Cap Canaille - Immortelles / Grands Ducs - Vire des Immortelles

Seaside traverse with big views and exposure, and some interesting rock moves.

Shares the same start with Traversee Philemon]. Three advantages of Immortelles over Philemon: (a) less hiking; (b) more rock moves; (c) returns naturally to the original starting point.

The route described here is the shorter version - “Itinéraire supérieur” - which returns to the same starting point by the Semaphore. There are other versions which finish at different points farther east - see the French route description].

Statistics for “Itinéraire supérieur” . uphill walking + climbing vertical: +300m . length of climbing at difficulty 2 or higher: 150-200m . horizontal distance on asphalt road: round trip 1.1km . horizontal distance off road - loop + return: 2.2km . total horizontal distance = 3.3km

Access

Drive the Route des Cretes from Cassis or La Ciotat and park by its intersection (GPS latitude/longitude approx N43.18000 E5.57250) with the spur access road to the Semaphore. Follow the instructions for Traversee Philemon] to the obvious top anchor for the single rappel, marked by black paint.

Variation: Roughly 100m before the top of the big rappel, make two rappels of about 30 meters each (which shortens the hiking both above and below the rappel). The advantages of not using this variation are: (a) Continuing farther NW with Traversee Philemon is fairly interesting; and (b) Finding and identifying the top anchor for the Philemon single rappel is easy.

Traverse

After making the Philemon rappel of 30 meters (perhaps a bit less), down-climb the steep gully to the West (difficulty 2+ with possible top belay anchor near bottom of Philemon rappel). At this point the Philemon traverse goes NW, but instead turn South and walk down steep dirt another 10m. Next traverse left at first roughly horizontal SouthEast about 100m, then generally gentle downhill another 250m SE - (often on a steep sidehill on loose dirt). After passing under a big overhang, the track starts going upward (at first on steep dirt) for another 25m to a ledge.

General navigation method: Look for the new bolts.

About another 25m horizontal SE along the ledge, see a fixed rope with knots. Climb upward about 3-4 meters to reach another ledge. Next an exposed horizontal traverse SE for 50m. Then another steep move up to another ledge, followed by more horizontal about 60m to a prominent left-facing corner.

. (warning: Before that corner, you might notice two bolts about one meter apart, with an older bolt about 10m above them which seems to lead to easier terrain above right. Do not go up here. This is not the 2-bolt anchor of the (later) exit pitch. Instead continue traversing horizontally).

Just around this left-facing corner is an exposed horizontal move with less positive holds (difficulty 4b). A bolt just after the move protects the follower well, but not such close protection for the leader.

Traverse another 35-45m and reach a 2-bolt anchor below less-than-vertical face. Climb the face above following the bolts diagonal Left (32 meters, with 6 bolts up to a 2-bolt anchor). Then Right to the exit to gentler ground (20 meters, with 2 bolts with a 2-bolt anchor). Crux moves on this face are around 4b, with closely-spaced bolts.

Exit

Hike uphill NW about 75m to get close to under the cliff above. Diagonal up W then SW for about 60m, to reach a col (with view to the Semaphore) - with black paint marking the bottom of another rock-climbing section with bolt visible. Climb up then diagonal L (crux around 3c) - 2 bolts to a 1-bolt anchor. (Variation: easier to first hike left (W) to reach bottom of climbing section of early section of Traversee Philemon).

Next go upward North, following black paint marks for upper east section of Traversee Philemon (done before in the downward direction at the start of this tour). This is the downhill access to the start of Traversee Philemon. Hike and scramble N up to the top of the ridge. See the Semaphore, and hike NW about 300m following black marks then yellow marks up to that, then NW and N on the asphalt road back to parking.

• Slippery when wet: Not good to try this route after rainfall, because of steep sidehill sections on dirt.
• Loose rock: Upper ledge traverse section is sandstone, lower ledge traverse section and upward pitch are puddingstone. The equipped route described here was selected to minimize this, but avoid having anyone underneath a moving climber. If try to climb the puddingstone off the main route, expect big rocks to break loose.
• Wearing long pants recommended because of prickly bushes in some hiking sections.
• Hiking poles are helpful for some sections sidehill + steep uphill.
• Much of this route is shaded on summer mornings (but then gets very hot on summer afternoons).