bonjour…
excusez moi je peu lire français et le comprendre presque correctement mais je trouve trés difficile de l’ecrire…j’espére de l’apprendre mieux :)!!!
my name is gianluca.
Please don’t take my choice of writing in english as rude or deliberately offensive…I’d really make an effort to make myself understood in french if we were speaking face to face…but writing a language you did’t study is so difficult sometimes!
I’m italian and I signed in to comment about this specific topic, because céuse is my favourite falaise…to the point that I think I climbed more vertical meters (about 3kms over one year…about 20 days of climbing) in céuse than in any other place, including my « local » crag.
first I want to make clear that I’m totally against wild camping at the crag, being the people who do it eastern european, italian, french (yes, a french girl I met in sperlonga suggested me that!!!) or whatever.
the best word to describe it is « unsustainable ». It will be hard to take efficient measures though, even random visits by the géndarmerie might not discourage the most hardcores…I hope a solution can be found that mitigates this impact without affecting respectful visitors…
But
I want to make my point about the fire.
Do we know exactly when it started and how? (maybe it was said over the topic, in this case just quote the right lines for me thanks).
Was the crag packed with strangers??? Isn’t 31st of october a bit off-season for a trip to céuse??? Not too cold??? I imagine that period as maybe the best one for those who live close enough to take advantage of good weather on day-to-day basis…no further than a 2 hr drive I’d say…
I hope it’s not like those home murders where everyone shouts at some mysterius immigrant thief, and then you discover it’s been some close relative of the victim…
I also noticed the announcement was made on the camptocamp frech forum only…the only international site showing the news was a dutch blog http://www.rogiervanrijn.com/wordpress/?p=446
So…if you feel like this is a good occasion to make the rules clear or to outline sensitive issues, post the news to rockclimbing.com, 8a.nu, etc…
Otherwise the only purpose achieved by this topic will be raising anger among the local climbers…which will be a shame, because I’ve found some of you to be very nice and friendly…
another thing
I’ve read someone suggesting to pull the bolts and leave the crag dis-equiped for some years…just until the ceuse hype passes by…
I hope this was provocatory.
and anyway.
ceuze is not a fashionable thing. It’s even too vertical by today standards (yes, I’ve heard american kids complaining they « hate this fucking slabs » when climbing melody nelson or angel dust…crazy!!!)
It’s not like rodellar or the tarn…which might eventually be forgotten if their style becomes surpassed
ceuze is objectively beautiful, period. The most solid and colourful limestone ever. Beautiful environment : panorama, isolation, crazy plants and insects…
and the people who bolted it made a masterpiece : it is one of the few places I’ve climbed where you truly follow the most natural and easy line from the start and eventually « find » bolts in your face…And there’s no bolt affecting the hard moves, no tricky clipping, no way to reach the chain without taking the risk of a real fall…while at the same time, there are very few dangerous routes if you have a good, dynamic belayer.
You already have the luck of living close to such a gem…wishing you were alone at the crag sounds like you’re asking too much.
a bientot
Gianluca