Meeting climbers on a Facebook group can certainly be hit or miss. Similar to online dating, you’re trying to identify red flags ahead of a meeting, and of course, there is always uncertainty about whether they look like their picture! I was happy to connect with Robbie Brookie this week. Robbie is from the UK and on an extended sabbatical, touring Europe with his partner and stopping for climbing along the way. Go Robbie! On our “first date,” we tackled Voie Piola at Barberine and the route La Fin de Babalyon on the Le Brévent south face a couple of days later – a memorable bonding experience for two guys meeting for climbing.
After a phone call and some texts, we met up to climb at Barberine on Monday, August 27, 2018 which is a climbing area north of Chamonix about 20 kilometers. Whoops! No climbing photos, but the route description for our route, Voie Piola, is shown below. It was refreshing that Robbie has the same mindset for climbing efficiency and systems. We moved well together and had a good “first date”!
A couple days later (Wednesday, August 29) we made a gamble to attack the Le Brévent South Face despite the predicted rain showers in the afternoon. We took the gondolas up to the top of Le Brévent and walked down to the start of the route. There are two routes on the Le Brévent South Face and we picked the one called Poèmes à Lou. Route #1 in the topo below.
I took the lead on the first pitch which seemed to be the hardest of the route. Not because the climbing was more difficult, but it was hard to locate the good holds, in my opinion. And the bolts were just far enough apart to make the climbing very interesting.
We actually got off route for the 3rd pitch of Poèmes à Lou and ended up on the 5th pitch of La Fin de Babalyon. It was an excitable pitch and more possibly more sustained than the one we were supposed to climb, so I didn’t mind!
After we finished the 3rd pitch the sky got dark and it was time to move! The dark clouds crept up fast and we had about 100 meters to go. It’s wild how it can go from bluebird to pissing rain (British lingo) so quickly.
