August 20, 2022 - Bringing a stick to a gun fight.

In May of this year, the Festival de l'Escalade de Bloc Durable took place in Milly-la-Forêt. For the occasion a (not so) new area was made available to the public, the area of Haute Pierre just outside the village. Some boulders were already opened there almost twenty years ago, but being a private hunting ground, it never became widely known to the public. Apparently when the land owner died, he left the land to the village of Milly-la-Forêt, and the mayor had allowed the creation of several circuits and the opening of lots of boulders. There is however, still an existing agreement with the hunters to keep on using the land as hunting ground, so parts of the area are forbidden for climbers and do not allow opening boulders within them. Therefor, a small path was constructed and all the boulders that are allowed to be climbed can be found along that path. It is thus advised to stay within proximity of the path and not to enter the forbidden zones. Arguing with a bunch of hunters is like bringing a stick to a gun fight. They have guns, climbers don't.
Thanks to the indications I received from Bart (Van Raaij), I found the path quickly and even more thanks to the topo that he made, I found the problems of interest without issues. All the problems that I wanted to do are part of the new black circuit, so all I had to do, was follow the path up and around the hill, and try what I passed on my way.

The first problem that I passed on my way was "Le Sept" (black 7). I flashed it on my warmup, but I must admit that it was with a bit of luck.

Fontainebleau - Haute Pierre - Le Sept 7A

Further up the hill along the path, I wanted to try "Charrière" (black 12). A quite hard dyno that makes the whole grade. It didn't take very long, but it definitely wasn't a give-away for me.

Fontainebleau - Haute Pierre - Charrière 7B

On the same boulder, on the right arete, I also got away with "Banco" (black 13). This one rather felt hard for the grade and might as well be 7A+ if you ask me. A very nice problem nevertheless.

Fontainebleau - Haute Pierre - Banco 7A

On the boulder just above, on the top of the hill, I made a quick ascent of "Bruyère Noire" (black 14). Sketchy first few moves followed by an easy topout. Even though I thought that I would flash it, it did require a handful of attempts just to get passed those few first moves.

Fontainebleau - Haute Pierre - Bruyère Noire 7A

On the backside of the boulder next to it, "Un Centime" (black 17) was sitting in the sun and despite it being quite hot there, I got away with it on my first attempt from the start after having worked out the last move, which s the crux of the problem.

Fontainebleau - Haute Pierre - Un Centime 7A

Because it's categorized as a traverse, I doubted to try "Deux Centimes" (sitstart in black 15 and finish in black 17), but decided to go for it anyway and made it my first attempt.

Fontainebleau - Haute Pierre - Deux Centimes 7A+

Following the path back down on the other side of the hill, I quickly found the sort of hidden roof of "Sous Quelle Pierre?" (black 24), worked out the moves separately and then finished it on my first attempt when coming from the start. I really enjoyed this one.

Fontainebleau - Haute Pierre - Sous Quelle Pierre? 7B

Of course still following the path, I continued my way to "Finale" (black 30) and flashed the lower starting "Finale (du bas)" with quite some ease. This rather felt like soft 7A+ at most.

Fontainebleau - Haute Pierre - Finale (du bas) 7B

I had hoped to still do "Equilibrium" (black 34), but my skin was starting to hurt and my body was complaining. When I then climbed until past the overhang and had the sun full on in my face for the hard mantle, I threw in the towel. This will have to be one to come back for some other time, as long as it's not during the hunting season.
It was a good session.

Thanks again to Bart (Van Raaij) for the indications and the very well drawn topo. It helped me to stay on a roll.
I heard that he will be releasing a new "5+6" topo in a few months, and afterwards there might come a new "7+8" as well. I can advise everyone to buy them, even if it are still the current versions. You will be supporting bleau.info with it as well.