When I woke up due to heavy wind and rain last night, I didn't expect to be able to climb today, but the sky cleared up this morning and it looked it was drying fast thanks to the sun and an ongoing quite heavy wind. As I had to bring my oldest son to a friend near Buthiers in the early afternoon, I was patient and gave it enough time to dry before heading to Buthiers.My idea was to try "Mac'Arel" and I was delighted to find it in very good conditions despite the problem facing North and being in the shade. The wind had done an excellent job. "Mac'Arel" shares the same topout as "Paie ton Mac Do" and as I remembered the latter giving me quite a hard time in 2020, I didn't really expect too much of it, but it turned out I didn't need a lot of time to work out the crux again. It was as if my body still remembered what to do, even after more than three years. Loaded with good confidence, I began trying "Mac'Arel" from the start, but soon realized that it added some difficulty to the crux move when coming from way left. I remained calm and confident though, and sent "Mac'Arel" sooner than expected after all. It was a great and beautiful problem to end the year with. I was satisfied.
When arriving at the small, but long, area of Cassepot Roches Roses, you immediately realize where it got its name when looking at the boulders. A lot of the boulders there have these pink/red -ish spots, which makes it almost unique on its own. Even though I have been there only a few times, I always liked this quiet peaceful spot. The surroundings are just beautiful. There are not many boulders, and I walked straight to the very last one of the area, also one of the most attractive. Kind of with the intention to work on one of weaknesses, being bad heelhooks, I started with "Les Trois Talons", for which you need to place a heelhook three times, without the possibility to use a toehook; something that I always look for when a problem involves heelhooks. I first worked out the last part, with the hardest heelhook, something that took many adjustments in details, learning a lot in the process. As soon I did the move, I surprisingly finished "Les Trois Talons" on my second attempt from the start, only to discover that somehow the memory card of my camera had gone into recovery mode at some point when it was recording. After quickly watching the footage, the ascent wasn't recorded, so I had to do it again if I wanted it on video. As it happens often to me, when I want to repeat a problem, I climb with too much confidence and forget to pay attention to the small details that contributed to the ascent. I needed quite a few more attempts to finally get on video. At least, now I had practiced my heelhooks quite well.
Fontainebleau - Cassepot Roches Roses - Les Trois Talons 7A+
I wanted to try "La Solution", one of the other problems on that boulder, as well, but the second, and hardest, part of the problem was in really bad conditions, so I was only able to work in the first and easier part. Slightly disappointed, I walked away, and decided to stop and try "Pink Power (assis)" on my way back. I couldn't remember ever seeing that problem dry, but somehow, even after all the rain we had during the past few weeks, today it was dry. Starting deep in a pit and quite dirty, the problem doesn't look appealing at first, but as soon as I tried out some of the moves, I quickly realized that it was much nicer than it looks. After working out the crux, which again involved a heelhook, I only needed a handful of attempts to top it out.
Fontainebleau - Cassepot Roches Roses - Pink Power (assis) 7A+
This morning I was greeted by very nice weather at last and this time I wasn't forced by rain to drive back home when I went to Mont Aiveu. I had a long walk ahead, but knowing that "Peinture Rupestre?" was probably in good condition, thanks to Laurent (Darlot) who did the sitstart a few days ago, made it all bearable. Add to that the beautiful surroundings and the sun being out and sucking the humidity out of the air, making it all a perfect mix. Last time I was in Mont Aiveu, I couldn't try the sitstart due to wet starting holds, but today it was good and dry. I vaguely remember the moves from the crouching start, so I basically only had two or three moves to still work out. After changing details in beta a couple of times, I finally found a method that suited me and decided to setup the camera and give it some real attempts without trying the second part again. Being there had made me remember exactly what to do. After a handful of attempts, I suddenly had that flow and cruised up the boulder. I still had a long walk back, but wasn't bothered by it, because I felt that it was all totally worth it. This problem from the sitstart is a true gem, a real beauty. I loved it!
Fontainebleau - Mont Aiveu - Peinture Rupestre? (assis) 7B
Climbing "La Gaule (assis)" yesterday was in a good flow, but despite that, I could feel it on my body when I woke up this morning. After having some breakfast, I was driving to Mont Aiveu when it started drizzling. It wasn't much at first, but as I continued, the drizzle got harder, to the point that it didn't make sense to drive on, so I turned around, back home. When it looked dry again in the afternoon, I played safe and went to the nearby J.A. Martin area to try the relatively new "L'Homme en Feu". With all the rain and humidity the last few weeks, the chance for forest fires is extremely low, but the boulder of "Couleur de Feu" always looks like it's on fire due to the it's orange yellowish color. I flashed "L'Homme en Feu", but was really to falling off near the top when I discovered that there was barely anything to hold on to, which I didn't expect. My fingers were still very cold and I could barely feel what I was holding on to, but managed to stick and work my way up. Unfortunately, the bottom part under the roof was dripping wet, so I wasn't able to try the sitstart. It will be an excuse to come back to this very nice boulder some other day.
I had tried "La Gaule (assis)" several sessions in a row, when the conditions allowed for it, but bad weather forced me to take a short break from it. As I had kept an eye on the weather forecast, I determined that one of the best chances where time and conditions sort of came together, was today, Christmas Day. Trying to make sure to avoid any unpleasant surprises, I avoided over eating yesterday, on Christmas Eve. A mistake that happened to me a few times already. Arriving at Cuvier around 11h this morning, the boulders looked all dry, and it was weird to see only three cars on the parking, a very unusual sight at Cuvier on a public holiday and dry boulders. It only was to my advantage. The boulder of "La Gaule" is a bit deeper in the forest though, but my last fears crumbled when I arrived at the boulder. It was dry! The last session, I made from the sitstart into the standing start nearly every time, and it was only near the end of my previous session that I turned my focus on better dialing the details for the standing part. This time, I decided to climb the standing start as a warmup and get the muscle memory going. I didn't want to allow any room for error in minor details that could potentially prevent me from topping out. The standing start went very quick and I repeated it once again before taking a short break and attack from the sitstart. Only a handful attempts after the break, I worked my way to the top and was somewhat speechless when I stood up there again. It was one of those times where my mind was completely clear and everything flowed as if I was on auto pilot. Couldn't have gotten myself a better Christmas present than this.
Fontainebleau - Cuvier Ouest - La Gaule (assis) 7C(7C+)
Even though we had a huge amount of rain yesterday, the sky was clear during the night and a heavy wind helped gave hope to be able to climb something today. I left the house secretly hoping to try "La Gaule (assis)", but I kind of knew that this hope was in vain given the closed in place where the boulder is. Arriving at Cuvier, that was confirmed by wet boulders all over, but despite that, I had a look anyway, thinking I could still continue my way higher up the hill to Cuvier Ouest. At the boulder, which was of course too wet, I stopped and imagined the moves before continuing my way uphill and found most of the boulders in Cuvier Ouest dry, as I expected. For a moment, I hesitated to try "Imothep", but walked on towards the small roof of "Le Toit du Gollum". "Le Précieux" had always seemed morpho to me, but I gave it a chance and after working out the moves, I found a way, even though it was on the limit of being too mropho.
Fontainebleau - Cuvier Ouest - Le Précieux 7A+(7B)
I felt connected with the environment I was in and with the boulder, stayed where I was, and started working out the moves of "Gollum Connection". After figuring out a method, it went down quicker than "Le Précieux", mainly because I knew what to do at the end. I was lucky that it hadn't taken longer, because not long after, it started raining again.
The last couple of days of the work week, I had been looking forward to go and try "Gaïa" in Rocher Brûlé this weekend, and the conditions yesterday were great. Despite that, when I left home yesterday morning, I completely lacked motivation and when I started trying "Gaïa", I just couldn't give myself for a 100%. I have absolutely no idea why or how come, but the motivation stayed gone and trying to force it to return didn't seem to work. Disappointed with myself, I decided to pack up and stop at Mont Pivot on my way home. Unfortunately, also in Mont Pivot, my motivation was still lost and no matter what I tried, it just didn't get better, so even more disappointed, I went back home. This morning though, I could immediately feel that the motivation was back, but decided to go to Cuvier Nord to try "Rencontre Plus-Tonique". The conditions were less than yesterday, but still good and after doing the topout of "Rencontre Plus-Tonique" as a warmup, I was able to finish the whole problem on my second attempt. It was a good morale boost and I felt very motivated again.
Fontainebleau - Cuvier Nord - Rencontre Plus-Tonique 7B
With the motivation found back, I walked to the boulder of "La Gaule" and was pleasantly surprised to see that the tree that fell on the boulder, had been moved out of the way, making it possible to try it again. I had done the standing start of "La Gaule" in August 2016 and tried the sitstart briefly, but couldn't even get my butt off the ground and concluded that it must be too morpho. A few years ago though, I returned and was able to get up and almost reach the right arete. When I wanted to back and dedicate some time in it about a year ago, it was the day that I noticed that a tree had fallen on the boulder and I didn't want to spend time and energy trying to move it, so I left it, until today. It was a productive session and this time, I was able to climb from the sit up to one move into the standing start several times, but my skin was quite bad and I kept on slipping off at that point. No disappointment when I left, because I had found a new project that I want to spend some time on and more importantly, also found my motivation back.
