Chapter Four: We climb and it doesn't suck
When you dream about a place for months and spend the time and effort to plan a trip to said place there is a moment of fear before arriving. Fear that it will somehow fall short of your expectations. Fear that all your time and money will be wasted. Fear that you won’t be able to climb hard. Fear that everyone will be climbing harder than you. Fear that you won’t fit in. Fear that you will not have a good time for this reason or that. Our first week in Ceuse has extinguished all these fears. Ceuse has topped my greatest expectations and wildest dreams.
There are people here climbing at all levels from pros sending some of the hardest routes in the world (Alex Megos and Adam Ondra have both sent projects since we have been here) to beginners just learning. The most motivating part is everyone is psyched for each other no matter their ability. In the last few days we have worked on routes with people from all over the world, speaking a mix of Spanish, French, Finnish, English and charades. Now that the jet lag has passed, we are starting to feel adjusted to the late days and the long run outs the climbing gets more fun, the falls get bigger and the energy grows! For two lades who have spent most of their time at Smith I can’t imagine a better style of limestone climbing than the Demi Lune wall. Vertical, technical, pocketed limestone, streaked in a palate of rainbow colors. Today we rest and tomorrow we head to the Cascade sector for some steep climbing!