Christmas vacation.

As I had a two week vacation, I decided to just publish one post for the whole period, just like my previous vacation.
As it turned though, the vacation has been quite disappointing climbing and weather wise. I had set myself the goal to do "Fourmis Rouges", but the besides two good sessions, the other were overrules by bad and frustrating conditions.
Lot of fog, drizzle, rain, and humidity.

Sunday, 22nd of December, 2024

Yesterday, everything was soaking wet due to rain and even more due to condensation. In the late afternoon up to this morning, there was even more rain, but also a hard wind. I decided to look for dry boulders on higher ground, and found a good one on the top of the hill of Rocher de la Cathédrale.
Even though I tried it before, I had never been able to the first big move of "Le Gnou" or "Coup de Phil (assis)", but somehow, today it worked out pretty well and I was able to make a rather quick ascent of "Coup de Phil (assis)". "Le Gnou" on the other hand, didn't work out. Seems that the short traverse to the right seems to be the crux and I couldn't get passed it. Anyway, given the bad weather forecast for today, I was happy to have been able to climb at all.

Fontainebleau - Rocher de la Cathédrale - Coup de Phil (assis) 7A+

Monday, 23 of December, 2024

For some time, thinking years, I kind of secretly had this small dream of climbing one of the famous Big 5 in Cuvier Rempart. It always looked intimidating and scary at some point, but for some reason, I had been playing with the idea to try "Fourmis Rouges". Today, I asked my oldest son to join me to help me carry an extra crashpad and be there for a spot, so that thought finally became a reality.
I didn't finish "Fourmis Rouges" today after almost two hours of trying, but I was able to build up a great amount of confidence, and especially motivation to come back for it soon. I made some quite good attempts, and even though it very much sounds like an excuse, the conditions didn't feel exactly right. I made good progress though and feel like I'm close to a send, so I'm eager to return as soon as I have grown back some skin and conditions are favorable.
Below, a video of a handful of my best attempts today.

Fontainebleau - Cuvier Rempart - Fourmis Rouges 7C (attempts)

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Friday, December 27th, 2024

After another couple of really bad weather with no climbing possible, it was finally sunny yesterday, but unfortunately, the crack of "Fourmis Rouges" was still wet, making the problem impossible.
Slightly disappointed, I did have some fun with Olaf (Deppe) and Markus (Neher).
I was going to join them today at Mont Blanc, but when I saw how good the weather was, I couldn't resist and decided to go have a look "Fourmis Rouges". I was very pleasantly surprised that the crack was now dry and the conditions even felt really good. Instead of joining Olaf, Markus and their girlfriend/wife, I spent three another three hours trying "Fourmis Rouges". Still didn't send it,but was quite happy with the session as I had made good progress, making it two moves further several times. Three hours of trying had taken its toll though and I couldn't get to the top. 

Fontainebleau - Cuvier Rempart - Fourmis Rouges 7C (attempts, making progress)

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Saturday, December 28th, 2024

It was extremely cold with a lot of humidity in the air and even some light drizzle now and then.
Had a good time though, with the good company of Olaf (Deppe), Markus (Neher) and wife Kathy, and Lars (Haasis) and wife Simi.
Not very much possible due to the humidity, but "Hot Spring" just went, even though it didn't feel as hot as it would make one think in this weather.

Fontainebleau - 91.1 - Hot Spring (assis) 7A

Wednesday, January 1st, 2025

The forecasted wind for today was promising, but rising temperatures were concerning. When I left home in the morning, it all looked great, but the closer I got to Cuvier Rempart, the more foggy and I let go of most of the hope for topping "Fourmis Rouges" today.
Olaf (Deppe) had other important priorities today, but Lars (Haasis) and Simi were there. It was fun trying "Fourmis Rouges", but the conditions on the boulder were not good enough and the session was worse than the last good one I had a week before, in the sun.
I did, however, get a consolidation prize with a fairly quick ascent of "Ridicule", preceded by Lars doing this small but fun problem.
Tomorrow I'm leaving to Belgium for some family visits until Sunday, so I guess today was the last session of the horrible (weather-wise) Christmas vacation.

Fontainebleau - Cuvier Rempart - Ridicule 7B(7A+)

December 14, 2024 - Staying low among the high.

First, a video from two weeks ago, when the conditions were too bad for the bad slopers of the conventional "Take It Easy (direct)" in Rocher de la Reine. I did, however, get away with a non-conventional version, using a high, very sharp crimp left hand. Conveniently, I called it "Take It Easier".

Fontainebleau - Rocher de la Reine - Take It Easier 7A(7A+)

Last weekend, on Saturday, the conditions weren't too bad later in the day thanks to quite some wind, but I had left the house a bit too early. On top of that, I wasn't feeling in shape and didn't manage to top out anything, besides a 6A at the warmup.
Also last weekend, on Sunday, it rained as good a the whole day, so I only went out for a walk around Dame Jouanne. I mainly wanted to see "Perudo" and on my way there, I did get a glimpse of "Le Plafond". Even though I didn't even walk over to "Le Plafond", but continued straight towards "Perudo", I couldn't stop thinking about finally trying the very popular "Le Plafond" during the whole week. It only made sense for me to finally go try "Le Plafond" this morning. 
"Le Plafond" is a long and very popular roof and besides having a look at it many years ago, I somehow never even tried it. Today, I wanted to at least try it and hopefully get away with a send. One can't do the second without the first, but the first can be done without the second.
It was near freezing this morning, and I took my time to warm up and try all the moves separately. As soon as I had been able to do all of them, I turned on the camera and starting trying the whole thing. Maybe, I should have tried doing some better links first, because I lost a lot of time and energy falling off due to stupid little mistakes. I did end up sending it though, and it felt good. A really beautiful line.

Fontainebleau - Dame Jouanne - Le Plafond 7B+(7B)

Last week, I had also walked by the beautiful steep overhang of "Dévertige" on the top of the hill, and figured that with the time and energy that I still had left, that I would go try it.

I must admit that it looked harder than I expected, because this was almost a sending train just by myself. Just trying to see if I could do the start, I ended up flashing the 7A "Dévertige (direct)". It was so unexpected that I hadn't even bothered to turn on the camera already.
Feeling confident after the flash of the direct version, I turned on the camera and did "Dévertige (gauche)" immediately, on my first attempt.

Fontainebleau - Dame Jouanne - Dévertige (gauche) 7A+

I wasn't really attracted by the longer version, "Dévertige", which traverses all the way to the right, but now that I was there, I decided to give it a go. 
Surprisingly, on my first attempt, I made it all the way to the jug on the right, but missed the easy topout due to a footslip, bad conditions on the top, and not really what to to do.
I took some time to do the topout separately, took a short break and was able to finish it on my second attempt, barely ten minutes after the first one. Unfortunately, the battery of my camera doesn't like the cold and had decided to call it a day in the meantime. Therefor, I only have a video of my first attempt, failing on the topout. Bummer, but so be it.

Fontainebleau - Dame Jouanne - Dévertige 7B (failed topout on the first attempt)

November 30, 2024 - Thumbed up.

The morning started very promising with the sun already out early, but somehow, by the time I left for climbing at around 10h, a dense fog had formed and blocked out the sun completely. I was on my once again to hopefully try "Contrôle A", but once again, even though the top was dry this time, the part to the left of the arete was damp. With the fog, I didn't bother waiting and hoping for it potentially get better, so I reverted to plan B and drove to Buthiers Ouest to check out "Pouce Doudoud", another one of Manuel's (Marqués) new boulders in that small sector that I started trying after doing "Synchronicité" two weeks ago. To my pleasant surprise, it was completely dry and in noticeably good conditions too.  Two weeks ago, I could all moves, except for the last one, a huge dynamic move from a terrible sloper left hand and a weird pinch-like hold right hand, where placing the thumb correctly is key to holding on. 
After a short period of warming up in the moves, I got to the same point as last time, starting from two moves in, and always falling off the last one. I did start cruising through the first part, which allowed me to take slightly more time adjusting my body position for the last move and progressed steadily, coming closer to sticking it each time. Then finally, after again a very minor adjustment, I stuck it. Having started from two moves in, I jumped off and setup the camera for the real deal from the actual start.
Still being only 1°C at that moment, adding those two additional moves at the start made my fingers feel a little more numb by the time I arrived at the last one, which didn't make convenient to repeat it. I kept the focus though, and after a few attempts more, I finally made my way from the start to the top, with frozen toes and fingers, but I made it.
A really nice problem with great moves. Four stars for sure and a thumbs up!

Fontainebleau - Buthiers Ouest - Pouce Doudou 7B+

November 24, 2024 - Insta inspiration.

If you hadn't taken the time to clear the snow off of some boulders on Friday, then the chances were very big that they would be wet on Saturday. I didn't have that chance, so the boulders that I had hoped to try were of course wet. Instead of climbing, I decided to go for a short hike around J.A. Martin with Olaf (Deppe). We did find some dry boulders on our way though and were able to climb a little at least.
It looked lie Tony (Fouchereau) was able to climb and even find good conditions in Drei Zinnen, where he cleaned and opened another boulder behind blue n°6. According to his Instagram post, he thought "L'Arnaque Climatique" could possibly be 7C.
This morning, with the sudden much higher temperature, I really expected all boulders to be soaking wet due to condensation, but I took the chance and went to Drei Zinnen anyway. To my pleasant surprise, it was all dry and there was no sign of condensation, at least not yet.
Before trying "L'Arnaque Climatique", I wanted to try the original deep start of "Close Contact". The deep start adds quite some difficulty, but after some time, I did find a way to make it through and just past the more popular start on the right. It definitely had potential, but after a while, the roof started to become wet from condensation after all. Feeling around some other boulders, it felt similar.
The conditions were starting to become less good, so I hurried to try "L'Arnaque Climatique". Lifting up from the ground and doing the first move seemed to be the crux, but it only took a handful of attempt to get going. A few slip offs due to bad conditions later, I did manage to stick and climb on to the top. In my humble, it felt more like soft 7B+ at most, but nevertheless, a fun problem.

Fontainebleau - Drei Zinnen - L'Arnaque Climatique 7B+(7C)

November 17, 2024 - The one that got known.

When I checked my weather app yesterday evening, there was no rain forecasted for today, but this morning were very grey and looked kind of menacing. As if it could rain any moment. Thinking that it probably wasn't a good time to try harder projects, I decided instead to go to the boulder of "La Chevauchée" in 91.1.
I had done the standing start of "La Chevauchée" way back in 2016, and at that time it was still a very unknown boulder with only a few lines on it. It was so unknown that the now quite popular "La Chevauchée" was still published as "Le Surplomb Inconnu!", and that's how I still had it logged in my ticklist spreadsheet. As written, I had done the standing start back then, and it required quite an effort at that time, even needing the help of my good friend Maarten (Robays) who was there to point the best holds out to me.
Below, a video of that time doing the standing start.

Fontainebleau - 91.1 - La Chevauchée 6C+ (aka "Le Surplomb Inconnu!" back in 2016)

For some reason, even after doing some other lines on that boulder, I never bothered to do the sitstart of "La Chevauchée". A good reason to back for it this morning.
It clearly didn't give me as much trouble as eight years ago, because I did the sitstart on my first warmup attempt of the day.

Fontainebleau - 91.1 - La Chevauchée (assis) 7A(6C+)

Immediately after, I also did the version with an exit more to right, also on my first attempt.

Fontainebleau - 91.1 - La Chevauchée (droite assis) 7A

Being warmed up, I walked over to the main sector of 91.1 to try something harder, but unfortunately, by the time I got there, it had started drizzling. I immediately felt that this was the kind of drizzle that would make everything wet really fast and kept on walking, back the car, passing multiple groups of climbers on my way. By the time I arrived back at the car, I was soaking wet, and so were the surroundings.

November 16, 2024 - In sync.

Last Monday I went back to Buthiers Ouest to try "Synchronicité" again, and even though the conditions were slightly better than the day before, my skin was almost completely through and I again kept on falling on the last move. When I left, I thought that it really felt like a good 7B+ so far.
Determined to finish it, I went back this morning with even better conditions and more skin on my fingertips. My warmup attempt flowed and I felt in sync with the moves, until the last, where I fell off again. Searching for a more controlled way to do the end, I reverted back to using a right toehook when doing the last move, and surprisingly stuck it very controlled. I had tried this same method last week, but somehow there was no way for my toehook to stick and kept slipping out. Now it didn't seem like a problem.
I went for my second attempt of the day, used the toehook and quite easily stuck the last move and mantled up. Now it felt more like 7B.

Fontainebleau - Buthiers Ouest - Synchronicité 7B(7B+)

Afterwards, I was finally able to also try "Pouce Doudou", which was wet last week, but not today. It took some time, but after a while, I was able to do all the moves except for the last one. A huge and quite scary move to a bad sloper. Unfortunately, it's not possible to work out that move separately without a rope, but it did allow me to find a good comfortable sequence up to there. I came very close a few times, but the very bad sloper left hand on the North side of the boulder definitely could use some better conditions. For sure a problem that I will go back for some time soon.
"Appui Coude" on the same boulder, shares the same first move, but stays on the South-Western side of the boulder. I was able to do this with relative ease and was a good way to end today's session.

Fontainebleau - Buthiers Ouest - Appui Coude 6C+(7A)

November 10, 2024 - No milk.

Going to Buthiers Ouest didn't seem to be the smartest idea as not everything was dry enough to try. The boulder with "La Horde Sauvage" was good dry though, and I was able to make quick work of the standing start, doing it on my second attempt.

Fontainebleau - Buthiers Ouest - La Horde Sauvage 7A(7A+)

Immediately after, the sitstart followed too, also on my second attempt.

Fontainebleau - Buthiers Ouest - La Horde Sauvage (assis) 7A+

Then, I spent a lot of time trying "Synchronicité".
The separate moves were quickly worked out, even the last one, which I did several times separately, but I was battling against very bad conditions and fell off that last move almost every attempt.
If the conditions would have been better, I would have certainly made it, but then again, if our cat was a cow, then she would give milk. And we don't even have a cat.
Below, a few of many attempts trying "Synchronicité", which I only posted on Instagram.

Fontainebleau - Buthiers Ouest - Synchronicité 7B(7B+) - Attempts

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