Verdon Gorge Info

Hello. My girlfriend and I will be traveling to the Verdon Gorge for several days in a couple of weeks. We would like to do some easy climbing, as well as some other casual activities like hiking, kayaking etc. I'm just looking for general info about the area.

Where are good places to stay in the area? We could camp, but would probably prefer to rent a cheap place via AirBnB or something similar. She's not a super strong climber, so what area has some good, fairly easy (6A-ish or below?) climbs that we could enjoy in the area??

Any other tips/info that you can think of would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

We stayed at a b&b/hostel type place in La Palud sur Verdon owned by a local climber. Super nice lady, really nice rooms, and rather reasonable from what I remember. Check out Moustiers Ste. Marie while you're there, it's a beautiful old town with a really cool church on the hill above town. There's a couple villages around the Verdon that offer up pretty fun farmers markets too. As far as easier climbing, the Verdon river gauche guidebook should offer more easier routes, that tend to be shadier. The Dalles Gris zone has some easier (5c-6a?) multis, and some easier single pitch routes you can rap into. There isn't a ton to do at the lower grades in the Verdon it seems...

There are some slot canyon type adventures to be had in the area as well - which given your time frame may be super fun as it gets hotter than shit in that area this time of year. Have a ton of fun, it's one of the most gorgeous places I've visited.

I can't help too much on the accommodations part of your request as it has been a very long time since I climbed in the Verdon--and we camped while there. I can say that La Palud is a very small village, so accommodation options are quite limited. There are. I believe, 2 campgrounds and likely only 2 or 3 B and Bs. I think a google search should point you in the right direction. If there is nothing available in La Palud, Moustiers and Castellane are the nearest towns and likely to have more accommodation options.

As far as the climbing, the main Verdon crags are very intimidating and access is complicated, usually involving multiple very exposed rappels to stances (sometimes hanging) or terraces from which the routes begin. All and all probably not the best place for someone you describe as "not a super strong climber". As mentioned by Nick, the Dalles Grises sector does have some worthwhile easier climbs, is lower angle than most parts of the crag, and the routes start from a large terrace (Jardin in French)which limits the sense of exposure for both the rappels and the climbing.

However, in addition to the main crags in the Verdon, there are several other, much more 'friendly' ones either in the lower reaches of the Gorge or nearby that offer a good selection of reasonable routes in a pleasant but not 'overwhelming' environment. Many of these are documented in the Aigunes, Rive Gauche guidebook. I'm sure that you can get this book in La Palud, but if you want to try to get it in advance it is worth looking at the ClimbEurope website as they stock a good selection of guidebooks and ship (from the UK) promptly.

Have a great trip.

camptocamp.org/routes/list/…

This is the climbing routes list i'have ranked by increasing difficulties.

When P1 is mentioned, it's mean fully bolted, so you can push yout limit

For the rappels, saut d'homme and dent d'aire are as easy as dalles grises.

And a number of routes can be approached by walking.

Enjoy

pierref wrote:When P1 is mentioned, it's mean fully bolted, so you can push your limit

Well ...
historically Verdon had a reputation of being rather "run out". Many of the routes were bolted by elite climbers who felt that anything less than 5.10b was free solo terrain.
Now some of the popular routes have been re-bolted in a more "friendly" fashion, but I would not rely on the accuracy of every single CampToCamp protection rating.

I climbed a bolted multi-pitch route in another region which C2C showed a protection rating of P1, and both me and my partner felt it was pretty "run out".

Also the Difficulty ratings at Verdon can be tricky if you have not climbed that _style_ of rock before. For example we rapped into a route where the first two pitches had almost all their holds as _incipient_ pockets (like imprints of water drops) - so you might get one positive hold every 75 feet. The original climbers who assigned the historic difficulty rating likely climbed this sort of stuff all the time, so they were very confident on it. The overhangs later in the final fourth pitch had higher difficulty ratings, but we found those easier, because the way modern climbing has gone, we practice that all the time.

Not sure why you chose Verdon, since there's lots of other climbing areas within two hours drive from there which offer lots more like what it sounds you're looking for.

And Verdon is kind of out in the middle of nowhere, not near any other tourist sites or interstate highways or major cities.

Ken