FaveClimbs

YOU ENJOY MYSELf

Everyone knows Cat Ba Island for its Deep Water Soloing but PushPeep Paul Massad recommends heading away from the water and taking a trip to Butterfly Valley in search of lush rural greenery and legendary tufa limestone.

“For me DWS is fun, yes but only for a bit because once you’ve fallen off a few times your hands get wet which means you can’t hold on so well and you’re more likely to get cuts in the soft skin.”

So Paul recommends heading a little inland into the beautiful landscape of Butterfly Valley and its range of routes including You Enjoy Myself.  Why YEM?

“The setting mostly.  The exposure of the route, especially around the top, where you have to overcome this little “lip” means you can see the real expanse of the valley and how much potential climbing there is still to discover.  The route is not super fancy, but it features some solid moves with solid holds. There’s a little “number crunching” on one or two areas and all the falls are pretty safe so even if you take a big fall , you wont hit anything hard.”

So go enjoy You Enjoy Myself. In terms of grades it’s locally rated as a 6b on the French system, which is a 5.10c or d on the US.

Words by Steve Shipside.