Climbing at Rocher Saint Julian

Roche St Julian is the big thin fin of rock that dominates the skyline above Buis-les-Baronnes. Ever since bringing a group of students on a climbing trip to the smaller crags of this region some six or seven years ago, I've been keen to come back and climb it. Today was our day.

It's a steep hike up to the base of the routes, but doesn't take too long. Climbing in this area is well supported by the local council and as well as having road signs directing you to the best cliffs and their parking spots, there are also composting toilets (that are much cleaner/pleasant than most public facilities!) and info boards in the car parks pointing out the routes! There's also a pretty wild looking via Ferrata on the north side of the rock fin.

There are loads of butterflies around here at the moment - we stopped to check a few out in the walk up.

It wasn't busy at the area we wanted to climb, so got the ropes straight out and set off up the classic of the sector, which climbs through a cave/hole at the top of the first pitch!

Pitch two had a couple of brilliant hand traverses and felt really exposed and high up, before Clare led up the final ridge to the summit! It's a real three star outing that had been worth the wait.

The view from the top had the old town laid out like a map below us. 

From there it was a simple (if somewhat concerning) abseil descent. Because we were abseiling down a different line to what we had climbed, we had to go on faith that we would find another anchor lower down before running out of rope on each abseil! Thankfully, (as we thought), you can descend down on a single 70m rope!

Hunting the chain anchors in a sea of limestone...

Down...

Back on the deck, we tucked straight into a late lunch before heading back up the first few pitches of another three star route.

And when we became tired, we returned to the ground and made our way back to Buis-les-B for a cold beer in the last of the sunshine. Then when it got too cold, found our way into a pizzeria to warm up! Great day!

Rocher Saint Julian:

- La Grotte 5,6a,5***

- L'Espadon 5,5+***