3% of French people practice the joys of ‘climbing’ In Chartres (Eure-et-Loir), the first room dedicated to the discipline opens Tuesday April 16. 600m² of walls offer 14 sectors each with six levels of difficulty, for a total of 90 blocks.
As with skiing, the routes are classified by color: yellow for beginners, green and blue for average climbers, red for very good climbers and black and purple for more than experienced athletes. Every week two sectors out of the fourteen in the room will be renewed, so in a month and a half, the entire block is redone. Chartres à Bloc also wants to ride the Olympics to attract new fans. “We have planned screens to broadcast the Olympics, with the hope of spin-offs,” says Didier Bardet, the manager of the new climbing hall in Chartres. The project took four years to complete and seven people were recruited to accommodate the 1,500 to 2,000 climbers expected here each year.