My shoulder still hurts, but after 4 days of no climbing due to bad weather, I was able (read forced) to let it rest.
Finally today the sun was finally out again sometimes and the last drops of rain fell during the night.
On my way back from work, I stopped for a quick climb at Rocher de Corne-Biche.
Well, quick is an understatement because I forgot again how long the walk is up to the small sector with "Eclats". Fifteen minutes of walking, and I walk pretty fast, is a long time in terms of Fontainebleau area approaches.
I immediately started with "Eclats" ... or at least that's what I thought.
It felt a bit too easy for 7A, but maybe I was in a strong shape because of the rest.
It was only at home that I read that even though the start is the same, it climbs to the right into the wall and not to the left as in the video.
I looked up the left variation, but I can't find anything about it on the web, nor in any of the many topos I have at hand at home.
Anyway, I asked Jean-Pierre if he knows about it. We will know soon.
For now I logically called it "Eclats (gauche)" and the grade will be something like 6C(7A)'ish, but more direction 6C.
Fontainebleau - Rocher de Corne-Biche - Eclats 7A
After that I still tried "Le Vin du Dimanche (direct)" and I got really close, I even got my fingers over the edge a couple of times, but no cigar.
It was time to leave, knowing that there was still a fifteen minute walk ahead of me. I left with heavy feet, I was so close ...
Those who were drawn here by the title probably forgot that today is April Fool's Day.
"The Big Island (assis)" is still not climbed by anyone.
UPDATE: the opener of "Eclats", Pascal Etienne, has confirmed that the version of my video does show the method he used to open "Eclats".
Jean-Pierre has updated bleau.info and created a variation called "Eclats (droite)".
This video of Ivan Moreels shows "Eclats (droite)".
When Harco was here, we briefly talked about injuries and I said that besides my elbows and ankles, it was all not too bad for me.
But today I was forced to think about that short topic.
Forced, because I think I got a small rupture in my muscles near my right shoulderblade and it hurts with nearly every move.
It happened last Thursday evening, when I was trying "Game One" in Apremont Butte aux Dames.
I could feel it on the big compression moves on really bad slopers. The problem about feeling it, is that it's mostly already too late.
It didn't get much of my attention, but I did feel it vaguely while climbing on other problems since then.
Today I was thinking about that conversation, because actually, the more I think of it, I'm injured most of the time, but never give it much attention, let alone do something about it.
Basically, when I'm injured, I continue climbing, but I tend to avoid doing problems or moves that will make it worse.
Like the time my left knee was injured after doing too many heelhooks with the left foot, I tried to avoid problems that required a left heelhook.
Or as with my injured right elbow, which is still not completely healed by the way, I tried to avoid taking pinches with the right hand because it just hurt too much.
When my fingertips bleed, I might skip climbing for one day, but as long as the weather permits, I will just climb on with taped fingertips.
But then, there are times when zero is the number of fucks I give about the pain or injury and let the stubbornness take over, thinking that the injury is something to worry about later. Like today.
I know it's not good. That I should listen to my body and skip climbing for a day, or even longer, but this is what happens when climbing serves as a drug.
When I'm climbing, my body releases endorphines and satisfies my mind.
I don't smoke nor drink alcohol and I don't do drugs. That is when you don't consider climbing a drug.
It was raining cats and dogs this morning, but I went to Apremont Fond des Gorges to locate and check out some boulders.
I had only passed by the area before, but never stopped to see the boulders.
I especially wanted to see "Saigon" and luckily I had taken the GPS because somebody had posted the coordinates on bleau.info. This served me well, because I don't think I would have found it easily without them. Now I walked straight to it.
By the time I got there, the sun had come out in between showers and of course it was still wet, but it didn't matter, as I hadn't planned to climb anyway. For those interested, coordinates are N 48°25.982' E 002°38.067'.
On my way back I checked out the other boulders in the main area and found the boulder with "Chicken Skin" completely dry and in pristine conditions.
Even though I didn't plan on climbing, like most of the time I did carry the crashpad and all my stuff with me so I unpacked.
After a couple of tries however, I had to quickly move everything to shelter because it had started raining again.
It was a small dilemma to wait for the shower to pass and hope the boulder will dry quickly again or to leave.
I waited it out, it only rained for about 5 minutes, but hard enough to make the boulders soaking wet.
I could see an open spot in the sky coming my way and there was a lot of wind, so my hopes were high.
I used the time to wander around checking out some other boulders and helped the drying a little bit with my towel.
The sun came out again and together with the wind they did their job. The boulder was dry again after 10 minutes and I could try again, but I had to hurry. The open spot in the sky wasn't as big as I expected and what came after were even darker clouds than before.
I did it fast and even faster I packed again as it could start raining again any moment now.
At about 100m from the car it was pouring rain and I was soaking wet when I got in.
It didn't matter, I had my small dose of climbing.
By the time I got home, the sun was shining again and the streets were dry.
I could have gone climbing again but the muscles in my right shoulder hurt really bad and I wisely decided not to. Even shifting gears of the car hurts. We'll see what tomorrow will bring ...
Fontainebleau - Apremont Fond des Gorges - Chicken Skin 7A
Easter weekend, always busy.
As they announced bad weather for the upcoming days, I decided to leave early and visit shortly the small deserted area of Apremont Brûlis.
Having looked at some pictures of some boulders, I had one goal in mind, "Le Skull". A 7A+, but opened by David Evrard and Stéphan Denys, so I expected it to be hard.
When I was walking towards the boulder, following the accurate description from bleau.info, I noticed that a lot of smaller boulders I passed on my way, were still very humid, and some even wet.
Luckily the boulder with "Le Skull" was dry, or at least dry enough to climb. The moss on the topout was little bit humid and slippery, but it wasn't going to stop me from trying the problem.
I started trying at 9h20 am already.
It took me a while and after a quick peek at a video of the problem to find the good beta, and once I worked out all the moves separately, it went like a charm.
It was still hard but not hard enough to stop me from doing the problem a second time immediately after.
"Le Skull" is an isolated boulder in a remote part of the area, but it felt totally worth the walk to it.
Fontainebleau - Apremont Brûlis - Le Skull 7A+
From there I went to another remote part of the area to find "L'Etalon Sauvage" ... wet.
At least I know where it is and I will come back for it.
I continued on to the main area that has a small group of boulders and had a short look around.
The boulders looked ok, but I didn't have a "WOW" feeling.
Anyway, I will go back there this Summer when it's another crowded weekend, and I need my peace.
By that time, my colleague and friend Harco was coming over and we went to the main area of Apremont which was surprisingly not overcrowded yet.
Harco didn't crack any skulls yet, but he did really well for his first time out on the real boulders. Give him some time to adapt to the rock and he will climb hard.
It was nice to see the motivation in him.
When he left in the afternoon, I still drove to Bas Cuvier for the Black Diamond "Chasin' the Rubbish" event and did my part.
It has started, the majority of cars on the parkings here and there are from foreigners.
Just like every year, the Eastern weekend will be overcrowded with climbers from all over Europe, even the world.
It always announces the start of the "tourist season".
As usual, it's also the weekend where Black Diamond organises the yearly "Chasin' The Rubbish" event.
For 4 days in a row, each day, a Black Diamond van and crew will be present on the parking of a popular area, handing out trash bags, asking everyone to take their rubbish with them and clean up any rubbish they can find. It results every year in tons and tons of rubbish being collected in just those 4 days.
Planning is as follows ...
- Friday, Franchard Isatis
- Saturday, Bas Cuvier
- Sunday, Roche aux Sabots
- Monday, Elephant
And even though we all should be familiar with the rules, ethics, guidelines, or whatever you want to call it, they are ...
- No fires
- Stay on trails
- No wild camping
- Bury human waste
- Brush off tickmarks
- Clean your climbing shoes
- Take your rubbish with you
It are simple basic principles, but every day out there in the forest, one can see that for some it is not that obvious or they are forgotten.
It's nice of Black Diamond to organise such events, but on the other hand it's a shame that they even have to organise them. In an ideal world it wouldn't be necessary.
The long weekend however is sadly enough announced to be one with a lot of rain.
Up to now, it looks like only Saturday will be dry. Good for my colleague Harco, who will visit the forest and only planned to climb on that day.
Knowing about the weather forecast, I stopped a bit earlier at work today, so I could have a small dose of climbing. It is after all, a real but healthy addiction!!
"Découverte Elément Terre" in Apremont Butte aux Dames has a weird crouching start, and you're not allowed to use both pedestals.
Not very nice, as it's hard to try to avoid them. Anyway, this one goes in my category "been there, done that".
After that I quickly went up on the other hill. The one of Apremont Buvette.
Even though I had walked there a lot, now it was the first time for climbing. It's the kind of area that you'ld better avoid in the weekends because it can be crowded with hikers, strollers and their kids.
I chose "Polêmikôs" mainly because, according to the description, it would be a boulder easy enough to locate.
Indeed, I more or less walked straight to it. I can imagine on the other hand, that in a few weeks, when the vegetation starts growing again, it will be much less easy to find.
I was a bit surprised by how nice the roof looked, but I was even more surprised with the beauty of the problem.
I enjoyed every move in it!
I wanted to give my fingers more time to grow some more skin but it's the second day of Spring and it shows.
It's really hard to drive home from work, pass all these climbing areas and not stop for a short climb.
I couldn't resist, checked the skin on my fingertips, nodded to myself, confirming that it will do.
I stopped at Apremont Butte aux Dames.
I really like the area, with all the new problems being right next to the parking.
With the skin having grown back just barely enough, I was able to resist from going straight to "Game One" of which I knew it would be a bad idea with these slopers, so I set my mind on something with more positive holds.
One of my last visits I tried the traverse of "Les Ailes du Plaisir". I nearly flashed it then, but fell out of the last move.
I normally don't like those traverses where the crux is in the last move, but this one has some really nice moves. Definitely worth the effort!
Today also, I fell on the last move of my first try.
It made me realise that maybe it would a good idea to try the last moves first and do the complete problem once I get acquainted with them.
Normally it starts about 1,5 meter more to the left, just around the corner.
About the last moves ... well, I got there, but I lost the ethics somewhere on the way.
Fontainebleau - Apremont Butte aux Dames - Les Ailes du Plaisir (raccourci) 7A(7A+)
About 20m from "Les Ailes du Plaisir", you can find "Un Jeu d'Enfant", opened by our friend Tony Fouchereau and for once he allows the sitstart from a crashpad for the little among us.
Tony is a big guy, and I consider myself little compared to him.
Even sitting on the crashpad, I really had trouble reaching both starting holds.
It's a hard first move.
Arms spread open wide, being completely stretched out, squeezing them into compression, letting the feet go from the ground and going for the heelhook on the right. Had to hold my breath there!
Once you get the heelhook right, it's not over yet, but the hardest part is.
If the start would have been less morpho, I would have said that 7A is soft for the grade, but now it felt like spot on.
Fontainebleau - Apremont Butte aux Dames - Un Jeu d'Enfant 7A
I had hoped that the skin on my fingers would have recovered more after 2 days of no climbing.
I guess it didn't.
My main goal for this afternoon was going to be "Game One", a 7B+ on pure Fontainebleau slopers in Apremont Butte aux Dames, but it was taken by a group of Dutch guys.
It looked like they were going to be stuck for quite a while, so I didn't bother waiting.
I did stay in the area though and went straight for "Les Baloches", a 7B a little further up the slope.
It didn't take long, maybe 10 minutes of trying when the first drops of blood started coming through the skin of my fingers, forcing me to tape 3 fingertips of my right hand.
I gave up after another couple of tries and thought about doing something easier and maybe more appealing for the skin. I wrote 'maybe'.
On the backside of the boulder of "L'Etoile Noire" you can find a 7A with a 7A+ variation that I wanted to try.
"Ventricule Gauche" is the 7A and "Ventricule Droite" is the 7A+ variation.
I was thinking that maybe there was a mistake, because the left version looked harder than the right one.
Anyway, I started trying the one with the left exit, "Ventricule Gauche".
Was it the warmth and therefore the conditions that are not as good anymore? Maybe it was the tape on my fingers and the lack of skin? Was I tired? Or was it just simply plain hard?
I'm sure that it would have been easier to stick the slopers without the tape, but still, this was hard!
It felt way harder than 7A to me, even closer to the 7B range.
It was a long time ago that I needed so much time to finish off a 7A. More than half an hour of non stop trying. I know, it will certainly not be the last neither that will take so much time!
When it was finally done, the blood was already showing through the tape too. No way that I could still try the other variation with the right exit.
I lost a lot of skin on this one. Not only my fingers, but also the skin on my arms and even my torso was showing the signs of scraped off skin.
It all doesn't hurt that much on that moment, but I can tell you that this evening, I was singing in the shower.
Fontainebleau - Apremont Butte aux Dames - Ventricule Gauche 7A
Pieter was in the forest this weekend and we climbed together on Sunday.
My body was tired and the skin on my fingertips was as good as gone, but I showed Pieter around in Apremont Butte aux Dames.
He was, just like me on my first time in that area, pleasantly surprised with it.
We climbed a bit of the black circuit and I showed him some harder problems. He actually got really close to sending "Game One" (7B+) on his second try.
The slopers ate a lot from my skin again and I couldn't stick the far second move anymore.
I did, however, still repeat "Le Pilier de sa Dame" and its left variation.
Pieter did the original but just couldn't make the left version.
He had to leave back home around 16h, so to finish off the day, we had a look at one of the classics of the area, "L'Etoile Noire".
The boulder 'floats' on a couple of other boulders, creating a roof with quite some problems and variations on it.
The easiest one is the standstart of "L'Etoile Noire", with an exit on the prow (7A) and an exit left of the prow, in the straight face of the boulder (7A+).
We jokingly called the boulder the 'Death Star', and it turned out to be death for the skin on my fingertips.
After a couple of tries, the skin on my fingertips had given up and small drops of blood started coming out.
I was pretty close to doing the problem, even still fell out on the last move. It was hard to give up.
Even with bloody fingers I still continued, as I knew it could happen any minute, but I had no choice but to give up in the end.
Thanks to the adrenalin my fingers didn't hurt, but because of the blood drops, it was becoming too difficult to stick the slopey holds.
A bummer, but I knew I would be back soon.
Yesterday, Monday, a new workweek, even though I could have gone back quickly after work, I refrained from climbing. The skin was still a bit too sensitive.
But today, knowing that I have to be away for work the next couple of days, I couldn't resist and made the small detour via Apremont when driving home from work.
Here's what happened two days and a layer of tape after Sunday ...
Fontainebleau - Apremont Butte aux Dames - L'Etoile Noire 7A(7A+)
The first time I got there, my foot touched the boulder on the right, so with the energy still in me and the urge to continue climbing, I did it again without 'dabbing'.
