March 05, 2016 - Saddam is dead.

Not much dry boulders around today, especially for those who are impatient, like me.
The weather did get better later in the day, but conditions were never really good. Too much rain in a short time and not enough wind.
Add to that the small, short rain showers here and there and everything simply stays wet or humid.

I left this morning at 9 am to La Foret de la Commanderie, more widely known as the Elephant areas.
A couple of days ago they published some problems from forgotten areas behind Elephant, Elephant Nord and Mont Simonet.
One of them, Mont Blanc, I knew already. I had visited it together with Neil (Hart) last year in Spring, so nothing really new, except that the problems we saw then now have a name and a confirmed grade.
However, I should put some question marks after 'confirmed'.

The other area, Bois d'Hyver was new to me, and the roof I wanted to try there, "Lame Fatale" was a little bit too exposed for its height to climb on my own.
A three meter high roof with a big boulder underneath it is not something I will try on my own every day, especially not in these humid conditions.
Anyway, I know where it all is now, so I can find it easily back again another time.
Got already a couple of kilometers of walking on the counter by now.

Off to the supermarket near Nemours, where I noticed on the parking that I forgot my wallet.
Back home to get my wallet and off to the supermarket in Avon so I could pass by the climbing shop in Fontainebleau. I noticed that I need new climbing shoes ... again.
I took the road via Barbizon so I could stop first in Apremont Butte aux Dames.

Apremont Butte aux Dames is a small area, doesn't dry that quickly, but it's right next to the parking and pretty calm.
Of course most boulders were wet, but I did find a nice pillar near the top of the hill that was dry enough and asking for it to be climbed.
Two ways to climb the pillar.
"Le Pilier de sa Dame" does justice to its grade.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Butte aux Dames - Le Pilier de sa Dame 6C+(6C)

The other version, "Le Pilier de sa Dame (gauche)" is not a very nice variation and I probably wouldn't have spent a lot of time in it were it not that it was the most dry boulder around.

I don't like it to have to avoid touching an object that lies in the line of the problem.

Another issue was that this was pretty morpho too.

Before I started recording, I did have to try the morpho move quite a lot before I was able to use only the fingertips of both hands and being completely stretched out to be able to reach the next hold.

The topout then was on slopers that were in really bad conditions due to humidity.

All of this a good recipe to make it an ugly climb to the top. Mostly because of the climber.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Butte aux Dames - Le Pilier de sa Dame (gauche) 6C+(7A)