It was only a very quick and short stop at Franchard Hautes Plaines this evening on my way home from work, but I wanted to make it last.
"Haute Torsion" is a long quite easy traverse with a quite hard mantle crux at the end. I always fell off that mantle when I tried it the last time, but that was already a couple of years ago. I figured that it wouldn't give me too much trouble now.
Besides falling off the mantle once and doubting on my second attempt, it went quite smooth.
A nice traverse that I do enjoy climbing.
I didn't know what I still had left in me this morning, but the motivation to climb was definitely still there.
As I didn't want to stay away for too long but still stay under the radar, I decided to go and try "Distorsion" on an isolated boulder at the outskirts of the nearby area of J.A. Martin. I still wanted to do a bike ride with the kids in the afternoon, so I left early.
It was still quite calm when I parked the car, but even at the isolated boulder of "Distorsion", other people never seemed to be far away. I had the boulder all for me though, so I took my time to work out the moves separately.
There was doubt if I would have enough skin left to be able to finish it completely today when I fell off the last move when coming from the start, but it turned out fine in the end.
Fontainebleau - J.A. Martin - Distorsion 7B+(7C)
On the other side of the same boulder, the beautiful overhang of "Changement de Forme" just begs to be climbed.
I sat down for what seemed the most logic, and easily flashed my way through it. This felt like easy 6C at most, maybe even 6B, depending on your reach.
It turned out that I had a somewhat extended version of the easier direct version. Nevertheless, the line was still beautiful.
It seems that the harder version starts even lower with fragile dirty holds, but these went completely unnoticed by me.
Fontainebleau - J.A. Martin - Changement de Forme (plus où moins direct)
It was a great Easter weekend! The weather was beautiful, maybe too hot at times, but with the right mindset it was perfect.
Besides passing by the overly crowded carparks and seeing climbers walking on the streets everywhere nearby them, the whole weekend we succeeded in staying under the radar and barely saw a person.
It was a bit later than yesterday when Pieter and I met at the church of Noisy-sur-École and it was already getting quite warm.
We wanted to try the hidden gem "Muramasa", but no matter how hard we tried, we simply got kicked in the but by it. Once again a beauty opened by David Evrard, but once again extremely hard graded, especially that one.
After being shut down by "Muramasa", we decided to move to the isolated and unknown area of Boissy Le Goulot, where we were completely alone again. We hadn't seen any other climber during the whole Easter weekend. Quite an achievement on itself.
In Boissy Le Goulot, I was able to repeat the beautiful "Flying Lotus", soon followed by Pieter.
In "La Chamoniarde", however, I couldn't do a lot, but Pieter showed his crack climbing skills, making a fist and locking it tight.
I was truly impressed when he was able to top it out. I for once, had to let it pass.
Fontainebleau - Boissy Le Goulot - La Chamoniarde 7A
I was truly impressed when he was able to top it out. I for once, had to let it pass.
Pieter is here again, but as we wanted to avoid the big masses on this infamously crowded Easter weekend, we had to kind of play hide and seek.
We decided to go to the unknown area of La Charbonnière, at only five minutes walking distance from my house in Noisy-sur-École, so when Pieter arrived at my house, we left from there on foot.
I had been to La Charbonnière already quite some times, but only the last time I was able to find the magnificent and impressive boulder of "Shogun". That was already several years ago and couldn't do or dare to do a lot on that boulder so close to home.
Being so impressed by this huge boulder, I didn't dare to back alone to try some of the lines on it.
With Pieter by my side, I was confident, but we both needed a lot of time to build up the trust in the easiest line on that boulder, "Tanuki". Graded 6C+(7A), but opened by David Evrard, so as usaual very tightly and hard graded, but yet again, a great find by him.
"Tanuki" felt very hard for the grade and the climbing and moves are just beautiful from start to end.
Pieter's ascent followed immediately after mine, but having received good beta from me, he did climb it much nicer.
Fontainebleau - La Charbonnière - Tanuki 6C+(7A)
After having built up that confidence, it was time to try "Rönin", of which the landing was even sketchier than for "Tanuki".
Unlike me, Pieter wasn't able to finish this one, but I'm not sure if this was harder than "Tanuki". It did require even more confidence and especially plenty of confidence in a quasi non-existing foothold on which you have to put all the weight on relative height above a bad landing.
Again a beautiful line!
Fontainebleau - La Charbonnière - Rönin 7A
Now that I had done both "Tanuki" and "Rönin", it was time to put some serious effort in the even more beautiful line of "Shogun". This one starts in "Tanuki", traverses to the left with very hard crimps and goes with a big dynamic move to "Rönin" in which it finishes.
After quite some tries, there was only one move left that I could't do, and that was the dynamic move, or the preparation for it. This feels really had, but is definitely something we will go back for.
On our way to the boulder with "Beauty Full", we passed through the ever returning purple flower fields, that grow in masses in that part of the forest. The smell was marvelous.
Beautiful Spring view at La Charbonnière.
At the boulder of "Beauty Full", we both managed to flash the quite easy "Bras Cassés", but weren't able to finish "Beauty Full". We were out of power.
Fontainebleau - La Charbonnière - Bras Cassés 7A
On the way back, it felt strange to realise that it is actually Easter weekend. There are probably thousands of people visiting the forest these days, but we didn't see a single person.
Tomorrow will be hide and seek again and I know another perfect hiding spot.
What started with a dense fog this morning on the way to work, ended with beautiful and warm weather on the way back in the evening. A good moment for a quick stop at Apremont Ouest.
The car park of the areas that I passed by, were completely full already, and also at the buvette of Apremont, cars were parked already quite far back towards Barbizon.
This is very exceptional for a normal Wednesday, so with the good weather forecast for the Easter weekend, it promises to be a very packed and crowded this year. More than previous years, I have the impression.
I didn't have much time, so I just stopped at one of the first boulders of the area, the one with "Saotoubi", which I was able to flash without much effort.
Fontainebleau - Apremont Ouest - Saotoubi 7A(6C+)
The starting crimp of the sitstart however, gave me a big deep split in the skin of my right index finger after only a few tries. I hope it grows back fast and good enough to get through the weekend!
It seems that the way I climbed "Aplats du Jour (direct)" in Bois Rond Auberge last week, was nearly a bad beta version of its left variation that I had done just before. It turns out that the high crimps that I used on the left for my left hand and a toehook was eliminated.
This does make it an eliminate and could explain why it felt soft for the grade.
I went back there after work today, joined by Cee, who is still on holiday here and decided to come along.
It only took a handful of tries before I was able to top out "Aplats du jour (direct)", not using the big crimp on the left this time. However, I still cannot make more than a (soft) 7A+ out of it.
Fontainebleau - Bois Rond Auberge - Aplats du Jour (direct) 7B
Cee was working in "Didgeridoo" and after showing him how it was done, after quite some tries, he got really close. This is one that he will tick off sooner than later.
I don't think I would have gone to Beauvais Hameau quickly by myself, but as Cee (Desmet) and his wife Giorgia are around and they proposed some options, amongst them, Beauvais Hameau drew most of my attention. The boulder of "Métamorphose" in particular.
It was raining lightly when I left this morning and it didn't stop until I arrived at the site and waited for Cee and Giorgia to arrive.
Just before they arrived, it stopped raining, but the streets were wet and it didn't look like there would be a lot climbing done in the first hour.
By the time we found where we wanted to be, the boulder with Métamorphose, it was already dry again.
"Métamorphose" was the only boulder of interest to me in the area, so I was ready to go.
While Cee and Giorgia were warming up in some circuits a bit further down the area, I took my took to work out the standing start. It felt hard to start, but all in all, it didn't take very long to finish it.
Scary topout though.
I needed some time again to work out the moves from the sitstart into the stand, but as soon as I got the hang of those, it only took me another two attempts to top this beauty out.
It doesn't happen very often, but this sitstart added some very nice moves and make it a four star problem for me.
I must admit that I was quite spooked when I slid off near the top as the landing is quite exposed, but luckily it turned out fine tis time.
I can really recommend this one!
Had a nice morning and start of the afternoon in Rocher du Télégraphe, but could only finish "Les Braqueuses".
Came very close to finishing the sitstart, but the skin of my fingers decided differently.
Fontainebleau - Rocher du Télégraphe - Les Braqueuses 7B
I really have no inspiration to write down a lot and I want to go to bed early anyway, so this will be very short.
After not having climbed during the workweek, I was glad to finally have some time after work today. A time well spent, all alone around Bois Rond.
First I wanted to try the new problems "Aplats du Jour" and "Aplats du Jour (direct)" in Bois Rond Auberge. Both problems didn't take me long to finish and are quite on the soft side for their respective grade.
For both versions, the start is very morpho, but a start with a small jump to the sloper on the right is possible and doesn't change the difficulty.
"Aplats du Jour" required a few tries to stick the swing to the left.
Fontainebleau - Bois Rond Auberge - Aplats du Jour 7A
"Aplats du Jour (direct)" only needed two attempts.
Fontainebleau - Bois Rond Auberge - Aplats du Jour (direct) 7B
From Bois Rond Auberge, I wanted to take a shortcut to Bois Rond, which seemed to be much closer than I had expected. Instead of the five minute walk that I expected, I only needed one.
This gave me more than enough time to work in "La Dent Fer (assis)" and tick it off too.
Despite the swearing, I really enjoyed this problem that has some very nice moves in it.
Fontainebleau - Bois Rond - La Dent Fer (assis) 7B
