Saturday, April 11, 2026

April 11, 2026 - The rain detector.

Last weekend, the day after I did "Revue de Presse", I went to the relatively unknown small area of Le Pendu d'Huison. I had never been there before, and I figured it would be a perfect spot to hide from the big crowds during the Easter weekend. And indeed, I was completely alone. There were a few problems that I wanted to try, but my priority went to the overhang of "Psycho Tropical".
The first part of the overhang is with quite good pockets, but it's at the lip of the overhang that it starts to be really hard, and even harder than I expected. Even though I was able to do all the separate moves quite quickly, linking them all when coming from the bottom proved to be very physical and I got humbled. I figured that my body was still tired after "Revue de Presse", but went back the day after to work on some details, trying to make them count. In vain. I got shut down by it.
Yesterday I had taken the day off and went back thinking that after a week of rest it would be better, but no, I still kept falling off at the same point and the physical aspect was taking its toll on my power levels. I stopped trying from the start and decided to work only on small details, trying to find a more confident sequence. Even though I did find a much more confident sequence after tweaking some minor details, I didn't have the energy anymore to finish it off but I was determined to come back the day after, being today.
When looking at the cloud radar this morning, I noticed that it could start raining any moment, so left early, immediately after having some breakfast, kind of expecting that the rain would beat me to it. 
Luckily it wasn't raining yet when I arrived, but I could feel some rain drops now and then on the bald spot on my head. The 'rain detector' as Alberto likes to call it. I decided to skip warming up, turned on the camera and immediately went for a full attempt. It paid off. I got passed the point where I always fell, and got to the good hold. From there, I had to use a small very bad slopey crimp, but I knew what to do. I crimped the hell out of it, feeling that I could slip off any moment, but I didn't and was able to top out.
A real beauty, very hard for the grade, and in a very beautiful spot. Barely a couple minutes after topping out, it started to rain. I had beaten the rain as well this time.

Fontainebleau - Le Pendu d'Huison - Psycho Tropical 7B(7B+)

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