SPM Day 4

Sorry for the delay in updating my blog, we got back back a bit late after climbing and the blogging sort of fizzled after that, so now that I am home I'll do all my updates at once.

Day 4 we had set aside for trying the crag we found on day 2. We picked up Boule (round loaf) of bread, Some Pain au Chocolate and some little strawberry tart things and headed for the rock. Here Michelle and Lewis are crossing a dam which is half way up the hill to the crag. I think the dam might be an old Hydro electric dam, but may mow supply water for cooling the oil fired power station at the bottom of the hill.



I have no photos of the actual climbing, as I was either climbing, or belaying most of the time. Michelle took some climbing photos which she may post on her blog later.

Here is a annotated view of the crag.
We set up our first anchor at the top of the red line in this image. We used one existing piton and really went to town placing our own protection with a total of 3 nuts and a tricam (it was our first gear anchor) The red line marks the approximate route we climbed. This section of the wall is pretty easy going, probably a 5.6. It is quite positive and has some big horizontal cracks and ledges, a good place to bring young climbers.
After a lunch of bread and cheese we set a second anchor, at the top of the blue line, There was no existing protection here, but there were some nice cracks to place nuts, so we went to town again and put in 4. Lewis and I rappelled down, but it looked like it would be a bit of a mission to set up safe top belay here and the rope was running over a big edge so we couldn't bely from the bottom, so unfortunately we didn't climb this one. I think it would be a fun climb, there is also a nice potential climb the the right, marked in yellow, it starts on a face then goes up a v groove to the top. There looks like there is lots of potential on this crag, so it is defiantly worth taking a rope and some gear if you are a climber heading to SPM.


After a day out on the crag we returned to town for an ice cream and a bit of a walk about. We found this very strangely shaped house, this corner is only about 30 degrees! There are a number of oddly shaped buildings like this in St. Pierre, I guess that space for building in town must have been at a real premium at one time, so they used every inch they could. Most of the homes are detached, but only just, many homes are only inches apart, I was wondering how they paint houses that are that close together. The only way I could see would be either with a roller on a very long stick (but sometimes there isn't even room for a roller) or by dismantling the wall from the inside, painting the siding then rebuilding the wall.