May 23, 2021 - Good old normal.

Sunday, fairly nice weather and still I decided to go to Franchard. I admit, I enjoyed the crowd for once. I climbed alone the whole time, as usual, but it was great to see other people, mostly hikers and families with kids enjoying the beauty of the forest. Many groups of friends and family were pick-nicking. Most didn't wear masks (something that I also refuse to do when being outside), and it was beautiful to see smiles on uncovered faces, greeting each other as they crossed paths. It's almost surreal to think that this totally normal behavior has become part of the expression 'good old times'. Yes, I am one of those that will never accept the 'new normal' as there is nothing normal to it.

I wanted to start with the recently opened "Snakes & Ladders", but there was no location description other than it being in Franchard Ermitage. A quite wide-spread area, and I had no clue where to start looking for it first, so I just followed a hunch that I had and miraculously found it pretty fast, well hidden in a chaos of boulders with no obvious path leading to it.
Flashed it, albeit not without some luck. Rather on the soft side for the proposed grade, but nevertheless, a nice problem, opened by Jason Kester.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Ermitage - Snakes & Ladders 7B

In another part of Franchard Ermitage, I went looking for the big roof of "Le Toit". 
Maybe I was getting tired, but this felt harder than 7A+ and might as well be 7B if you ask me. Beautiful problem though!

Fontainebleau - Franchard Ermitage - Le Toit 7A+