Planet Granite climbing

The weather looks more and more a winter weater with cold, wind and snow (on the mountains). We, therefore, settled for indoor climbing at Planet Granite in Santa Clara.

Their climbing gym is fantastic with bouldering, sport climb, crack climbing and moreover they are kids friendly.

Igor and I having a chat before climbing some hard routes.

Yellow tape route looked hard but was no so bad :)

Igor's son, Antony is Benoit and Lucas' buddy.

Benoit likes big holds on overhanging routes.

Lucas is the most natural climber of all. Only 4 but already quite agile.

Lucas scooting the holds before the final assault.

Going up is fun but going down is even more fun.

Benoit warming up in this not so easy route.

Claire is back climbing and She still does not like the sloper. It must run in the family.

Brian, Rob, Brit and I enjoying the global warming at Castle Rock

Brian and I met Rob and Brit at Indian Rock which is part of the Castle Rock state park early morning on Sunday. We first warmed up at the Nazi boulder which features nice slabish route. Soon after Rob and Brit joined us and we climbed new routes at Indian rock. The weather was so great that it felt we were in June or something.


Brian cruzing the slab, not like me since I spend too much time indoor climbing and my footwork is suffering.

Nice colors.

Rob sending a new route (at least it looks like) near Ash boulder. The top was quite challenging I should say because between the mud and the moss it was kind of hard to find the holds.

Brian looking for holds, just on his right though.

I was the last to send the route (definitively not my style but fun anyway). Thanks to Rob for taking the photo.

Brian is resting his fingers after that nice morning climb so He can finish his "small" house projects (thanks Andrea for letting "l'esclave de la vigne" going out climbing with us).

French Santa Claus

Isabelle came back from France with gifts from the French "pere Noel". The kids had fun opening the boxes and playing with the Meccano.

French Santa Claus was kind of late. He probably got stuck at the airport.

Benoit reads books now. French books are going to be even more fun.


Lucas is just checking... We never know, maybe Benoit is going to get some candy.

Lego, Meccano and you cannot go wrong.

Christmas 2006

For Christmas, Claire prepared Pheasant with Blueberry sauce, Truffade, and "Coquille Saint-Jacques" as well as a nice Chocolate cake (Buche de Noel).
I made 2 breads, Polka and Walnuts plus a Brioche.
The kids waited for the presents. They were not disappointed by Santa Claus since they behaved well during the year :)

Polka bread.
Brioche Vendeenne.

The setup with a nice Pouilly.

The pheasant with the sauce.

The buche au chocolat.

Benoit and Lucas waiting for Santa Claus.

Star Wars Lego, you cannot be wrong.

The kids put at work.
Live is good with all those presents.

Bear Valley - Ski trip

We are back to the Bear Valley slopes. The season has just began and the snow is mostly ice which make it more difficult for snowboarders. Lucas and Benoit are learning very fast. Benoit can jump and grind. Lucas is so fast that I can barely follow him.

Bear Valley - Ski trip

We spent one week on vacation at Bear Valley just before Christmas. Only few slopes were open because of the lack of snow but that did not stop us from skiing and snowboarding.

Lucas and Benoit did very good. They are ready to go to the blue slopes soon. We stayed at Tamarack lodge few miles from the Bear Valley.

Bear Valley ski resort is south of lake Tahoe. The resort is family oriented which is good with our kids.

Tamarack lodge is very close from the slopes. They were not busy so we enjoyed the lodge for almost ourselves.
The kitchen is very handy.

Benoit snowboards...

Lucas-la bomba skies.

They have one room just for kids.

Benoit is reading some Scooby-Doo story for Lucas and Claire.

Christmas tree

Christmas is around the corner. The time has to come to cut the Christmas tree so Santa can drop the gifts for the kids.

We drove Empire Grade north the University of Santa Cruz. The tree farm is a great place for kids to go, they can pick and choose their tree, cut it and drag it to the car.


The farm has few chicken so the people from the city can see what they look like. Lucas and Benoit did not care since they spent much time in the farm in France.

This place is huge and must have several thousands trees to choose from.

Lucas was in charge of the saw (pretty scary).

Benoit was in charge of the trailer.

Benoit is ready to pick up the fallen tree.

Right in target.

Lucas is fooling around on this antique tractor.


The tree goes through the tree-machine so it is easier to carry around.

Benoit and Lucas are carrying the tree to the car. Nice team work.

Done for this year, now, let's wait for the "pere noel".

Castle Rock with Brian and Rob

Brian, Rob and I went to Castle Rock about 2 weeks ago. I could not even remembered the last time I climbed at Castle Rock. It must have been one and half year ago.

The conditions were just perfect with a chilly sunny day. We got started at Indian Rock warming up on the ash boulder.

Few weeks back, while hiking with the kids I noticed that untouched boulder. We decided to check it out. We put 3 new routes in the V1, V2 range. Rob got the first ascent (FA) from the City Wok, Brian from the left City Wok and myself from the right City Wok.

If you ever want to guess why we called that route City Wok, you must watch South Park :)




Rob on City Wok













Rob on City Wok reaching for the sloper











Brian on City Wok crimping the sloper!












Brian starting City Wok route