Build My Own FeedBD athletes Nico Favresse and Sylvain Millet attempt new route in Verdon Gorge
Black Diamond athlete Nico Favresse sent us the following report about a new climb in the Verdon Gorge he attempted with fellow BD athlete Sylvain Millet shortly before leaving for a 3-month expedition to Greenland (we will be posting updates from that trip as they come in). Looks like he has a pretty sweet project awaiting him when he gets back!
Since my first trip to Verdon gorge, France, in 2001 it’s clear in my head: Verdon is THE place for limestone sport and multi-pitch climbing. It has some of the best limestone rock I have ever seen and its potential for climbing seems way underestimated. Since that very first time, I thought: How rad would it be to find and put up a route at the very limit of my level in this perfect blue compact rock and beautiful wild landscape! This last March, that’s what Sylvain and me had for a mission. After three days of serious research all over the gorge, we found our line: A bunch of overhanging limestone waves striped with blue streaks and paths of pockets over 400 meters of wall. It took us another 10 days to rap in and equip four pitches of this line. When we equipped the pitches it was hard to estimate the exact difficulty for each of them. Most of the time, they ended up a lot harder than expected (so far two pitches range around the grade of 9a). It wasn’t at all a turn off, just more motivation to become one day stronger but also another excuse to spend some more time in this beautiful place. The project is there to be finished and open for the future generations. Anybody interested?
Have fun,
Nico
United States / English 
16 Aug 2012, 6:25PM
BD, get Adam and Nico on this together!
7 Jul 2010, 10:14AM
amazing. the middle pic is WHAT ROCK CLIMBING IS!!
beautiful route...
5 Jul 2010, 6:22AM
I'm so far to do a multipitch with near 9a pitches, but anyway it inspires and is exciting