Saturday

Monday is a holiday, so for the weekend some climbers have planned a trip towards the Pyrenees. The first stop is Vingrau, about an hour and a half from Montpellier.

Well known for its improbable slabs, Vingrau also has a host of short multi-pitch routes and some of what the French call "terrain d'aventure". Depending on the location, "terrain d'av" can mean anything from a route with absolutely no equipment, requiring a full rack of traditional protection, to old pitons, to a mostly bolted route with a level of commitment maybe slightly higher than your average French sport route. After a couple routes to warm up and a full French lunch, Adrien proposes "Le plan incliné". It's a 70 meter route, mostly on gear, with two pitches and a bolted belay. I'm game, so we rack up and go for it.

Adrien is a very strong climber, but as I'm seconding his first pitch I'm pretty skeptical of the quality of his gear placements. I finally get to a cam that I think might hold a fall about 25 meters off the ground and about 5 meters from the belay.

"It's a good thing you're so strong," I tell him, "because until just now you were soloing."

I grab the rack and start off on my pitch. The climbing is not too hard, the crack takes good gear, and about 40 meters later I'm at the top, belaying Adrien. We rappel down and chat with some French people at the base about Montana and "A River Runs Through It."

"That's where I live," I tell them, and Adrien and I walk back to where our friends are, around the corner.

We here a loud rumble of rocks falling. We pause for a second and don't think about it.

But while I'm belaying Adrien on the next route, the road below is blocked off and filled with rescue vans. As I'm lowering Adrien we hear the unmistakable noise of a helicopter.

It's a rescue.

"I'm done." I tell Adrien. "Two helicopters in two days is too much."

The wall we had been climbing on just before had apparently lost a large block, injuring two climbers. We had been there 10 minutes before it happened, on the route just to the right.

The climbers were alive, but seriously hurt, and were whisked off rapidly to the hospital.

The drive to Sebastien's parents house, our lodging for the weekend, is done in silence.