It rained all day yesterday, but this morning it had stopped. It was still wet outside, but there was a strong wind, which was promising. I did some work around the house to give it some time to dry and left home late in the morning. Apparently, there was rain forecasted around Barbizon and Fontainebleau, so I decided to go the nearby quick drying area of 91.1.
Knowing that the overhang of "La Serpe d'Or (assis)" hardly gets wet and that the rest of the boulder dries really quick, I wanted to try that one. The tendon in my right arm gave me some trouble though, so warmed up by doing a sitstart of the orange n°32 problem, "Le Trou d'Or". Being the same hard sitstart of "La Serpe 'd'Or (assis)", I think that this could be around 7A+.
Sitstart with the undercling right hand and a sidepull left hand, reach for the big pocket left hand and exit in 32 Orange. A logical line.
Fontainebleau - 91.1 - Le Trou d'Or (assis droite) 7A+
I couldn't make it through "La Serpe d'Or (assis)", so I ended up moving to the "Le Bowling" boulder of which I managed to the direct version, "Le Bowling (direct)". With all the small pockets in that boulder, it almost looks like a Swiss cheese.
With freezing temperatures during the night and a very low air humidity earlier this week, the climbing conditions seemed optimal. After noticing that they predict rain from Friday on, I took a day off work today, I wanted to have my piece of the pie and profit from the good conditions before they would turn bad again. I could have gone back to "Gengis Khan", but I feared for the split in my right middle finger, which wasn't fully healed yet, and I didn't want to spend most of my time at the same boulder again, so I chose to go to Gorges du Houx Petit Paradis. Not necessarily to try some of the new boulders that have been published earlier this week, but it was thanks to the new publications that I was reminded about what other boulders that I still had on my to-do list. It was still -2°C when I left home, but I could sense that the air was less dry than earlier this week. I figured that I had missed the best part of the week, but nevertheless, it wasn't going to be bad, rather on the contrary. While walking through the forest though, the treetops that caught some of the morning sun were dripping mildly from the dew. It wasn't very much, but enough for me to hope that the boulders that I wanted to try were not getting wet from it. Walking through the forest early in the morning on a regular working day always has some kind of magic feel to it. The forest is still waking up and there is nobody around. It has some kind of serene touch to it, a paradise for those who are fond of it.
I wanted to start with "Cambrure Divine", and when I arrived, I remembered why I never dared to try this one on my own. The landing is quite exposed with big stones right under the roof. I didn't take two crashpads, but I did think of taking the big Mondo pad, so I tried to make the landing as safe as possible in case I would fall out of the roof. Being confident in what I am capable of and with conditions that were very good, it didn't take long to work my way up. A boulder that really fits my style, or at least, that's how I climbed it. If I can use toehooks instead of heelhooks, than my choice is quickly made.
Fontainebleau - Gorges du Houx Petit Paradis - Cambrure Divine 7B
The sitstart followed on my first attempt after a short rest. Maybe a bit morpho to reach the right hand crimp under the roof, but just doable for me.
Fontainebleau - Gorges du Houx Petit Paradis - Cambrure Divine (assis) 7B(7B+)
I wanted to try some other problems than "Poisson d'Avril" on that huge boulder, but as the underclings under the small roof were humid, or even wet, I didn't have much choice but to go for "Poisson d'Avril" after all. Something that I didn't regret, because that problem is beautiful.
Fontainebleau - Gorges du Houx Petit Paradis - Poisson d'Avril 7A(7A+)
Also that sitstart went on my first attempt following a short break after the standing start. Not much harder than the stand, but the sitstart is a logical one.
Fontainebleau - Gorges du Houx Petit Paradis - Poisson d'Avril (assis) 7A+(7B)
I ended with the newly published "Sous la Cambrure", which I found easily by following my own intuition. The location description on bleau.info mentioned that it's 100m opposite and below "Cambrure Divine", but in fact it is about 50m behind and below the latter. Basically, North of "Cambrure Divine". I used the same starting for the hands as Guillaume Joubert did when doing the first ascent, but I was able to find other foot placement, making it probably on the soft side for the proposed grade.
Fontainebleau - Gorges du Houx Petit Paradis - Sous la Cambrure 7A+
Yesterday I had to start working a few hours earlier as usual, but this allowed me to stop earlier too, giving me the chance to go for a climb before it was dark. There was a lot of fog in the morning, but the afternoon was sunny and the conditions on "Gengis Khan" were not too bad. Unfortunately, the holds started feeling damp after about an hour, and even though I came so close to a send, I had to give up. The conditions were only getting worse after each attempt and I again had a split in the tip of my left middle finger. Before leaving though, I cleaned the slopers with some water, hoping that it will allow for better friction next time.
This morning, to my pleasant surprise, even though the sky was grey with clouds, there was no fog and the ground was dry. With my left finger tips being badly cut by the small crimp left hand in "Gengis Khan", I decided to not to go back to it and went to the Les Béorlots area instead. I felt like trying "Égérie sans Vergogne" for some reason, despite knowing that going to that North facing steep overhang was big risk for being a boulder in bad conditions. I had some other boulders in the back in of my mind for in the worst case. Walking on the sandy horse path towards the boulder, I noticed a group of people with horse in the distance, right near where the boulder is. Nothing unusual for Les Béorlots, were it not that the group wasn't moving and just staying where they were. I didn't think too much of it, for all I knew, they were probably taking a break. It turned out though that one of the female horse riders had fallen off her horse and couldn't get up anymore, as they told me, it was even that bad that they had to call for rescue and they were waiting for the fire brigade/ambulance.
They arrived with a 4x4 all terrain vehicle just before I started climbing and immediately took care of the woman, laying her in a better positions and stabilizing her back. They also covered her with a thermo blanket while discussing how to get her out of the forest safely. It was obvious that the woman wasn't to leave there by herself, her injuries seemed to be too sensitive and there was a realistic possibility that she broke something in her back. It was in any case bad enough for the care workers to call for a helicopter, which unfortunately wasn't able to come due to circumstances that weren't clear to me. Instead some of the care takers started looking for the easiest way to carry the woman to the nearest spot where an ambulance could drive to.
In the meantime, I cleaned a lot of pine needles and leaves from the topout of the boulder and realized that the conditions were not as bad as had feared. Only the parts of the topout where I removed the needles and leaves were humid, but the rest of the boulder was not bad at all. I warmed up with "Jeu de Pierre", which I did on my second attempt after watching a video with a non morpho method.
Fontainebleau - Les Béorlots Ouest - Jeu de Pierre 7A+
"Égérie sans Vergogne" required much more time, time that I used to work out the separate moves and trying some overlapping pieces. It was only when I felt ready for some real attempts, that I started the camera. A handful attempts later, I was able to climb my way to the top of this very nice line. I must admit that it was quite comforting to know that the care workers from the fire brigade were only 30m away from where I was and would be able to hear me shout in case I would make a bad fall.
Fontainebleau - Les Béorlots Ouest - Égérie sans Vergogne 7B+(7B)
As I was not very far Rocher de la Reine, I still went back to "Gengis Khan", but again, close but no cigar. On my way back home, I noticed that the ambulance that they called for, was still there waiting for the woman to be carried out of the forest. I have a lot of respect and admiration for those rescue workers, who were really professional and not trying to rush things.
As today, Armistice Day, is a public holiday in Belgium and France, I had planned a prolonged weekend months in advance. Pieter had done the same and as the weather forecast looked good, he drove over from Belgium again to have a good time in the forest. There was a very dense fog though yesterday evening which is hardly ever promising for good conditions. The fog was still present this morning, so we knew that we could only hope for the best when we were on our way to Apremont Portes du Désert. Luckily it hadn't rained since Sunday morning, so the boulders weren't wet, but just damp here and there. The sector of "Furtif" wasn't very bad, so it was a good spot to start. After a short warmup, we both finished "Neurotoxine", one that I couldn't do back in the 2016. Yes, it was apparently since then that I hadn't been back in the area, besides doing the walk through it in the rain with Pieter last Sunday.
Fontainebleau - Apremont Portes du Désert - Neurotoxine 7A+(7A)
Even though it was dry, the damp conditions and high air humidity didn't make it obvious to stick the slopers of "Furtif Haut". Not at all Pieter's style, so he unfortunately didn't get further than the starting hold. Doing the first three moves separately was quickly done for me, but it did take quite some time to make it through to the end when trying from the start. A few times, I came close to giving up for the day, but persistence took over until I made it. The easy looking topout, turned out to be not that easy, but the motivation to not come out of the boulder was greater than the fading energy that I still had in me. This was on my list already since my last visit in 2016.
Fontainebleau - Apremont Portes du Désert - Furtif Haut 7B
I then quickly repeated "Accrocheur" on my second attempt, followed by Pieter not long, but quite some more attempts, after. To finish off the day, we started working in "Elementary", on which I found a flow to cruise through the first part of the line, but the boulder started feeling more humid again and I couldn't stick the top slopers. A new one on the list.
Last Monday, Christophe Laumone gave me some good advice for "Gengis Khan" in Rocher de la Reine. We both arrived at the same time at the boulder and while he was trying the sitstart, I worked in the stand. His advice paid off and I was able to get familiar with the new method, albeit no topout yet. Christophe was able to work out the sitstart and got passed the standing start, but the powerful attempts had taken its toll and squeezed the energy out of him. Probably on his next visit, he will be able to top out and open the sistart of "Gengis Khan". Yesterday I spent the morning in "Gengis Khan" again, and made some good progress. Despite a split in my left middle finger, I was able to perfect the moves, and got really close to topping out. I made it to the high pinch left hand, but a slip from the sloper right hand made me swing out. As long as the conditions on the bad slopers are in favor, and with Winter and the cold temperatures at the doorstep, this should go down soon.
It rained last night and everything was wet this morning. I met Pieter on the parking of Cuvier, but another drizzly rain shower made sure that everything was going to stay wet for a while. We left the crashpads in the car and made a walk to the boulders of Apremont Portes du Désert to get some ideas for his next visit. I had to putty a wall at home in the afternoon, but noticed that everything looked much less wet and even dry at some places around the neighborhood. It was tempting to go search for some dry boulders, but the putty work was necessary, so I continued my way home to start the works. The putty work was done faster than expected and around 4pm I decided to go back to the forest in search for a dry boulder. I still had a good hour of daytime left, so it was worth a shot. Knowing that it's a quite quickly drying boulder, I walked straight to the boulder of "Professeur Tournesol" on which Frédéric Buc had opened yet another line. A short traverse, but the looking at Frédéric's video, the moves looked pretty nice. The boulder was not in very good condition, but dry enough to start working out the moves. few pretty powerful moves, but the motivation was high and about half an hour later I felt relieved when topping out. Got to do one this weekend after all.
Fontainebleau - Justice de Noisy - Dupont et le Professeur Tournesol 7B
