Especially those that I looked at years ago, wondering how it even could be possible to do certain moves in them.
"Vandale" in Rocher Cailleau is one of them.
I still remember it as if it was yesterday when I saw the boulder in real life for the first time.
It was on the 16th of April 2013. I know, because it was together with Klaas (Willems) and Igor (Depoorter) who had "Vandale" as a project and Igor sent it that day.
I remember watching Igor do that first move, thinking it was impossible for me to do.
When I tried it out of curiosity, I couldn't even get my butt off the ground, let alone let go of the left hand and do what seemed like a huge impossible move.
A little bit more than a year ago, I had done the crouching start of "Vandale" with relative ease, and having skipped only the first move, I knew that I only had to work on that one. The hardest one of the whole original problem.
I wrote 'original problem', because many videos unfortunately show a wrong start with only the right hand in the pocket under the roof and a pinch on the left with the left hand. Still a hard start, but it makes the first move to the better ledge much easier.
From that position, it didn't take me long to to reach for the better ledge, but that's not how the problem was opened by Christophe (Laumone). It was opened with both hands in the pocket under the roof, which makes the first move substantially harder.
Last year I had spent a few short sessions just trying the first move, but in the rare cases where I was able to lift my butt, stabilise and touch the edge, I never succeeded in grabbing the better ledge.
I let it go for a while, forgot about it somehow, but last week on Friday morning, I suddenly felt this urge to go and try the first move of "Vandale" again when I passed by it on my way to work.
That evening after work, I don't know what I did differently, but suddenly I was able to block enough to stabilise well, take the slopey edge and grab on to the better ledge above.
Bram (Honorez), who had joined me that evening, watched me fall off the before last move twice, but I felt too tired to finish it.
However, knowing that I could do the first move multiple times in a row now, gave me confidence, and I was determined to come back soon.
I went back last Wednesday evening, with wrecked skin from the last session, and I was immediately able to do the first move again.
My attempts went really well, I fell off the last move one time, but I still had enough energy left to go for it again a couple of times.
Unfortunately, it was so cold that after a while, my skin cracked on several fingers, up to the point that on some places even tape couldn't stop the holds from being covered with blood stains.
Even though I was quite sure that any of the next attempts would be successful, I had to let it go for the next time.
It sucked big time and the days after, I couldn't stop thinking about "Vandale".
Yesterday evening, super motivated, I arrived at "Vandale" after work, but the temperature had gone up and the humidity in the air had condensed the boulder completely. The holds were soaked.
I looked at the weather forecast and saw that my best chances would be the morning after. This morning.
I woke up early and the first thing that I did was checking the weather forecast. 50% chance of rain from 11h on.
I hurried to get up, had breakfast and arrived at the boulder at 9h10. Looking at the blue spots in the sky, I knew had more than enough time for a good session.
Surprisingly, the boulder was perfectly dry and in much better conditions than I feared at first.
After a short warm up, I was able to do the first move on my first attempt, but was doing something wrong to be able to match my second hand on the ledge comfortably.
After falling off the last move again, I realised that it wasn't a matter of power anymore at that point, but more of how friction you still have left after all those moves.
I had to perfection my sequence somehow and watched a video of myself doing the crouching start, which revealed that I was making a couple of mistakes each time.
I corrected my sequence where necessary and immediately it felt more fluent.
I sent "Vandale" a few attempts after.
My skin was completely vandalised, but I felt truly happy that I was able to send "Vandale", a true beauty!
Fontainebleau - Rocher Cailleau - Vandale 7C
By coincidence, I bumped into Christophe (Laumone) at our local supermarket an hour later, and with some pride I told him that I sent his "Vandale" masterpiece just moments ago.
He told me, by that way, that the pocket under the roof has partly broken off and that it was easier to hang onto when he opened it.
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