January 03, 2024 - Waiting for windows.

The weather has been so unstable during the past weeks that it has been an almost constant search and wait for weather windows that allow climbing. Luckily, despite many and sometimes heavy rainshowers, a hard wind is helping a lot with drying the boulders. Unfortunately, another rain shower is always nearby, hence the search and wait for windows of opportunity. This morning was a good opportunity. It rained a lot yesterday, but there has been a lot of wind during the night, and the next period of rain was forecasted only shortly after noon. To take the most chance of the opportunity, I left earlier than usual to Apremont Bizons, back to "Border Lyme".
There were only a handful of cars parked near the buvette and the sight of the low boulders it didn't look good, but the further and higher I walked up the hill, the more promising it started to look. The boulder of "Border Lyme" was completely dry and in near perfect conditions, much better even than two days ago when I had worked out the moves.
Despite the better conditions, and even though I could do the last move separately, I couldn't get through it when coming from the start and the problem started sucking out my energy, until I suddenly felt drops, much sooner than expected, and I had to shortly stack my stuff under the roof. It luckily only lasted a few minutes and I had to wait for the boulder to dry out again. It luckily didn't become very wet, so the hard wind made it dry very quick again. In the meantime, I rethinked the last move and came up with a more secure way to do the last move. It was a bit harder pulling on the right crimp behind the tree, but it had a much higher percentage of success. Thanks to that change in beta, I was able to finish "Border Lyme" immediately after. Quite a hard problem, but very nice moves.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Bizons - Border Lyme 7B+(7B)

On my way to the boulder of "Serval", I stopped at "Corne de Bisonneau (direct)" and was able to flash it with relative ease. Not sure why I had never tried this nice line before.
Later, I was able to work out the method for the crux of "Serval", but was forced to stop by the rain. It was about the time it was forecasted. At least, this window had been worth the wait.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Bizons - Corne de Bisonneau (direct) 7A