It was below freezing this morning, and the conditions promised to be good. I didn't have much time, so I went to the nearby Roche aux Sabots Sud to try "Neurosciences", a boulder that I had always kept aside for some other day, which turned out to be today. The boulder was dry, but the top required some cleaning, and multiple attempts for the slopers to be rid of sandy grains that covered them. Once cleared out, it didn't take me very long to finish it off.
Fontainebleau - Roche aux Sabots Sud - Neurosciences 7B+(7B)
The left exit required even more cleaning and seemed to be not possible at first, but persistence paid off and the slopers gained in friction, making the left version possible. Given the mediocre conditions on the left side, it felt almost as hard as the original version, but as I already knew the first part, it went down much faster after all.
Fontainebleau - Roche aux Sabots Sud - Neurosciences (gauche) 7B(7A+)
I was gone abroad for work this week, which kind of wore me out, so I didn't expect too much of climbing today. It has been seven years since I did "Game One" in Apremont Butte aux Dames, and I decided to go and try the sitstart. While warming up, I was surprised to repeat the standing start much quicker than I anticipated, which allowed me more time to work on the sitstart. Just like seven years ago when I briefly tried the sitstart, there is morphologically no way for me to reach the starting holds when sitting down on my butt, so I worked from the lowest start possible. It adds a few quite difficult moves to get into the standing start and makes one lose some friction, but it was very cold and the conditions were great. It was a nice feeling when I finally managed to top it out.
Fontainebleau - Apremont Butte aux Dames - Game One (assis) 7C
With the amount of rain and we had last yesterday evening, I didn't count on good conditions nor trying anything too hard. Instead I chose to go for some silence at some remote still quite unknown small area, featuring only a handful of boulders and only of them that had my interest. The small area of Mont Aiveu is quite a walk from the small parking, but I enjoyed it whilst admiring the beauty of the forest in Autumn. The boulders of the area have nice atypical colors and seem to fit in with the season. The only boulder that I was interested in, the one with "Peinture Rupestre?", is located on top of a small hill, offering a stunning view. Unfortunately, the bottom part under the small roof was wet, so I immediately had to rule out trying the sitstart. The standing start was dry, but the left part of the boulder is marbled and without any friction, which I hadn't expected. Even for the left heelhook it is extremely slippery. It took ma a handful of attempts to the standing start.
Fontainebleau - Mont Aiveu - Peinture Rupestre? 7A
As the sitstart was out of the question with the wet starting holds, I did work out the lowest start possible and started from the lowest dry holds I could use. Basically, a crouching start, two moves in from the sitstart. This on itself already felt like 7B in my opinion.
Fontainebleau - Mont Aiveu - Peinture Rupestre? (accroupi) 7A+(7B)
On the way back to the car, I made a small detour to find the couple of boulders of another small area called Rocher des Ventes Héron. I was able to find the boulder with "La Dernière du Matin" quickly and it looked like this problem was the only one still possible to climb. The other lines need some rebrushing. I warmed up my fingers again by doing the standing start, about 6C+ on its own.
Fontainebleau - Rocher des Ventes Héron - La Dernière du Matin (debout) 6C+
The (original) sitstart followed soon after.
Fontainebleau - Rocher des Ventes Héron - La Dernière du Matin 7A+
We had a lot of rain the past few days, but there was a strong wind coming from the South-West, which led me to believe that at least some boulders had to be dry on the South face of the hill of Apremont. While browsing bleau.info for inspiration, I noticed "Tropicaux", a boulder that I hadn't seen before, but going by its location description, I had a rough idea where it had to be and figured it probably had a good chance to be dry already. On my way up the hill, I stopped at the classic "Clin d'Oeil" to warm up and try the sitstart as well. I repeated the standing start on my first attempt and after figuring out how the first two moves of the sitstart went, also did that one on my second go.
Not far from there uphill, I found the boulder of "Tropicaux", which was more or less where I expected it to be, and it was dry as well. After a few attempts though, I just couldn't see myself reaching the high slopers, and it was only after I briefly tried "Trop de Piquette" just left of it, that I noticed that I might be able to use the nice small 'colonette' as a toehook and use compression between the arete and the toehook to reach the high sloper. To my surprise it turned out very well and after perfecting my right foot placement, I was able to get to it. The next struggle apparently was letting go of the toehook without swinging too hard and slipping off the sloper. I persisted, and made it count about half an hour later. Quite physical, slightly morpho, but a really nice problem that I enjoyed a lot.
Knowing that today is a public holiday here in France, I had been keeping an eye on the weather forecast and saw potential for going back to "Mojo Rising (assis)" and spend a fourth session on it, secretly hoping it would be the last despite enjoying that quiet isolated spot where the boulder is. My first session trying "Mojo Rising (assis)", was eleven days ago, right after I easily did the standing start. I was able to work out all the moves and even do the whole problem in two overlapping parts. A process that did take more than two hours though. I came back for my second session last Saturday and reached a new high point, falling off the first move in from the standing start. I was so close, but that almost three hours session had taken its toll, so I left again empty handed, but very pleased with the big progress. I knew it was only a matter of time. The day after, last Sunday, I went back for a third session, knowing I would probably be too tired from the day before, but I didn't want to loose any muscle memory. I wasn't able to reach my high point again, but the first and hardest part of the problem was becoming more and more consistent. It gave me a lot of confidence for my next session after a few days of rest. While having breakfast this morning, I was looking at the rain forecast and noticed that it was forecasted to start raining from about 11h until early afternoon. As I didn't want to take the risk to go in the afternoon and finding the boulder wet, I decided to leave immediately. I arrived at the boulder just before 10h, and it was perfectly dry and with near perfect conditions. I did the standing start on my first attempt as a warmup and the friction was amazingly good. Unfortunately, drops started falling, meaning the rain started much earlier than predicted, but as it only felt like some drops, I didn't worry about it too much. After a few attempts, I managed to reach my high point again, didn't slip off the right hand crimp and calmly prepared for the far move to the high sloper. I had done the top part easily barely fifteen minutes ago and expected it to be only a formality. I went for the sloper and slid off! Having stayed under the overhang, I didn't realize how much of rain drops had already fallen out of the sky and had made the slopers of the top part of the boulder soaking wet. I had two choices; go home and come back later in the afternoon, or wait it out and try to keep the holds of the first part dry using two towels I had with me. I chose the second option and decided to be patient, knowing that the rain shouldn't last too long. more than an hour and a half later, it seemed liked the rain had finally stopped and I went up the other side of the boulder to dry the top part. Both towels were soaking wet when I was finished, but at least the top part was climbable again and somehow, the friction on the very bad sloper left hand at the first part, felt better than before. Seventeen minutes later, I topped it out! (I know it was seventeen minutes, because my Sony camera creates a new file on the memory card every seventeen minutes or every 2GB).
"Mojo Rising (assis)" definitely felt like one of the hardest problems that I ever did in the forest up to now. It took me 4 sessions and maybe 50 attempts or more. Personally, I would say this is rather 8A, but as usual, every boulder feels different for everyone.
Fontainebleau - Petit Rempart - Mojo Rising (assis) 7C(7C+)
If anyone knows how to prevent a Sony camera from creating a new .MTS video file on the memory card every 2 GB or about every 17 minutes (which causes a glitch each time), please let me know. It's a Sony HDR-CX405. It sucks when it happens right into a successful ascent.
