Philippe Gatta - Blog |

Climbing: video of Le Corbeau – Peillon

By admin | Published: February 1, 2012

Last week we released Le Souffle du Ragga, 8b+, the first video of our series of short rock climbing videos taken in the cave of Peillon. Here is the second one with Anouk Evène climbing Le Corbeau, 7c+.

Posted in Climbing, Video | Tagged Climbing, peillon, video | Comments closed

Climbing: video of Souffle du Ragga – Peillon

By admin | Published: January 25, 2012

A few weeks ago, Anna, Philippe and Anouk Evène made a series of videos in the cave of Peillon. Here is the first video of Philippe climbing Le Souffle du Ragga, 8b+. Two more videos will be released soon, so stay tuned.

Posted in Climbing, Video | Tagged Climbing, peillon, video | Comments closed

Running: Treadmill Stress Test

By admin | Published: January 22, 2012

Anna and I are still preparing for the Atacama Crossing, a 250 km, 7 days, self-supported running race in the Atacama desert, Chile. Last week I went to the “Centre Cardio-Thoracique of Monaco” for a Treadmill Stress Test (“Test d’effort”) which included Echocardiogram, lung capacities, heart rate min and max, VO2 max, fat vs. carbohydrates consumption, etc. The exercise on the treadmill is relatively short (<30min) and intense, but with the exams before and the debriefing after, I spent 2 hours at the sport center. Anyway, the good news is that everything is fine.

Philippe during the treadmill stress test / Test d’effort (© Anna Gatta)

Posted in Trail | Tagged running | Comments closed

Alpinism: Cime de Fremamorte – Right Gully

By admin | Published: January 18, 2012

Last weekend I went back to the Boréon in the the Valley of Vésubie and climbed the Right Gully in the West face of the Cime Fremamorte (2730 m, 300m, AD+). There are not much snow/ice left, but the conditions in the Gully were okay, with 4 short sections of mixed climbing.

Instead of going back down trough the Lake of Fremamorte, I climbed the ridge going to the Point 2561m, then continued on the same ridge to the Cime Pagari de Salèse and finished to the Cime of Rogué. That makes a total of over 2 kilometers of really nice Arete. It’s rather easy with some mixed climbed and just a few 3+ sections. The descent through the Vallon of Naucettes is a bit remote with lot of wildlife but without any good trail.

Right Gully in the West face of Cime Fremamorte (red) (© Philippe Gatta)

Distance: 13 km, ascent: 1450m / descent: 1450m.

Posted in Alpinism | Tagged alpinism, boreon, mercantour, vesubie | Comments closed

Video: Best of 2011

By admin | Published: January 12, 2012

Philippe has just finished the Best of 2011 video: 3 minutes 31 seconds of the Kangchenjunga expedition (8586m), Sahara Race, Rock climbing around Nice, Berghaus TV shoot in the Dolomites, Trail running in Calanques, Sweden, Lapland and Mercantour, Alpine ascents in Chamonix Mont Blanc…

More videos on Philippe’s YouTube channel.

Philippe and Anna on the Rochefort Ridge, Mont Blanc (© P. Gatta)

Posted in Alpinism, Climbing, Expedition, Ski touring, Snowshoes, Trail, Video | Tagged alpinism, berghaus, Climbing, Expedition, kangchenjunga, mercantour, mont blanc, running, sahara race, sweden, video | Comments closed

Trail: St Vallier – Caille – Andon

By admin | Published: January 8, 2012

Anna and I are still preparing for the Atacama Crossing; a 250 km, self-supported race in the Atacama desert in Chile. Today we went to the first hills behind Cannes to run on a really nice 40 km Trail. The trail is rather good, with not too much elevation gain (+1550m), so perfect for training. The foresta and the Mont of Audibergue are very scenic.

The Trail starts above the village of St Vallier-de-Thiey and crosses Caille and Andon at an average elevation of 1200 m.

Cannes and the sea from the Audibergue (© Philippe Gatta)

Posted in Trail | Tagged running, Trail | Comments closed

Alpinism: Pelago – Couloirs Nathalie and East

By admin | Published: January 1, 2012

For this first day of 2012, I woke up at 5:30am and went to the Boréon in the the Valley of Vésubie to climb the Couloir Nathalie (III, AD+/D, 650m) in the West face of Mont Pelago.

The weather was great but it was too warm and the conditions in the Couloir were awful: very few and soft snow and thin ice. Five section in the Couloir were dry. The first part of the summit ridge of Pelaogo was okay but the last 50m below the summit were in very soft snow and unstable so I decided to climbed down by one of the Couloirs in the East face. I ended up in the Vallon of Sangué in deep and soft snow, up to the thighs at some point, a real pleasure…

Couloir Nathalie, Mont Pelago (red) (© Philippe Gatta)

Distance: 10 km, ascent: 1400m / descent: 1400m.

Posted in Alpinism | Tagged alpinism, alps, boreon, mercantour, vesubie | Comments closed

Alpinism: Grand Capelet – Couloir Diagonale

By admin | Published: December 25, 2011

It becomes really hard to find some snow in the South of the Alps. There are almost nothing below 2400 m and a very few Couloirs and gullies are still in condition, except in some North and West faces. Today I climbed the Diagonale route (AD, 300m) in the West face of Grand Capelet (2935 m) in the Valley of Gordolasque. Overall the condition in the Couloir was okay, the overhang at the beginning is a bit dry so I climbed a mixed terrain on the right. The descend on the South face and the Pas des Conques were in good conditions.

Distance: 7 km, ascent: 1300m / descent: 1300m.

Posted in Alpinism | Tagged alpinism, alps, gordolasque, mercantour | Comments closed

Trail: Bairols – Ilonse

By admin | Published: December 18, 2011

Anna and I went back to the Valley of Tinée to find a new Trail between the nice villages of Bairols and Ilonse. The Trail we chose was technical and in bad shape, especially on the way to Ilonse where there are lots of dead trees and rocks. The section between Col de la Sinne and Les Colombieres is much nicer but again from Les Colombieres and Bairols the forest is in poor shape with many dead trees on the Trail.

Posted in Trail | Tagged running, tinee, Trail | Comments closed

Trail: Les Calanques – Cassis – Marseille

By Anna | Published: December 14, 2011

Philippe and I were a little bored of our own playground here in the Côte d’Azur and decided to go two hours West and visit Les Calanques by Marseille. We left Nice with a full packed car: climbing gear, trail running gear and our camera.

Saturday was spent rock climbing on the fantastic cliff called Paroi des Toits offering a spectacular sea view. We had the cliff all to ourselves! But the big challenge this weekend was to do a 36 km long trail and a film at the same time…

Posted in Trail, Video | Tagged calanques, running, Trail | Comments closed