to Verdon Gorge along winding mountainside roads which were frighteningly narrow condidering that they were meant for two-way traffic. When we got to the first lookout point (Belvedere de la Carelle, p.180 in the guidebook) we decided to climb a couple pitches immediately-- to the delight of the tourists who were shocked to see us go right over the railing with our ropes and equipment. At Verdon, you generally start from the road at the top and rapel down along a series of belay stations. Then you climb back up, smiling for the cameras as you near to the top.

Our very first route at Verdon: Mami nova (5b+, 25m, route #494, p.183)	The ledge at the bottom of our second route: Polpett (7a, 5c, 45m, #505, p.180)

Tourists looking down from above

Polpett's difficulty turned out to be a big shock, since we thought we were climbing the 6c+ pitch (La Baraka) which starts from another, much smaller ledge immediately to our right. Back in Boston, a 7a (5.12a) wouldn't be so much trouble, but as soon as Amos started leading this pitch, we realized that things were different at Verdon. The quality of the rock (Limestone CaCO_3) was very different, sometimes taking on a polished, almost plastic quality. This is especially so on the routes near the top, which are climbed more heavily. Feet were much harder to find and use, and holds rarely stood out with chalk.

After climbing we headed to our campground at the nearby town called La Palud. The town's center is extremely small and old-- three blocks long and two blocks wide-- and the rest is farm land, fields, hills, flowers and a bunch of other really bucolic stuff.

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