December 30, 2023 - Six heels plus one.

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+