May 31, 2024 - A price to pay.

It's been almost two weeks since I injured my left ankle while falling off "Menhir" in Rocher de la Salamandre. I have had sprained ankles countless times in my youth, when I was a devoted skateboarder, but I hadn't had such a swollen ankle like I had on the day after my fall off "Menhir", so I decided to go the hospital to have it checked out. No fracture at first sight on the X rays, but the doctor did advise me to take a scanner, as my ankle did look extremely swollen. Meanwhile, I moved around with a boot to immobilize my foot and crutches to avoid putting it under pressure. When the scanner a few days later revealed that nothing was indeed broken or ruptured, I gained confidence and set the crutches aside. Following the advice of one of my sisters to use Arnica, my ankle improved rapidly and I was even able to climb last weekend. I couldn't go too far yet and I didn't dare yet to fall from too high, so I found a project in a low one meter high roof close to where I could park. I was even able to use a left heelhook, albeit careful. I came close and even fell off the last move twice, but no send yet. Some footage of my attempts and progress can be found on my Instagram. Ironically though, that same weekend after my climbing session, I hurt my ankle again while doing handstands with my son in the garden. It hurt bad and it was like after I had done two steps forward in ankle improvement, I made a big step back again. Walking down stairs is painful again and with nearly every step I take, I can feel and hear a sort of crackling sound in my ankle.

I had a day off work today, but the key holds of the project were wet due the many rain we had this week, so trying it was not possible. Given the boulder's location and orientation, I thought it would be a good Summer problem, but with this terrible weather, there's still no Summer in sight. I decided to go try Jason (Kester)'s new problem "Jus de Pierre" in Franchard Meyer instead.
I knew that the boulder required a pretty long walk, which I feared for my ankle, but it felt like walking was pretty okay. A little past halfway though, I had to admit to myself that I had been either too ambitious, too confident or both. My ankle was hurting pretty bad and walking became more difficult. Nevertheless, as I was already past halfway, I continued on and luckily found the boulder quickly, and it was completely dry. 
The boulder looked nice, but I soon discovered that it was pretty morpho. Despite that, I was able to do "Jus de Pierre" fast. Trying to get off the boulder while avoiding to land on my bad foot was almost as hard as the problem I just did.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Meyer - Jus de Pierre 7A

I still had plenty of time to try the sitstart, which proved to be even more morpho and required a very far left toehook that hurt my ankle and I knew that I was going to the price for that. The moves on this problem are so nice though, that I considered it worth the price paying for and I continued trying, getting closer and closer to a send with each attempt. Then, everything clicked and I was able to top out "Jus de Pierre (assis)", a true beauty.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Meyer - Jus de Pierre (assis) 7B

Walking the long way back went slow and was painful, but it was worth it.
I arrived at the car just in time before a very heavy rain shower made everything wet again.