April 26, 2025 - Few days, one post.

I was expecting visitors from Belgium last Thursday, so I had taken the day off work. Before they arrived, I had some time to go for a climb, but not too much, so I looked something up close by, with a not too far walk. The choice had become "Fermeture Éclair" in Canche aux Merciers, opened by Theo Konstantakopoulos in 2017. I had tried it once before a long time ago, and remembered that I couldn't get past the last part somehow. While driving, I was thinking that I actually like most of Theo's first ascents and kind of admired how a lot of times, he can see sitstarts to easy problems, creating a hard problem in the end. This also most of the time in popular areas, yet nobody seemed to have come up with his ideas.
I parked next to couple that was unloading their car, and to my pleasant surprise, it turned out to be Theo himself, with his wife and young kid. It was a very pleasant coincidence.
Trying "Fermeture Éclair", this time, I quickly figured out a method for the last part, but now I had more difficulties with the first move. Sticking with it, looking for alternative methods, I managed to top it out after all. It was nice to tell Theo afterwards in person that I did his problem. I didn't have time left after that, but we will meet up next time and climb together for sure.

Fontainebleau - Canche aux Merciers - Fermeture Éclair 7A+

Yesterday, I took my visitor, good old friend Koen, to the forest for an initiation in bouldering. We had a good time trying very easy problems in a pretty crowded Roche aux Sabots.
This morning, I received a message from Jan (Gorebeeck). He was in the neighborhood with his friend Sam, and they joined me for a climb in Cuvier Merveille. After a long warmup doing some easier problems, we moved over to the isolated boulder of "Bleautiful", of which I had done the standing start back in 2020, right after it was published. My goal for today was to do the sitstart.
I had it figured out quite quickly and was able to execute it soon after. Jan needed some more time and attempts, but ended up taking the ascent as well in the end. This one is a true beauty!
Thanks to Sam for filming.

Fontainebleau - Cuvier Merveille - Bleautiful (assis) 7B