Just back from lush Alpine meadows, high level camping, and the awesome granite of the Grimsel and Furka passes in the Swiss Bernese Oberland. The Verdon  roasts under 40c + temperatures, while at 2700m, conditions are perfect with cool nights, bluebird days, and some of the best granite climbing in Europe...
 
I'll have a full trip report up soon.

Still buzzing from a flying visit to the 1000m high south face of Marmolada in the Italian Dolomites.

This alpine wall is truly awe inspiring with hundreds of historic climbs traced along its several kilometre length. Among these, the
legendary 37 pitch 'Fish' route has been on my hit list for a few years now but has always evaded me due to the delicate balance of finding the right partner, a window in the notoriously capricious weather, and good form for such a challenge.

Having recently spent some time up at Ceuse climbing and preparing with Australian strongman Logan Barber, I'm happy this objective has at least been partially realised. I say partially, as we didn't go as far as the summit but descended to the Falier hut after 20 pitches on day 2 being low on food and water. I'd not wanted to underestimate the route but even so some of the harder pitches were a  humbling challenge and required several shots to unlock complex sequences of slab moves up to 7b++! 

Arriving by headlamp in the famous niche after which the route is named we settled into a spartan bivouac, feet hanging above the 500m void,our emotions having been seriously tested on the 7b 'open dihedral' pitch. This involved beautifully sequential and precise moves on limestone with the most perfect texture I have ever experienced and a scary runout above the paper thin tat of a fixed 30 year old tricam backed up with a skyhook!

Day 2 dawned beautiful with dizzying views down the wall but stiff from a semi sitting bivvy with a breakfast of cold water and power bars meant a rather slow start to the day. Above the niche the rock, texture and exposure is more than incredible. All hanging belays, 'big air', and with 2 particularly memorable pitches. The 7b+ 'boulder' pitch, well protected with in – situ pins, but with a very tricky sequence of moves to work out before arriving at the anchor. Then the end of the day gave what we both felt was the most testing pitch of the whole route, the famous 'pendulum' pitch. Barely visible smears lead with a bizarre cross through or minimal mono pockets for the hands into the base of a pumpy layback crack. Several swinging falls were taken before unlocking this desperate sequence of moves and we both felt the grade was closer to 7b/c than the 7a shown on the topo.

Another 6c pitch took us to within spitting distance of the large bivvy ledge and the start of the easier chimmneys that lead to the summit but now after 2 days, very tired, with no remaining food or water and with deteriorating weather predicted the following day, we opted for a cautious descent in 12 long abseils back to the comfort of hot food and beer at the refuge. It was a wise decision as the following day clouds quickly rolled in followed by one of those famously electric dolomite storms.

Although feeling very privileged to have finally had the opportunity to tackle the main difficulties and best pitches of this climb, the summit of Marmolada still beckons, so we're already planning to get back there in September.

Check out more photos of The Fish in the photo galleries and for a more detailed description of our adventure, Logan's blog at:
www.loganclimbsrocks.blogspot.com

If you are considering scratching the itch that is the thought of Verdon- DO IT!