Day 9 2nd May: with Pascal Lee Rhony Lee Denis Li Lung Hok Jul Mercier
Piton de la fournaIse hike today.

The weather at st pierre is overcast but dry, which gives us a glimmer of hope for the day. The road to the active volcano is a nearly 2 hour drive, the first section through forest, tarred and well maintained, the second through ‘plaine des sables’ is just broken tracks, covered with shrubs typical of vegetation at high altitudes (above 2000m in this case). According to Rhony, the latter section is a Unesco World Heritage site, and they are only allowed to patch it with gravel collected by the road side.
As we gain elevation, weather gets progressively worse, and by the time we reach ‘Pas de bellecombe’, the starting point of our hike, drizzle with very cold winds welcome us. Arguably, the conditions are worse than the piton des neiges summit attempt, and after an initial 50m hike, the guys decide to give up. It's not about reward being worth the effort and the pain, there is no reward in this case!!!

Lower down, we are below the clouds, and there is the possibility of a mini walk up the ‘Nez de boeuf’ peak. From there we can see the huge cloud formations crawling down the lower slopes, slowly engulfing the landscape. It's not going to be pretty by the coast either later on, and our contingency rock climbing plans seem comprised as well.

I sleep on the drive back down to st denis, and downpour down there!
What else can aspiring climbers do when the weather turns sour? Indoor Bouldering!!! :-) :-) :-)
The place is just an open shed, with the walls plastered with boards of varying inclines and shapes. Holds of different colours define the route difficulty ranging from the easy yellows to the impossible blacks. After an easy warm up on the yellows, we move to the greens and eventually the Blues, which are rated 6a!
3.5 hour session, and we are all knackered.
Shower, followed by dinner in a Chinese restaurant as guests of Pascal and Rhony's relatives. Sleep!