Ascents in Les Frouzes

Probably once of the best pitches of climbing I’ve done all year. Bummed I missed the onsight.

Had to take at the bulge to figure out the crux…got totally lost until I found the secret beta. All I can say is get ready for a sick, committing V3 sequence once you find the right holds (look closely!)

The runouts on this thing are no joke: a good 3-4 meters between bolts just below and above crux…all the way to chains. The falls are totally safe but man it would be a solid 10m whipper in a few spots. Hold onto ur butts!

Not a Kalymnos 7a…quite a bit more challenging mentally and physically than the other 7a to the right. You get jugs for about 25m but from the bulge it turns up quite a bit and despite the good active rest above the crux you still have to fight to get to the top. I thought it was benchmark hard 7a but my partner gave it 7a+ and he’s Czech: aka he normally downgrades things.

Barely above average at best. The climbing below the tufa is technical but not very fun, then the tufa climbing itself is somewhat interesting but nothing special, and the moves are a bit awkward.

Still a little chossy and it feels like some of the better holds will break off eventually. You have to try pretty hard not to use the left tufa system in a few spots. Feels like a weird eliminate. The 7a/+ to the left is literally 10x better. They got the quality ratings backwards here.

What a hoot!! All jugs on amazing textured tufas (and a couple non-essential right kneebars) to basically just one hard move exiting to the orange rock above. The runout to the anchors is mild and the holds are great. One of the best I’ve done in a while.

Super sharp and a bit chossy. Better jus to warm up on the 6c’s

Fun route with great tufa and some sharp cauliflower rocks. Distance between bolts is quite big, seems to be about 3m in average. Anchor was a bit rusty and the quicklink was installed in a weird and not redundant way, so I installed an additional rope to secure it.

Climbed since it looked like the cleanest line (no wasps etc). Was actually super fun! Shame this area was left to nature, it looks like it could be really good

Not obvious crux before anchor. Interesting rock at second part of route. Beware of loose rock!