Arêtes de Sormiou de Col à Col

Lots of interesting arete climbing and bouldering on narrow ridge sections, interspersed with walking and scrambling. With big views out across the Sea on both sides.

"de Col à Col" . . .
Concept is to start from Col Lui d'Ai and go northeast on the ridge to Col de Sormiou, staying as close to the crest of the ridge "as possible"; finding and taking as many interesting climbing / bouldering segments as possible. More fun opportunities if capable of standing in balance and walking on top of narrow ridge crest with exposure. More fun opportunities if enjoy down-climbing 4th + 5th class sequences with exposure.

Most of the climbing is optional - (See the "Indirect" route to get similar views of Sea and rocks without much climbing difficulty). So if you really want to be committed, and feel "forced" to take on climbing difficulty once you've started into it, this is not your route. If you want to choose each section of fun interesting sometimes challenging narrow ridge / arete moves (including down-climbing), you'll find lots and lots to play with.

. . . (This route does not itself actually connect to "the Bec". But it's a logical continuation of at least two major Bec de Sormiou routes -- and an effective fun way to get back to normal Parking for Calanque de Sormiou in summer season (when the road down to the beach hamlet is closed from normal driving).

Effort: About 4000 ft distance from Col Lui d'Ai to the final hump at NW end overlooking Col Sormiou -- so guess at least 1500 ft length total of interesting climbing + scrambling along the way.
Time likely at least 2 hours, could take 3 hours or more. Or could speed it up by evading some climbing sections.

Approach:
Starting from the SE end of the asphalt road at GPS lat long approx (N43.2118 E5.4181), down steep Right (S) a bit, then gentle downward SE (past non-summer-season parking) (then passing through a gate) about 150 m into the hamlet / village. Before reaching the water, find the bottom start of the official hiking trail (N43.2100 E5.4198).
Turn full Right and follow the trail with solid-Black-line markings SSW up the steep hill with gravel about 50 meters. Turn Left and traverse roughly horizontal SE about 300 meters – along the way is a short section going up a narrow gravel gully.

At the second narrow gully of gravel (N43.2070 E5.4224), the trail splits, with the L-hand trail (solid-Black-line marking) exiting the gully into moderate uphill toward the Bec -- but instead take the R-hand trail (Black-triple-dots) and go S up steep gravel to reach the Col Lui d'Ai pass (N43.20610 E5.42335).

Route:
The climbing sections both upward and downward (over several big humps and several little humps) are too many to explain in any detail. Try to stay on or close to the crest of the ridge, and make careful judgments about what's safe for you and what's interesting and fun for you.
We sort of remember when getting up onto the second big hump, finding a right-trending gully in its SSE face that started a bit left from the center of bottom of face -- and that way had interesting climbing on mostly good holds, with of course some loose rock, and a couple of places to get stuck in bushes - (otherwise could have found less-difficult scrambling around farther left).

The final hump (N43.2153 E5.4080) in this ridge route, SW above the asphalt road pass, seemed to have a rather steep + tall NW face below its summit, and otherwise seemed like a logical end-point for the traverse -- so we did not attempt to find a way to down-climb that face. Instead turned Right and scrambled 3rd class down its NE ridge and soon reached a herd path. Follow that path at first Left then curve Right down to meet the asphalt road at its pass over Col de Sormiou (N43.2164 E5.4087). Turn Left onto the road with a rather steep start down to normal summer-season Parking.

Starts from the key pass in the ridge Col Lui d'Ai (N43.20610 E5.42335) and finishes at peak (N43.2153 E5.4080) above W from the pass of the asphalt road at Col de Sormiou (N43.2164 E5.4087).

Col Lui d'Ai is reached by a marked hiking trail up from the Sormiou beach hamlet (N43.2100 E5.4198) - with non-summer parking nearby. During summer season normal parking (N43.2226 E5.4053) is along the Marseille city street about 1 km NNW from the Col de Sormiou. So in summer season the beach hamlet is reached by walking on the asphalt road, or there are hiking shortcuts, and perhaps a separate hiking trail lower south.

(almost?) No protection hardware in place.
If belaying a Follower, most of that work will be in the form of "short-roping". Some slings long + short to place around rock horns or bushes are likely to be useful. Perhaps a range of cams - (stoppers are tricky to get placed "solid" in this rock, then difficult for the Follower to remove).