Thursday, December 1, 2016

December 01, 2016 - Layers.

It was still freezing on the parking of Isatis when I met up with Jean-Pierre (Roudneff) at 11h30, but it didn't feel too cold as long as I wore my layers.
My coat, two sweaters, two T-shirts, two pants and long sock up to the knees. They did the trick.

Yesterday evening I arranged with JP to go try the recently opened "Je te Veux" on the same boulder as "Le Mur des Lamentations", the round arete right next to "Gnossienne".
It's quite high and actually had been opened by Philippe (Le Denmat) a while ago, but he did it with a rope and repeated it without just two weeks ago.
A second layer of crashpads and at least one spotter add to the motivation to try it.

JP knows a lot of people and soon we became a group of five and surrounded "Je te Veux" with two layers of pads.
It felt safe and was the first to try.
Unfortunately I forgot the beta, found myself stuck on the huge sloper and had to jump off.
Julien (dont know his last name) flashed it, improvising his own beta to the top.
I followed immediately after and did it on my second attempt, using the original beta.
The encouragement helped. The footholds are tiny and the top is one big bad sloper. A beautiful line!
JP needed some more tries and felt unsure at the top, but our cheering and encouragement helped him up too.
The conditions were again perfect!

Fontainebleau - Franchard Isatis - Je te Veux 7A




Another problem that JP had proposed was the crimpsy wall "La Grande Allonge" on the backside of the boulder.
Something that I never noticed before.
We all needed max two attempts. 

Fontainebleau - Franchard Isatis - La Grande Allonge 7A




We then went our separate ways and I joined Koen (de Schepper) at "El Poussah".
It's a classic problem, but I only got to trying it once last Summer. The holds didn't feel certain enough back then and I never dared to do the move towards the first sloper.

Now, with the good conditions and knowing that Koen was there spotting, I did the whole thing on my first attempt.
A very nice problem and now I understand why it's so popular. I might go back one day to try the extended version.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Isatis - El Poussah 7A




It felt good coming back home in the warmth and take off some layers.
My body needs a short rest now but tomorrow I have to go back to work so that won't be a problem.

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