February 09, 2019 - Follow the wind.

There still fell quite some rain during the night and even though the streets were still wet when I left home, I was quite confident that the strong wind and the peaking sun sometimes would do a good job.
It was only a matter of knowing where the wind would reach the boulders the most.
At the base of the hills and between the trees, the boulders at Apremont were still wet, but knowing how the boulder of "Soleil du Nord" is orientated towards the sun and the direction of the wind, gave me a good feeling about walking to the top. I had even taken an extra crashpad for it.
The higher I got, the drier the boulders were and "Soleil du Nord" was even in very good conditions. There where the boulders were dry, they felt sticky.

Still remembering the moves from when I did the variations yesterday, I quickly cruised through the first part, but almost got shut down by the very hard topout on very bad slopers.
I had to fight hard, but it paid off in the end.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Ouest - Soleil du Nord 7B(7B+)

Needing a small break, I thought about some nearby boulders that would definitely be dry with this wind, and decided to go and try "P'tit Oeuf (assis)" in Apremont Vallon de la Solitude. Not very nearby, but well worth the walk.
I still kind of remembered the moves from when I did the standing start almost a year ago, but was still surprised with how quickly I was able to tick this beauty off.

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

I briefly tried the nearby "Globe Climbing", but as it didn't feel too good for my back, I quickly stopped.
There were too many people around the boulder of "Féérite" in Apremont Fond des Gorges, so I decided to walk back and try something in Apremont Butte aux Dames instead.

Unfortunately the big key hold, required for the first moves of "L'Étoile Noire (assis)" was wet, so I was forced to turn to "Bélouga (gauche)", one of the last lines that I hadn't done yet on that floating boulder.
I had never tried it before due to bad conditions, but now it was perfectly dry and it looked like I was going to flash it without too much effort. Nothing could be less true.
It took me about twenty minutes and many tries to finally work my way through the hard slopey end.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Butte aux Dames - Bélouga (gauche) 7A

All in all a very good day with unexpectedly good conditions. 

It was well worth the long beautiful walk around a big part of Apremont!