Jonathan Siegrist Climbs Amazing French Limestone

L’étrange Ivresse des Lenteurs

My curiosity with ‘L’étrange Ivresse des Lenteurs’ really began on my very first trip to Ceuse in the spring of 2012. Up until this point in my climbing I had never even laid eyes on a 5.15. I was dumbfounded with the beauty and intense difficulty of the Biographie sector. I briefly tried the namesake ‘Biographie’ on this trip but it was immediately clear that the route was way above my level at the time. My physical level for sure but perhaps more critically, my mental level. I happily focused my energy instead on the Berlin and Demi Lune sectors, feeling right at home in my preferred style of tricky footwork and navigating small holds. 

Amongst all of the dizzying inspiration however, I do remember looking at the recently opened ‘L’étrange Ivresse des Lenteurs’, questioning if it could possibly be a free route as there were seemingly no holds for the first 10 feet (as I later learned, it’s because one of the first moves on the route is a dyno). My friends told me that this obscure route was known for outrageous runouts and hard cruxes. Even just the realization (no pun intended) that 5.15 actually exists was enough for me to be overwhelmed. Now knowing there was somehow a terrifying 5.15 obscurity nestled in-between the most famous routes in the world, was wild to wrap my mind around. 

In 2020 Alex Megos made history by opening ‘Bibliographie’, but during that same season he also climbed the second ascent of ‘L’étrange Ivresse des Lenteurs’. No photos of him emerged on the route, just some statements confirming the intense runouts and perceived difficulty of the line. Some years ago there was a short video from Bernardo Gimenez of Adam Ondra on the FA but it’s since disappeared. There is something so undeniably intriguing to me about this kind of mystery. In this day and age how can it be that there are basically no photos, hardly any descriptions or first person accounts of the route? A route on a wall that has allured the best climbers from all around the world for decades. It reminded me of how climbing used to feel– mysterious. 

I first started trying the route in the fall of 2023. I had finished my battle with ‘Jungle Boogie’ and ‘Pornographie’ that previous summer so my confidence for this style was up a bit. I slowly unlocked the sections of the route, finding some pieces quite morpho but many others peppered with just enough tiny foot options. In this route you need to be very dynamic at times, but very slow and static at others. The opening 6 bolts are quite resistant without any good rest, but then for the remainder you have several varied cruxes with rests (albeit sometimes poor) in-between. You have some big moves on better holds, also micro moves on horrible pockets. It truly feels like it offers everything. It’s one of the best routes I have ever climbed on. And the cherry on top? The final two bolts are outrageously run out. Sylvain Millet was a legend of his time, climbing the second ascent of ‘Biographie’ and pioneering hard climbing in France and beyond. He was known for preserving the airy feel of classic Ceuse routes but he had a uniquely thrilling vision for this route when he bolted it in 2006. 

There is a tufa and pocket feature in the bottom of the route that I came to find out was chronically wet. After a big rain storm this area becomes wet for days - sometimes even a full week of sun is required to dry the holds out. This wetness posed a problem for me in 2023 but I had no idea what I was in for this season. On the final day of my 2023 visit I made a really good try on a uniquely dry day, climbing the route until the bitter end, but fell from under the anchor in a big fight, taking the mandatory 50 foot ride. I left Ceuse as I often do… emotionally beat up, physically worn out, but already planning for more. 

Fresh off of a super motivating summer, I returned to Ceuse in September of 2024. It was a guiding objective of mine all year to make room for another crack at ‘L’étrange Ivresse’. On our first day here, tired from travel and dehydrated, I went up the route. I felt great for the most part! The cruxes felt good, and I felt in good shape. Unfortunately I cranked just a little too hard on a strange right leg heel hook and felt a really disturbing twisting / popping sensation in my knee and down my shin. It wasn’t painful but I could tell this was not normal so I lowered to the ground and carefully hiked out. That night, while limping to the bathroom in the dark, I completely ate it and bashed my face quite badly on the tile floor. I had a black eye, swollen face and numb jaw and teeth for weeks. It was a less than optimal start for our ambitious trip to France..

I saw a physiotherapist in Gap and he confirmed I had torn my LCL. Thankfully the tear was not so bad as to require surgery - in fact I could even start to hike and climb soon after, albeit carefully. The main issue was that while I could try some moves on ‘L’étrange Ivresse’ in the first month of healing, it was completely out of the question to try the heel hook move that had injured me. I did my best to dial in the sections of the route that I could climb, and religiously did my PT and recovery exercises on the days between. 

In the end of September a cycle of really intense storms started to hammer Southern France. As I said before, the route requires about 5-6 sunny days to dry out, but the storms would not budge. Just as I could see a glimmer of hope in the forecast, another storm carrying the rain volume of a whole month would hit the region. This series of storms continued for 5 straight weeks, never allowing for more than 3 or 4 dry days in a row. Some weeks we received over 100mm (4 inches +) of rain. Destructive flooding was all over the area. 

The Gap locals were incredibly welcoming to us, opening their home walls and sharing motivation on rainy days. I can say with certainty that without a way to stay active and have some laughs with friends throughout, we would have abandoned the whole mission for sure. In early to mid October my knee was feeling 90%. I was able to climb the route from just above the wet holds at the bottom to the finish (by quickly grabbing the quickdraw and skipping the one move that injured my knee). Another week or so of healing and I could do this link including the heel hook move! I was making real progress even though the bottom remained wet. This was super motivating.

Unfortunately the rain would persist. I ended up climbing from above the wet holds to the finish more than a dozen times. I borrowed a Makita fan from my friend with the ambition to mount the fan on the wall and dry the hold. I became a master of toilet paper tufa drying tactics, and even tried going up the route and drying the hold with a towel and chalking it before having a try, but all of it was not quite enough. I kept reloading the weather forecast only to see that yet another storm was on the way. I honestly started to feel a bit crazy, waiting and preparing for a window that might just never come. The end of our trip arrived, and if I am honest I really wanted to move on, but my wife Shaina was also deep in a projecting battle and she had a breakthrough so promising that I knew we needed to extend our time here to give her a shot. I mostly gave up on ‘L’étrange Ivresse’, and started doing extra training days and climbing on other routes at the cliff. 

One morning I loaded the weather expecting the “>20mm” icon to dominate the forecast as it had been, but, shockingly, it didn’t. Instead, a week of high pressure, super sunny weather emerged. As the days moved closer the prediction galvanized. Shaina sent her project in spectacular fashion! And now it was up to me if we risk another week of hope, another extension to our trip for what seemed like an opportunity but at this point, who knows. It had been many days since I even touched the route at this point. Could I still do the big link? Was my skin ready again for the beating? If it dried out would I even remember the moves in the wet part after not trying some of them for 5 weeks? It all felt like a huge risk, but at least my knee was ready to go, and I finally got the weather I had been aching for. I needed to at least give myself an opportunity. 

On November 1st the route was completely dry for the first time since mid September. I tied in not exactly sure what to expect both from the climb but also from my body and mind. Almost unbelievably, I climbed the route. Following a rhythm of fighting hard in the cruxes and slowing down as much as possible in the rests. At the time, I was just so incredibly grateful to have the opportunity to properly try the route after so much waiting, that even up until the very end I didn’t feel nervous or too anxious. That feeling quickly evaporated when I found myself climbing the final runout, forearms and body exhausted but psyche was massive!

I love how much of a mystery Ceuse continues to be - that there can be obscurities and so many unknowns even right in the middle of the most famous cliff in the world. Even the name, ‘L’étrange Ivresse des Lenteurs’ - meaning ‘The Strange Drunkness of Slowness’ - makes me think of the mystery and madness that we all live with when we dream big and wait patiently as the outcome is so uncertain. 

While this specific chapter might be over, I’m certain that my story (and the mystery, and suffering) in this amazing place will continue soon enough.. at least I sure hope so. 

Watch Jonathan's newest video: Anemology 5.15b