A few days ago I took off to France to take part in the Petzl Roctrip in Millau. I arrived Thursday night and met up with my friends from the US and Canada, making plans for the next day and seeing what the deal was so far. The event was a bit unorganized and hectic, but the climbing itself was amazing so I definately had a good time. Petzl reserved campsites for the athletes and I ended up staying in a cabin with my friends Joe and Colette, as well as some of the Petzl France crew including Christophe Zehani and Alex Chabot.
The cliff where the event took place doesnt have many routes, so pretty much every route had a waiting list. Day one we warmed up and me and Joe climbed an amazing 8a+ called Big Bug. I also tried an short bouldery 8b+ (dont know the name) but didnt really try work it much because of the massive amounts of people waiting to try it as well. The next day we hiked up later in the day and waited until people started leaving before trying our projects. I tried the 8b+ again and climbed it on my second try. Saturday night was a HUGE party and all of us had trouble waking up the next day, but even so we eventually decided to go climbing. I tried a project that is a left linkup into a classic 8a called M'enfin Marie. It was one of the Roctrip projects but no one had really worked it, so I decided to see what it was all about. It was way easier then I was expecting and I ended up climbing it pretty fast, the grade being around 8a+ or 8b, not really sure. The line itself is amazing and very creative, definately a good one to try. I was very syked to free such a nice route and hopefully others will approve of it as well.
All in all I wouldn't say the event was nearly as good as the one in the Red River Gorge, but I definately had a good time at the least and am satisfied to have gone. The next Roctrip will be in Zillertal, Austria, and I am planning on going so more on that to come.
