🇫🇷 Cassis - Climbing Paradise (English Subtitles)

After long hours driving from Brittany, we finally arrived in Cassis, the land of the warm weather and the calanques by the Mediterranean Sea! Staying in Cassis was beautiful, but also very hot! And because of that, our climbing was limited to shady areas. The roads that led to the calanques were closed during the high season, and walking hours to get to those best spots were out of question! So we first decided to visit Cap Canaille, this massive cliff reaching almost 400m above sea level. This cliff is also the first thing you see as you arrive in Cassis, it’s huge! Cap Canaille is pretty much entirely under the shade during the whole morning, which was great! One of our favorite multi-pitches was Vielles Canaille (6b+) 120m 7 pitches. The approach is quite easy, with an amazing 50m rappel. GPS coordinates for parking 43.197113,5.552575 Pitch 1 (6a) has a tricky traverse going left, very interesting moves, great start. Pitch 2 (6a) has some crazy 3d chimney kind of climb, very fun. Pitch 3 was just a walk to get to the 4th pitch. Pitch 4 is where the real fun begins. An amazing vertical 6b+ wall with some technical moves, and amazing rock quality, it actually felt like climbing in the Blue Mountains for a moment. Pitch 5 (6b+) and pitch 6 (6b) have some really steep overhanging start that looks very difficult, but it’s actually easy and enjoyable. Pitch 7 (6b+) and last pitch is the climax of the whole trip. You start on an arete, that leads you to some juggy overhanging climb. At the end of this overhanging section, you reach the last 10m bit of amazing vertical climb, completely hanging 400m above sea level, high left heel hook, rock over to reach a side pull, do a knee scum, and reach a jug to clip, and keep going to finish what would be the end of our climbing trip in Cassis! There wouldn’t be a better finish, just amazing! Another multi-pitch we really enjoyed was Le Bitard a Rudiste 130m (6a+) with 7 pitches. Great views all along. The first couple of pitches felt a bit chossy, but they climb alright. The fun started after the third pitch, with some really cool corner climbing, and a challenging vertical wall, with some technical moves that got us a but pumped. The last 3 pitches we ended up climbing in the sun due to the rappelling difficulties we had with only one rope, which was a big mistake not to be repeated on the following days. The wind picked up unexpectedly, and on the last few meters we felt like we were in a vitrine with many tourist watching us! Amazing experience! 0:00 - Introduction 01:09 - Approach 03:57 - Pitch 1 04:37 - Pitch 2 04:54 - Pitch 4 05:32 - Pitch 5 06:13 - Pitch 6 06:46 - Pitch 7 08:12 - Le Bitard a Rudiste 08:57 - Outro