Gorbio climbing

Crag: La Balme, Gorbio, Provence
Routes: De Bouche a Oreille (f5:led), Signe Ascendant (f5+:led), Le Bonheur Est Dans le Pre (f5+:sec), Les Mots Pour le Dire (f5+:sec), La Lyceene (f6a:sec), Tango Passion (f5:led), Peut-etre (f6a+:led)
Just another Provencal venue with beautiful views in every direction, a tranquil ambience, and an abundance of three-star classic climbs up a wonderland of perfect sculpted limestone features. We liked it! A tortuous road leads from La Turbie round the edge of Monaco's grotesque excess and up into another world. Gorbio is a perfect 'village perche', protected from tourists by its awkward location. We parked above the village and walked into the crag through small allotments and copses. The crag is one of many at the head of this typical Provencal limestone valley - and is wonderfully tranquil. We had a few hours before the sun hit the face, so got to work immediately. The crag is characterised by a series of slabby ramplines that head diagonally leftwards and break the other theme of unrelenting steepness. The limestone features are just beautiful and lend themselves to stunning climbing up these lines of weakness. De Bouche a Oreille was a perfect example: it took a sort of 'tube' of waterworn limestone with a steep wall plunging away to the left and another curving above the ramp to the right. It gave a remarkably aesthetic climb, on beautiful cream and grey shaded limestone, using little pockets and tiny pinched holds to make progress up the slab. A wonderful start, but eclipsed by the massive Signe Ascendant to its right, which gave a monster 35m+ E1 pitch up another ramp line. This started more steeply, up a very awkward vertical groove which gives access to the main slab. This gave quite extraordinary climbing: tiny edges led to a flake crack which soon closed, necessitating a series of heart-stopping moves left to the very edge of the slab poised above a gigantic overhanging wall. For the grade, a remarkable position, very exposed considering this was just a single pitch route! Very delicate climbing up the edge led to another flake which allows you to move back right to the lower-off. Le Bonheur, the similarly graded route up the centre of the same slab, goes more easily up to the central flake crack. This is quite positive until it closes up, then a very hard move up the blank slab gains the continuation of the line: a little more disjointed that Signe Ascendant but another three-star classic. Vic then led Les Mot Pour le Dire further right. This is a shorter route, 20m+, which takes a sharp rib initially before a sequence of superb technical moves up an inclined wall, quite reasonable but sustained and thought-provoking up tiny stalactites and pockets. The quality of the hard, grey limestone was remarkable: immaculate climbing, as was the superb groove of La Lyceene to the right. Tufa pillars and flowstone features: despite the 6a grade, this seemed one of the easier routes on the crag. By now the sun was well and truly on the face, and it was getting pretty uncomfortable. We made our way through the trees to the far end of the crag, and both led Tango Passion, an easier and shorter route up three distinct walls, then Peut-etre as a suitable climax to the trip. After an initial wall, this takes a steep and very technical wall on tiny flake holds and small pockets. Probably the hardest sequence of the trip, 6a+, around UK E2 we thought, coinciding with the hottest weather: it was like inching up a vertical frying pan. I had to steady myself whilst clipping the bolts sadly, partly as a result of the extreme humidity, but we both made the lead before retreating to the medieval alleyways of the village and, later, a well earned dip in the Med before our flight home.