Life in Fontainebleau: September 25, 2022

Sunday, September 25, 2022

September 25, 2022 - Feet first.

It rained as good as all day yesterday and there was no way for a chance of climbing, so I decided to scout the far end of Rocher de la Petite Reine instead. From all the boulders that I saw, there were a handful that I definitely wanted to try any time soon.
No more rain this morning, but the sky was grey, and it was still mostly wet outside. It was a bit risky to already leave before 10 o'clock, like I did, but I wanted to go back to that far end of Rocher de la Petite Reine which is almost half an hour of walking. The closer I got to the area, the more hopeful I was. There was a mild breeze and most of the boulders that I passed on the way, didn't look very wet anymore at all.

"Tezcalipoca" was the boulder that I was most keen on trying, so I walked straight to that one, and was delighted to find it dry and even in pretty good conditions. The friction felt good and after doing some separate moves as a warmup, I sent it on my second attempt from the start. Slopers, compression and toehooks, this beauty really fit my style.

Fontainebleau - Rocher de la Petite Reine - Tezcalipoca 7A+

I thought that "La Mère aux Démocrates" would have been easier, but after fruitlessly trying to reach the high sloper right hand, I almost gave up. That right hand move to the far sloper felt way too morpho and I didn't even get close. Jokingly, I told myself to maybe try and go feet first, but the joke turned into real business when I tried it and felt that it might even be possible. A little while later, I had done all the moves, except for the topout, which turned out to be another crux. I decided to give it some real attempts anyway.
It still took some time, but when I finally made to the hard topout, I didn't want to let go anymore and buried a tiny sharp crimp deep into the skin of my fingertips and surprisingly topped out.
This one felt really hard and felt like at least a hard 7B, maybe even 7B+.