Despite the forecast predicting heavy rain and cold temperatures over the Bank Holiday weekend, about 150 people headed to Annot for the first trad climbing festival organised by  Lionel Catsoyannis and other local climbers.

The aim of the festival was to let people know about this unusual climbing area, to launch the new guidebook and introduce climbers to the delights of climbing without bolts.

As well as plenty of climbers from all over France the event was attended by climbers from Italy, Spain, Holland, Slovakia, Belgium, the Czech Republic and the UK, giving the weekend a truly international feel.

As you would expect from the South of France the itinerary was very laid back and centered around the Cafe du Commerce in the middle of town!

Practicing placing cams on one of Annot's easier sectors.

Saturday consisted of workshops for climbers new to placing trad gear and around 70 people took the opportunity to have a go and try out equipment provided by the sponsors (Wild Country, Totem Cams, Black Diamond).

Apart from that people just got on with their own thing with the classic routes receiving a lot of attention.

That evening the bar laid on a special ‘climbers menu’ and a band who belted out classic rock covers late into the night!

Heavy rain overnight threatend to ruin the second day but fortunately it stopped and when the sun came out the rock dried quickly allowing people to explore the 15 sectors and over 150 routes developed so far.

Again, most of the classic lines were busy while spectators grouped together to watch attempts on some of the harder climbs. That evening there was a talk about the history of climbing in the Verdon Gorge and a film about the Taghia Gorge in Morocco, as well as more ‘hanging out’ in the bar.

Unfortunately Monday was very wet and climbing was impossible so quite a few people headed home early or took the opportunity to explore the area around Annot. For those who did stay Tuesday turned out to be fine and bright and gave another superb days climbing.

This short film gives a good idea of the type of climbing found at Annot as well as capturing the atmosphere of the festival: Annot trad climbing festival film

Highlights of the festival include Alan Carne’s on-sight of the difficult roof crack C’est ta Rate en Realite (7b), Nicolas …… ascent of Miss Annot (7b) as well as brave attempts on La Sadomachiste Direct (7c) by Alan Carne and one of the Czech climbers.

The organisers are already talking about next years event which they hope will be bigger, better attended and blessed with good weather.

For those of you who couldn’t make it or have only just found out about the trad climbing at Annot then I recommend you make the effort to visit this fantastic venue.

More info about the trad climbing at Annot can be found here:

Originally posted on - www.climbapedia.com