Biking La Brague in Sofia Antipolis

Today I went for a bike trip during my lunch break at Amadeus in Sofia Antipolis. I never stop being astonished about how great biking there is up there a few minutes from the office. I'm also astonished to not see more people out here during the lunch breaks, with thousands of employees at Amadeus, Air France, etc. Anyway, I won't complain, more space for us who do get out :)

Today I did one of my best trips so far, going straight down to the river La Brague from Amadeus. Turn right at the river and follow the amazing path all the way to the Biot village, more or less following the river all the time. More photos can be seen here

This is just one of all the great trips in the area. Just get a map and then it's just your imagination setting your limits :) Going a few minutes extra to get to the Valmasque river and it's surroundings is often worth the extra time and effort :)

Mountain biking in Esterel, Lac de l'écureuil

Esterel is a very special area down here. A bit more than half an hour south west of Nice next to the coast there is a preserved wild and very very dry area with red rocks and very special vegetation. I get a strange feeling of being in Africa when I go down there.

Yesterday I went biking over there with my friend Jan. Even though there has been extreme rain down here in the region the last week, the place is as dry as usual, which makes it perfect for biking.

I just bought a biking topo I was recommended from a friend, VTopo Alpes-Maritimes, and we followed the trail Le lac de l'écureuil, graded V3+ in the topo. A great ride but harder and more technical than I expected. Many parts of the trail were on the upper technical level of my limits, so I wonder how the V4-V6 trails in the expert edition of the topo are. Not for me probably. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of the more technical parts since I was quite busy trying to survive, but more photos available here. Some parts of the trail just amazing.

An interesting notice about the history of the area is that there was an attempt to create a dam for water supply and irrigation in the area around 1950. The dam collapsed and it's a huge disaster in French history with several hundreds dead and destroyed villages/cities. More can be read at wikipedia

I heard rumors that the Esterel is often closed during summer due to the risk of forest fire. Anyway I think it's normally too hot in summer to be attractive for biking, so it's more an autumn, winter and spring place.

L'Eperon des quatre vents in Aiglun

Saturday I went with Edith to Aiglun to climb l'Eperon des quatre vents, an 8 pitch climb of 6a+ max. I heard many people talk about Aiglun, but this was the first time for me up there. The place is absolutely beautiful, starting the walk from a nice old village, 30 minutes approach and then plenty of routes around 250m long, not polished, and just great. Many of the routes are too hard for me, but there are at least 2 bolted routes with 6a+ max and at least one non equiped 6a max that also seems great.

About 1.15h from Nice, altitude around 1000m so climbable big part of the year. Topo in the now famous l'Escalade dans les alpes maritimes V2 and on camptocamp.

Definitely a site I'll return to. More photos.

Slabs in St Auban

Sunday I was invited by Edith and Thierry to join them climbing at a site next to the village St Auban in the valley of Esteron. Once again I was amazed how beautiful and wild the landscape is up there. You could almost think you're in Sweden on the way up there...

The site is quite far from Nice, about 1.45h, but well worth the time if you like getting out on the countryside. There are plenty of different sectors with climbs from 3 to 8a+. I can really recommend the sector we went to, l'école, but bring a 70 m rope! The sector is dominated by a big beatiful slab of 35m. Small cracks are running all over the slab and the climbing is therefore a mix of friction moves until you need then next crack, then more friction moves etc. We mostly climbed 6a-6a+ and all the routes were just beautiful!

The village of St Aubas is in the middle of nowhere, but has one café just below the village and one up inside the village :)

The site is described in the classic topo Escalade dans les Alpes-Maritimes, Alticoop edition and more photos are available here

Eperon Nord-Ouest du Petit Caïre

Saturday I went climbing with Nicolas, Michelle, Cristophe and Vincent. The project this time was Eperon Nord-Ouest du Petit Caïre, a 180m beautiful climb in the area of La Madone de Fenestre.

The climb turned out to be even better than I expected. A mix of cracks and slabs, 6a max, and the quality of the climb is just great. The route has been reequipped recently, great spits available where you need them the most. Some complementary camalots from 0.5-2 can be nice to bring :)

The climb is described in the topo Les plus belles courses des alpes méditeranée by Nicolas Féraud and more photos are available here

Calanques

Went to the famous Calanques between Marseille and Cassis for the week-end to do some climbing. A common phenomena down here is that when we have bad weather up around Nice, it's enough to go 1-2h west to have a big sun. I thought that I was as smart as usual doing it this time, but no. We had a great week-end in the sun, but climbing longer routes was almost impossible du do the very strong wind, so we ended up mostly swimming and bouldering next to the sea.

The strong wind is called the Mistral, accelerates from the north through the Rhône valley and straight down on the Calanques. So, before you go over there, be sure to check the weather forcasts especially for winds, available at MeteoFrance.

Also, the climbing in Calanques is famous for being extremely polished, so be prepared.

More photos

Malinvern, Eperon de Cessole

Saturday I went with Nicolas and Michel to do l'Eperon de Cessole at Malinvern. So far one of the nicest mixed routes I've done here. Quite easy, graded PD+, but the route is just beautiful.

1.5h car from Nice to Isola 2000, then about 1h approach. 3-4h ascent. The rocks on this arête are not solid at all, so I think it's important to do it during the mixed season. Some stoppers, camalots from 0.3-1 and a some slings very useful.

A very good topo for this route is available from the book Les plus belles courses des alpes de la méditéranée by Nicolas Féraud.

More photos