Monday, April 2, 2018

April 02, 2018 - Chasing solitude.

The sky looked grey at first this morning, but a quick look at my weather app confirmed that it was going to clear up soon and that temperatures of 17°C to 18°C can be expected.
Good weather on Easter Monday always equals huge crowds in the forest, but when I parked at the buvette of Apremont this morning at 9h30, the place was still deserted.
It stained when I had to let go of "P'tit Oeuf" on Saturday, but my mind was set on finishing it today, so I set off to Apremont Vallon de la Solitude.
I wanted to be there early already, because on Easter weekend, even there, solitude is far from guaranteed.

Already on my first attempt, I felt that my chances were much higher now.
The slopers felt stickier and I definitely felt stronger as opposed to last Saturday.
I stuck the crux move to the arete faster than I expected but felt great relief when I did.
Very nice, but though problem!

Fontainebleau - Apremont Vallon de la Solitude - P'tit Oeuf 7B(7B+)




In the meantime I could hear distant voices coming closer.
Many people had reached the far end of Apremont by now and it probably wouldn't take long before some of them would continue on to here.
Before leaving the area, I spent a short but nice time doing the sitstart of "Deltaroc".
Some beautiful delicate climbing!

Fontainebleau - Apremont Vallon de la Solitude - Deltaroc (assis) 7A




With the first groups of climbing having arrived in Apremont Vallon de la Solitude also by now, I fled deeper into Apremont towards Apremont Mare aux Biches.
Only a handful of boulders, but solitude for sure and a couple of problems I still wanted to try.
The only one I was able to finish there though was the fun but daring jump "Made in Januel" which I flashed with relative ease.
It's a matter of daring to go for it. But very fun the least!

Fontainebleau - Apremont Mare aux Biches - Made in Januel 7A+




Even on a sunny and warm Easter Monday, I managed to spend a few hours of climbing in complete solitude.
Walking past the popular sectors on my way back, it was a bit ironic to see the crowds almost standing in line, waiting for their turn.

Driving home, I stopped at Bois Rond to try "Spider Bloc".
No solitude at all, but I have this problem quite a few times and it was only after seeing a video of Maxime Baroud climbing it, that I knew what I did wrong.
Using his method, I managed to finally tick this very nice problem off, but still it felt hard.
Quite a different atmosphere also, compared to the one I was in before.

Fontainebleau - Bois Rond - Spider Bloc 7A+


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