Thursday ,19 February 2015

From Sea to Summit, New Zealand again - Summer 2013/2014

During summer 2013-2014 I went back to New Zealand. As you probably gathered by now, I love New Zealand, it's such a beautiful country and it has proper mountains.

The first part of the trip was spent in the north island. We went to Bay of Island to do some sailing for a week. Back to my roots, sailing is probably one of the first sport I took part in, perks of being born by the sea in a land with lots of sailors. I never invested too much time into sailing but it has always been something I enjoy doing. It was great fun, and we got to do a bit snorkelling as well.

Check the photos : sailing


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Capitain G ! Alistair doesn't seem to trust me though ...


After that, I flew to the south island for my second season of mountaineering. I met up with some friends who did a mountaineering course while I was at sea. We then flew to Chancellor hut for a week. I wasn't a really successful trip, we seemed to turn around more than getting to the top of things. To be honest the weather wasn't helping, but we did manage a traverse of Aurora and a run to the top of Aigrette. There was a lot of snow this year, I think we could have climb the egg memorial route as snow route !


Some photos : Mountaineering


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On top of Aigrette, Aoraki/Mt Cool in the back ground

Thursday ,15 January 2015

New Zealand skiing - winter 2013

As a French person everyone seems to assume I can climb 8a (29) and that I am a good skier. Well my climbing is slowly getting there but being from Brittany skiing is certainly not one of my strongest point, I'd call myself a less than average downhill skier. Anyway, Stuart Hollaway from Vertical World Mountain Climbing agreed to take me on a backcountry skiing trip he was running in New Zealand, during winter 2013.

I got to see the west coast Mountains in winter, a bit different from summer with a lot more snow around. Such a beautiful environment ! I also got to learn a lot more about staying safe in the mountains. We didn't get the best condition, with snow showers and high wind but we still managed to get out and have some good run. My skiing really improve over those few days. I also realised how quick one can travel on skis. It's a lot more fun to ski down to Chancelor hut.
Check out the photos to see what I am talking about : New Zealand skiing

Frozen beard selfie

Frozen beard selfie

Sunday , 1 June 2014

2013 photos - Tasmania

I managed to get a month off in February last year to go and do some climbing in Tasmania. The main objective was Federation peak, you can read the story in the previous post : When Climbers go bushwaling

Here are more photos of the trip that didn't fit in the previous blog post : Federation Peak


Federation Peak

Federation Peak


Tasmania is also known for the bushwalking opportunities it has to offer. So after Fed peak, Tanya and I did some wandering around Walls of Jerusalem. Instead of going in via the usual route, we came from the east starting at Lake Ada and got out via Lake Ball to then join the way we came in.

Walls of Jerusalem photos

Walls of Jerusalem

View of the surrounding cliff, Walls of Jerusalem


I couldn't leave Tasmania without sampling the climbing. Ben Lomond was chosen, a great place to get good at crack climbing, with some 50m pitch of just crack !

Ben Lomond photos


Ben Lomond

Robin's buttress, lots of crack to choose from

Monday ,25 April 2011

Aventure australienne , le debut / Australian adventure , the beginning

J'essaie de rattraper mon retard sur l'ajout de mes photos en ligne, voila la premiere partie.

Peu après mon arrivée a Melbourne j'ai rejoins Melbourne Uni Mountaineering Club (MUMC). C'est un super club et ça me permet d'aller explorer le "bush" , d'avoir de folles aventures et de rencontrer des gens géniaux. Beaucoup des photos viennent des sorties avec MUMC.

Weribee gorge

Ma première sortie d'escalade en extérieur avec MUMC, j'y ai découvert le plaisir de grimper sur de la vrai roche et la douleur des "verrous" (coincer une main/doigt dans une fissure)

Black hill

Escalade avec MUMC de nouveau, différente roche, nous avons passe l’après midi a gravir des blocs de granit.

Mount Arapiles

Sortie d’escalade a la Mecque victorienne de l’escalade traditionnelle : Mount Arapiles. Cette fois ci avec le Victorian Climbing Club. Mes premières expériences d'escalade traditionnelle et "Multi-pitch" , Merci d'avoir emmener un débutant sur ces superbes routes.

Mount Buller

Ma première vraie sortie bushwalk (Randonnée en français mais j'aime bien le mot : marcher dans le bush) en Australie et ma première sortie randonnée avec MUMC. Celle la mérite un peu plus d'explication , c’était épique ! Le programme était de monter au sommet de Mount Buller par le 4 miles Spur, dîner dans la station de ski, camper près de la station et redescendre par le 6 miles spur (un "spur" c'est un contrefort ).

Nous sommes montes par le 4 miles spur sans problème, ça nous a juste pris un peu plus long que ce nous pensions. Premier problème : quasiment tout est ferme dans la station mis a part cet hôtel luxueux. Nous avons donc décider de dîner dans le centre d' information, ça voulais dire puiser dans nos réserves de nourriture qui était prévues seulement pour deux midi et un petit déjeuner. Le centre était vraiment chaud et accueillant comparer a l’humidité et au froid extérieur, passer la nuit la semblait une bonne option. Nous étions seulement un peu inquiet de se faire virer en pleine nuit.Nous avons tente notre chance, résultat une bonne nuit au chaud, sans souci.

Le deuxième jours a commence plutôt bien si ce n'ai le froid. la pluie et le vent , pas génial quand vous marchez sur une crête totalement exposée. Cette crête nous a d’ailleurs pose problème, seulement quelques kilomètres de la crête est un trail, le reste c'est du hors-piste. Nous nous sommes donc retrouve bloque par une partie rocheuse particulièrement abrupte. Tout a fais franchissable avec une belle journée et un petit sac dos, mais ça avait l'air vraiment dangereux avec la roche trempée et sans oublier nos sacs de plus de 10 kilos. Nous avons donc opte pour un détour, juste trois heures pour contourner l'obstacle et rejoindre la crête. Intéressant détour, pas facile de trouver un chemin, quelques frayeurs et un sac a dos sauve de justesse.

De retour sur la crête, le moral était bon et le soleil de retour, on continue. De la, la marche se poursuis plutôt facilement, ne pas oublier que c'est du hors piste et ce n'est pas toujours facile de trouver son chemin surtout quand la vue est bloquée par les arbres.La pluie c'est malheureusement remise a tomber. Nous avons tout même réussi a rejoindre la rivière, la ou nous devions traverse. Problème : il avait plu quasiment toute la nuit et une bonne partie de la journée, du coup le niveau de la rivière avais grimpe, impossible de traverser. En vain, nous avons essayer de trouver un autre endroit franchissable. Deuxième solution , suivre la berge et rejoindre l'endroit ou nous avions traverse le jour précédant. Ce n’étais pas tache facile, nous avons du ouvrir un chemin pour passer au dessus d'une Coline avant de rejoindre la berge. Pas de chance, nous n’étions pas la ou nous pensions arriver et la nuit commençait a tomber. Nous avons donc décidé de camper près de la rivière. Tout le monde était trempe, nous nous sommes entasse a quatre dans la tente deux personnes de Jess, histoire de se tenir chaud. L' équipement était trempe, la nourriture était presque épuise, le moral pas vraiment au beau fixe, mais au moins nous n’étions pas perdu.Nous avons dormis tant bien que mal, berce par les ronflement de Taner. J'ai jamais rencontre quelqu'un qui peux dormir aussi bien dans n'importe quelle condition.

Le jour suivant alors que nous rangions le campement , nous avons entendu des voitures de l'autre cote de la rivière, probablement les rangers qui nous cherchais. Nous avons essaye d'attirer leur attention mais sans résultat. Nous avons poursuivi notre chemin, et finalement nous avons retrouve l'endroit traverse deux jours plutôt. Le niveau de la rivière ayant basse un peu pendant la nuit , nous avons pu traverser sans danger. Nous avons été accueillis par un ranger a la voiture, tout est bien qui finis bien ! Ca fais des souvenir et une bonne histoire a raconter.

Nota bene : Le club a depuis acheté un "spot", une sorte de messager par satellite qui permet de signaler que tout va bien ou demander de l'aide. Comme quoi l'aventure aura servi a quelque chose.



I am slowly catching up with uploading my picture , here is the first batch.

I join Melbourne Uni Mountaineering Club (MUMC) shortly after arriving in Melbourne. It's a great club that allows me to go out in the bush, have crazy adventure and meet awesome people. Lots of the picture are from those MUMC trip.

Weribee gorge

My first outdoor climbing trip with MUMC , where I discovered the joy of climbing on real rock and the pain of jamming in cracks.

Black hill

Climbing with MUMC again, different rock , we spent the afternoon going up big granit boulder.

Mount Arapiles

Climbing trip to the trad climbing mecca of victoria :Mount Arapiles. This time with Victorian Climbing Club. My first taste of trad climbing and multipiches, thanks guys for taking a beginner up those awesome cliff

Mount Buller

My first proper bushwalking trip (what they call hiking here) in Ausrtralia and first bushwalk with MUMC. This one need a bit of attention because that was Epic ! The plan was to go up mt buller via the 4 miles spur, have diner in the resort.Then, camp for the night and go down the 6 miles spur.

We went up the 4 miles spur without trouble , maybe a bit longer than we expected. First problem almost every thing was close beside this posh hotel. So we decided to have diner in the information centre, that means digging in our food that was only planned for two lunches and one breakfast. Anyway , the information centre being a cosy place and outside being cold, spending the night there looked appealing. We were just a bit worried about being kicked out in the middle of night. We tried our luck and actually had a nice warm night and no one to disturb us.

The second day started well beside the cold, rain and wind, not great when you are walking on a ridge totally exposed.By the way, this ridge got us into trouble, only a few kilometres of the 6 miles spur is actually a trail, all the rest is bush bashing. So at some point we were block by a very rocky ridge. Perfectly doable on a nice day with day back, but it looked dammed dangerous with wet rock and considering our 10 + kg backpack. So we went around, and it took us 3 hours to get back on the ridge.That's some detour, it was really trick to find a way, we almost lost a pack and got scared a couple of time.

So back on the ridge, spirits were high sun was out, carry one. From there we walked down relatively easy, you have to remember we were bush bashing and it's not always easy to find a way when tall trees block the view. Unfortunately the rain set in again. At last, we managed to reach our river crossing point. Problem, It has been raining most of the day and night, and river level had risen. So we tried to find another a way to cross but in vain. Second solution, following the river bank and try to find where we crossed on the previous day. That was not an easy task, we had to bush bash up and down a spur before getting back to the bank. Trouble was, we end up not where we expected and it was getting dark. Decision was made to set up camp and spend the night by the river. All of us being wet , we stuffed the four of us in the Jesses' two person tent to keep warm. Food was low, gear was wet , spirit a bit low but at least we weren't lost. We tried to catch some sleep, rocked by Tanner's snoring. I never met someone who can sleep that good anywhere and in any condition.

Next day while packing camp, we could hear cars on the other side of the river, probably rangers looking for us. We tried to get their attention without much success. Anyway we set off and finally found the crossing point after the next spur. River level decreased a bit during night , so we could cross safely. Shortly after reaching the car, we were welcome by a ranger. Happy ending , that makes good memories and a great story to tell !

Note :The club since bought a "spot" a satellite messenger that allows you to send a we are ok message or request help. The adventure was useful in some ways.