The stolen bag

Sometimes people ask me "How do you manage to always travel and climb? It must cost you loads of money..."
I always reply that you just have to be dedicated.
I'm not a paid climber, so I suppose I'm not a pro. But I just try to work with the things I have.

I live cheap (anti-squat it's called), I don't spent money on cinemas, weekly hairdressers or manicure or parties and drinks, when I camp I often just bivouac, and I eat healthy but simple.
Rather no shower for a week and a week full of climbing then having spent money on an expensive campsite with showers and therefor having to go home early because I was out of money (or something like that).

My bivy spot in Ceüzette

I was happy last Thursday and Friday with my perfect little bivouac-spot in the forest.
Super basic, just all I needed was there: a mat, a sleepingbag, some food and water, the sun, stars and climbing :)
And that all until someone decided to ruin all my happiness...

How? Well let's start with... the start.
After we left Friedrichshafen we spent some time in Crolles.

I tasted some special beer (I never drink alcohol) enjoyed being together with Dennis again, work, bit of climbing and then I decided it was time for climbing again. 

Tipsy at Brasserie du Chardon

Dennis getting ready for an evening session at St

Climbing at the 'Pierre'

Together with the Petzl Media Crew (LaFouche, Eric and Guillaume)  I drove to Céuse (where else would I go) to film Daila and Chris.
I went climbing and they went hauling and filming :)

On my first day I found some Swedes (sweets) from Goteborg  to climb with, warmed up in what appeard to be a 7c (onsight!) Equinoxe or something (just left of the Demi Lune sector) and cooled down in the beautiful 7b's on the Un Pont sur l'infini wall which I'd done a million times already because I love them all :) They were fun to climb with and we made a climbing date for Friday again.

Céüse

I went down, had dinner with the Petzl crew (thanks LaFouche) and went for my favourite spot (Ceüzette).

The next morning was Friday. Already. So much sun, heat and just 1,5 day left to climb.
I was relaxed, chilled in the sun, played some games on my phone, wished my parents good luck on their cycling trip to Rome, packed my stuff and when 'I felt like it' walked up the steep hill.
The Swedes weren't there today so I found another 'lonely' climber. Pol (or Paul?) from France, although...he looked Russian :)
He told me his granddad was Russian, thats where he got the light hair and skin colour from.
We warmed up in Lapinerie (jump!) and found Ça Cartoon way harder then 7a+.

And then it happened (sorry, don't want to talk about it as I'm still too angry)
When Dennis arrived in Ceüzette I wanted to grab my bag (the one which had my sleeping stuff). But it was not there anymore.
I was surprised. I put it just under the climbing rock, and it wasn't there. How could it be gone?
I was so astonished that the bag disappeared...
How could it be gone?
We looked everywhere. Under trees, in the bushes, under other rocks, in caves, at cars close-by... We asked around...
It was gone.
Meanwhile it was already after 20h and we were hungry.
I was so confused!
I almost forgot my climbing bag on the back of the car when we drove away.
We wanted to go to the police but noticed everything was closed...
Instead we went to the pizzaria. (If you go there try the Chef en Chausson and take a Grillet as dessert)

Chez Ligo, my favourite restaurant

Because all I had was gone... My sleepingbag, mat, stove, food, clothes... Basically all except my rope, draws, climbing shoes, chalkbag and luckily my passport, phone and wallet were also in my climbing bag!
How, how, who, what... did this really happen? Did someone really get his sick mind into stealing the things that are most essential to life: food and sleeping materials?! Did this really happen just now?
What did I miss?
I don't want to say I'm a tramp, but would you ever think of stealing the sleepingbag of someone living on the street?!

The next day after a horrible night (we had no water, just one little mat and one sleepingbag to share and it even rained...) I started the search again.
I hung up notes everywhere. On the parking, on the campsite, in the gîte. Just hoping to find back my stuff.
After a search, asking everyone and notes everywhere we gave up.
Then we met Michel en Leonoor! They spotted us when we visited the casmpsite.
So surprised to find them here!
They were so kind to invite us for dinner that evening.
We went up to Céüse to get back my draws.
The dinner was lovely. Smoked (!) trout and a good salad. Thanks again :)

Were told to go the the police office in La Saulce to put in a declaration.
I was still hoping they found the bag there.
They couldn't help me and I had to come back the next day. (Still didn't understand why she couldn't help me)
The next day the office was closed.
That Sunday I had to get back to the Netherlands as I had to work again.
So no declaration and I lost a bag worth almost €2000,-
I had to leave.
I hope the one who stole my bag will get poisoned by my food, choke in my water, get germs and rashes of my clothes, suffocate of the smell and warmth of my sleepingbag, have backproblems for the rest of his life due to my mattress, cut himself badly with my knife, will never find a woman to love because of my bewitched underwear, will loose his toes of my socks that he'll wear, burn his face on my stove, will get electrocuted by the solar panel and iPhone charger, will loose all his hair because of my brush...and eventually feel regret and give it all back...or...
Anyway... I hope I can replace all in time just before Iceland and the USA trips that will start this week (!)

Yesterday I drove down through Germany to meet my parents. Met them in a hotel in Zülpich.
A good thing, a thing to be proud of: they just started their journey to Rome. A cycling-pilgimage from the Netherlands to Rome!
We chatted when I arrived in the middle of the night and had breakfast together.
Really nice to meet them on their actual adventure and strange to say goodbye again.
I wish them all the best on their big trip to Rome.
If you want to follow their adventures, check their blog: rome-ha.blogspot.nl
My dad is a fanatic photographer so you'll find a collection of very nice pictures (depending on the quality of their internet connection)

My dad getting his camera ready for the picture seen above :)

Today I'm back in the Netherlands. Fixing all the last things before Dennis and I will head for Iceland.
The stolen bag doesn't make things easier.
Hopefully I can still put in a declaration tomorrow on the Dutch embassy (as the local police, Gendarmerie, told Dennis in Crolles)

It's Dennis last week in Crolles.
Times went by so fast!
He's been in France for half a year and now it's time for Dutch studies again.
I think he can look back on amazing time at Petzl :)

Crolles (Petzl) and Grenoble by night after an evening climbing session with Dennis

Steep climbing is like chocolate

Céuse :)

Céuse

Last week I drove Dennis back to his French hometown Crolles.
And I stayed for another week.
Not just in Crolles :)

I had a mission: get back to Céuse. Céüse, Ceüze, Ceuze, Céüse, Ce... whatever, they can't even write it themselves. (The cliff is called Céuse, the topo says Céüse, the roadsigns say Ceuze...)

Gaetan, a French climber (drytooler involved in the DTS) was willing to belay me for a couple days.
The weather was quite bad on Tuesday. So we decided to try another area. A secret area just a bit further South. Let's call the place G-Spot.
Florent, 'the real local' joined us for a really beautiful day of climbing.
I wasn't sure about what I could climb, so started with a 6b warm-up. But soon I was getting on the same routes as Gaetan and Florent and gaining confidence!
I climbed some really beautiful lines on perfect rough limestone. No chalkmarks, no slippery footholds, just pure climbing with an awesome view.
That evening we bivouacked close to the cliff and in the morning we drove to Gap.

Gaetan climbing at the G-Spot

Sun @ G-Spot

I forgot to bring shorts (stupid...) so I had an excuse to buy a new pair in the local climbing shop before we walked up to my favourite climbing area.
There's so much to climb there that I hardly knew where to start.
Geatan decided: Grande Face. Because there are a lot of new routes.
It was a good choice. So many lines that just asked to be climbed!
Gaetan is climbing quite a bit harder then me (and as he has mountains to do trailrunning and I only have tarmac his stamina was a bit better as well...)
I suddenly had a chance to climb and try whatever I wanted. There was always someone to climb it again or finish the line if I couldn't.
This somehow gave me so much freedom. I lost all pressure to 'achieve' and climbed harder then ever!
Gaetan also taught me something I forgot: chill and enjoy, the French style.
I'd often been climbing with people that had the idea to climb as much as possible, had daily route quota's, needed to climb at least one 8a per week, force warm-ups in at least 7a's and wake up early to start as early as possible...

Gaetan @Grande Face

On our second day in Céuse we climbed with Tania, an extremely enthusiastic girl from Cyprus. She had so much energy! 

She tries to finish her PhD in Computer Science in a Gîte in Céuse, is learning French, climbs with the locals and if she's finished her PhD she wants to become a French climbing teacher. 

I had some chocolate and shared it with Tania. Gaetan doesn't like bitter 70% chocolate :) We really didn't understand that. Tania came up with an explanation on why we like chocolate: steep climbing is like chocolate. And she's right. 

Chocolate...on our way to Crolles in a petrol station in Luxembourg

Tania

Bergamot

With the pressure that had disappeared and the 'French climbing style' (chill, relax and do whatever/whenever you want to) I suddenly saw myself doing a beautiful new 6a as warm-up, just because it looked so beautiful, then climb the route next to it, just because it looked good and then try another route that just looked challenging. Meanwhile (typical French) complain that it's too cold, too warm, too rough, too smooth but never worry about it and lay in the sun for an hour, just chat and wait till I felt 'ready' again to do another try in the route. Eat a bit of bread, sausage and some fruit, wait for another 30 minutes or more and try again. Or not. That just didn't matter because you should just climb to enjoy and like the route and the nature around it. Not because it's 7a, 7b, or whatever the grade might be.
And of course, if the climb is a challenge it's more fun, but if that challenge is a 6a then thats o.k. and if it's a 8a thats o.k. as well. Sometimes the challenge differs per day, like on our last day (Friday) in Céuse: we were tired. Too tired to actually climb in the sun. The sun was too warm that day and I could hardly climb a 7a. But it was o.k.









Friday. Time to head back to Crolles.
Dennis and I just had to spent some time together. 
So Gaetan left for a weekend full of trailrunning and Dennis and I drove up to St. Pancrasse close to Crolles.
Dennis had a headache and I was tired of all the climbing.
So we had a semi-restday. We climbed (French style) in the late-midday/evening.

Dent de Crolles, seen from Col du Coq

Anemone

Gentian

Chimney climbing, with on the background Crolles and Grenoble

One of the caves we found on our walk back to Col du Coq

Petzl is located in Crolles, the Petzl history lies in the caves of the mountain facing the village: Dent de Crolles. So as Dennis is doing his traineeship in Crolles it was logical to climb the Dent de Crolles.
First when I saw the limestone face I told Dennis "we must climb that thing".
And so we did.
A bit on the right side of the face as the direct lines would take you a couple days full of aid climbing (and we only had one day).

The 'JB Directe' (TD) was our alternative. A trad route.
We started with a walk from the Col du Coq traversing the cliff to the start of our route.
The route is basically a big chimney. And I realised that chimney climbing is 'not my thing'.
Maybe it was because of my shoes (didn't want to wear my climbing shoes in the warm weather so wore my 5.10 Guide approach-shoes) or maybe it was because I was a bit 'flammable' because I had my period (or maybe it was both).
But well...I managed...and Dennis managed me. Just a couple pitons and a big chimney guided us to the top.







We climbed it easily within 'guide time' and walked to the top of the Dent.
The walk down was even more amazing. The green grass, the flowers, the cliffs, the view, the sun and the caves that made Petzl famous. 
Together we happily walked down again.

Monday I drove back 'home' again. All the way to Bergschenhoek.
On the way I saw a truck with a slogan: "the craziest are the happiest".
Maybe I'm crazy but I'm sure I felt pure happiness this week.

...and now writing this I figured I could have been in Céuse today. Because of some communication issue I don't have to work today. So I drove all the way back to the Netherlands for...nothing :(

*looking for an big (ice)axe and a good piece of wood*