Dave Graham - Pro Blog 4

The Verdon is also a symbol of a serious era in French climbing history, and, as well, represents to many on this continent, the essence of climbing itself. A lot of progressive, historic things happened there, and it was a long time ago! Free soloing was at a very high level, and, good lord, routes that were being done were way ahead of their time. Les Specialistes, for example, is a classic 5.14a. Was it the first one? I heard someone say that, but I’m not sure. All I know is it was done twenty years ago, and its really solid for its grade! People like Patrick Edlinger and Patrick Berhault did some incredibly ground-breaking ascents, and I would be surprised if anyone even heard their names back in America! Sometimes people ask me why I downgrade things … well, when you work really hard, because it's really technical, and powerful, and your in a route graded 7a, it makes you think about how one can grade an 8c comparatively. These where standards set a long time ago, and its hard to always disrespect them by pretending like they are just sandbagged! Early examples of 5.11 will be found there… 

I tried not to take too many photos of the massive quantity of rock (even though that’s impossible), as I don’t want to bum every one out on their local areas, nor instigate massive onsets of depression because of the utter lack of stone like this in the U.S. What a sad truth! You only have one Gorges du Verdon on this planet, I guess.