The reason why I chose to go to Maunoury today, was to increase my chances for dry boulders in good conditions.
Just like the days before, the weather was beautiful, but there always remained a light low fog that kept everything humid again, which unfortunately also turned out to be the case in Maunoury.
I decided to simply follow the blue towards the top of the hill and come back the other way, hoping to find some climbable boulders of interest on my way. Looking down from the viewpoint on top of the hill wasn't promising. The light low fog was clearly visible from above.
The low, light fog seen from the top of Maunoury.
Strangely enough, "Rituel", a boulder that is mostly humid and in bad conditions looked quite okay and for the lack of something better, I went for it and sent it on my first attempt.
Fontainebleau - Maunoury - Rituel 7A+
I tried some more harder problems here and there, but the humidity was ever present and made the holds slippery after only one attempt or two.
If 2019 was a splendid year, then keep it going in 2020; if not, than hopefully it will be better from tomorrow on.
Still not the good conditions that I was hoping for, so left to Franchard, more with idea of strolling around and see where I end up.
I had never climbed in Franchard Meyer and neither I did today. After a good walk, I noticed that all boulders are located on the shady North face of the hill and in need for more time to dry.
I decided to walk back through Cuisinière and ended up at "Le Bleurb", which was in surprisingly good conditions compared to most of the other boulders. It has been a project for quite a while, but I never managed to get that final hold.
Somehow, today, I did manage to "bleurb" my way up.
Fontainebleau - Cuisinière - Le Bleurb 7B
The stroll continued via Cuisinière Crête Sud into Franchard Isatis, where I worked my way up in "Free Tibet (assis) / Sissi la Famille". I had the impression doing "bleurb" again.
Fontainebleau - Franchard Isatis - Free Tibet (assis) / Sissi la Famille 7A+
The weather forecast looked promising for good conditions, but the air humidity was still too high all day for it to be true.
Despite the visibly humid conditions, I was packed with two crashpads when I was walking towards Rocher du Potala. I was hoping to try the beautiful, but exposed "Pierre Ponce".
The slopers on the left side hadn't gotten any sun, but were dry and good enough to do some tries and get a feel of the moves. After a few tries though, the slopers were becoming darker with humidity and I had to let them dry out from time to time to keep some friction at least.
Almost two hours later, I had to let go of it, but at least had worked the sequence and kind of determined that I would prefer to have a spot for the dynamic move to the right arete.
I moved over to the nearby boulder of "Samarkand", where I took a longer break and worked out "Samarkand (rallongé)", which I topped at the end, with the tips of my fingers until the end.
Fontainebleau - Rocher du Potala - Samarkand (rallongé) 7B+
The sky was grey and even though the sun came peaking through from time to time, the conditions didn't look very promising.
As I had to go to Fontainebleau to buy some new climbing shoes, I decided to pass by Apremont Brûlis on the way back home.
Indeed, no top conditions at all, but the few boulders that were completely dry were very doable; such as "Contusion", which I was able to top on my second attempt.
Last Sunday afternoon I had spent quite a good time in J.A. Martin again, trying a lot but not topping out. I didn't bother much, as it I had been bouldering after all that day, but still, I was eager to back today.
The sky was clear, but there wasn't that much wind, so it took a while before the morning humidity dried more or less out. I was patient and arrived at J.A. Martin around noon.
I finished my climbing session Sunday trying "PlanetSolar", giving it a lot, but I couldn't find enough force left in me to finish that mantle at the end. On the other hand, I had worked out the sequence of the first part and I still remembered it well.
I was pleased to top it out on my second attempt already this time. An easy looking small boulder, but don't be fooled.
Fontainebleau - J.A. Martin - PlanetSolar 7A+(7B)
The conditions on the nearby boulder of "Contact" were surprisingly good and as "L'Arête au Contact" was one of the other problems that I couldn't finish on Sunday, I went back to the car to get a second crashpad to boost up my confidence on this exposed problem.
Opened originally as a sitstart which isn't hard at all to get into the stand, I decided to go for a standing start first to be able to more easily work out the sequence of the second, hard, part.
I was so filled with joy when topping out the standing start, that I decided to keep the video as it deserves to be a variation on its own, according to me.
Fontainebleau - J.A. Martin - L'Arête au Contact (debout) 7B+
Now that I had worked out my working sequence, the sitstart followed immediately after.
Fontainebleau - J.A. Martin - L'Arête au Contact 7B+(7C)
It had rained hard until deep in the night, but there was also a lot of wind and the conditions didn't look impossible this morning.
To reduce the risk for disappointment, I was patient and did some other things before finally leaving for J.A. Martin again.
It was already almost 11h, I think, when I arrived at the "Travaux Forcés" boulder near the top of the hill and informed Jean-Pierre (Roudneff) about the conditions being not too bad.
There were still a few lines that I wanted to try on this boulder and I ended up doing all of them. In a way, they all felt like just below the proposed relative grades, but I know that I always feel stronger and much more motivated after a week without real climbing, so difficult to judge.
Nevertheless, I had fun with every one of them and must admit that I can feel it now. It was quite some work after all.
I started with "Le Bouclier (assis)".
Fontainebleau - J.A. Martin - Le Bouclier (assis) 7B(7A+)
I needed some more time for "Travaux Forcés (droite assis)", but all in all it was quite quick.
Fontainebleau - J.A. Martin - Travaux Forcés (droite assis) 7C
Followed by "Travaux Forcés (assis)" after a short break.
Fontainebleau - J.A. Martin - Travaux Forcés (assis) 7B+(7B)
My fingers really needed a rest after that, so I joined Jean-Pierre, who was inventorying some new still unpublished boulders a bit lower downhill.
Unfortunately, we had a couple of short light rain showers in between but still ended up both doing a sitstart of 21 red, which I believe is a different method for "Plat et Replat (assis)" and would fit with the grade.
Fontainebleau - J.A. Martin - Plat et Replat (assis) 7A
The past week it was either wet, already dark, or I was working. Not much left for climbing.
Finally this late afternoon, I had about half an hour of daylight left when I parked at J.A. Martin on my way home from work. It wasn't much time, but I knew where I wanted to be and headed straight for it.
A few variations on "Travaux Forcés", up on the hill above "Contact" had been opened already months ago, but only got published now.
Still in a hurry, I managed to make a very quick ascent of "Travaux Forcés (droite)", worked out the moves of its sitstart, but the sun was down before I could do anything more.
Hopefully tomorrow.
Fontainebleau - J.A. Martin - Travaux Forcés (droite) 7A
Same conditions like yesterday; dense fog and humidity, but this time however, there was a slight breeze to be felt. I had to hurry though, because my weather app predicted a 60% chance of rain starting around noon.
Not wanting to take any risk and loose time driving, I kept it close to the home and went to J.A. Martin to try the recently published "Orage Magnétique". Located on the big boulder to the right of "Contact", I knew that it wasn't immediately surrounded by trees; something that wouldn't have been good this morning, because the melting frost felt like raindrops when standing under trees.
"Orage Magnétique" was opened not long ago and proposed as a 7B(7B+), but already downgraded to 7A+(7A) by the few repeaters.
I must admit that it took some time before I found a method and executing the moves in the overhang felt much harder than I expected. I agree that it is not 7B(7B+), but it rather felt like hard 7A+ when the moves flow fluently.
A much nicer problem than it looks like at first.
Fontainebleau - J.A. Martin - Orage Magnétique 7A+(7A)
The conditions yesterday and the day before were perfect, but it was only today and tomorrow that I could take some days off work. I didn't mind it that much because all week, my weather app predicted light clouds, some sun and temperatures just above freezing. Ideal conditions.
This morning though, there was a thick fog, but according to my weather app, the fog would make place for sun around 11am, and even earlier around Fontainebleau. I waited it out for a while and left at 10h30 towards Rocher Saint-Germain, just outside the city of Fontainebleau.
The fog was still dense, but I kept a positive mind as the boulders that I could see looked dry and the friction on them was even pretty good when I briefly put my hand on them. The air was still so humid though, that the surface soon turned dark when warmed up by my hands.
I saw nearly every boulder in the long Saint-Germain area and even tried some here and there, but the air humidity was way too high for the problems that I wanted to try.
All in all, a couple of hours later, I decided to drive to the Apremont areas, hoping to find some better conditions there. Even though the fog was a bit less dense here and there, not being able to see any boulder of the Cuvier Rempart area when driving towards Barbizon, worried me. Especially that it was already near 2pm.
The situation in Apremont Est was not much better, but I found good conditions on the boulder of "La Conque". Being higher up the hill and in the open, it was struck by a very light cold breeze which made the friction near perfect.
The friction was so good that I sent it on my second attempt.
Fontainebleau - Apremont Est - La Conque 7A
The sitstart followed immediately after.
Fontainebleau - Apremont Est - La Conque (assis) 7A+
I doubted for a while, but against better knowing, I decided to have a look at "Parenthèse" in the nearby area of Apremont Vallon de Sully. I had some good attempts in it a few weeks ago, even falling off the last move a couple of times, but couldn't finish it then.
Knowing that the boulder is not quite in the open and with the ever present thick fog, didn't give me good chances, but the desire and hope had taken over.
As I had feared, the boulder was in worse conditions than last time, but still doable, so put on my shoes again and gave it some tries.
I still had the moves in me, but after every attempt, the chalk on my fingertips was completely gone. Somehow though, when I was going for my last attempt of the day, I managed my work my way up and top the beautiful "Parenthèse". Some very delicate climbing at the end.
Really glad to have done this one!
Fontainebleau - Apremont Vallon de Sully - Parenthèse 7B
Everything was soaking wet when I looked out of my bedroom window this morning. The rain last night was predicted, but I had hoped that the wind that I felt yesterday evening was going to last until today and blow everything dry again. However, there was hardly any wind anymore and the light drizzle that wet my face when I went for a quick shopping, took away nearly all the last bits of hope there was still left.
Nevertheless, I still met up with Pieter just before noon at J.A. Martin and we left for a walk around, leaving all our climbing stuff in the car. The drizzle had stopped in the meantime, but had made everything even more soaking wet.
I showed Pieter some of the recent boulders in the East part of the area, where we couldn't ignore the fact that some Southern orientated boulders were not as wet as the boulders we saw near the bottom of the hill. Pieter found it a little too incredible to believe when I mentioned that there could be slight chance to find some dry boulders in the "L'Étrave" sector, but we still headed almost immediately in that direction, where we ended up finding enough dry boulders to go back to our cars and come back with our crashpads and climbing shoes.
Most of the interesting boulders there were dry and actually in very good conditions thanks to an icy cold breeze.
Despite all the wetness, it ended up being a very successful afternoon with mainly repetitions for me, such as the ultra classic and beautiful "L'Étrave" (7B+), "Le Ninja Blanc Bec" (6C+), "Le Toit du Ninja Blanc" (7A) and we finished with a likely first ascent of "Yoshi & Yuki (direct debout)", giving it about 7A.
Fontainebleau - J.A. Martin - Yoshi & Yuki (direct debout) 7A
