It are busy days at work and with my three flatscreens, I'm constantly switching from one to the others.
Maybe that's why I somehow came up with trying "Zigzag" in Justice de Chambergeot on my way home? I don't know.
What I do know is that "Zigzag" had always been a mystery to me.
I had already done the 6C, "Turbulence", in November 2012, when "Zigzag" wasn't opened yet.
When it got published, the description was so vague that it seemed just the same as "Turbulence". There must have been a difference somewhere, but it wasn't clear where.
I was happy to see that finally a video of it has been published on bleau.info, clearing it all up.
Basically, it's an extension of "Turbulence", starting more to the right.
It was a beautiful today, with temperatures up to 17°C and it smelled like Spring.
But my body felt stiff and didn't move as smoothly as I wanted to, which made the moves under the roof more physical than expected and my arms already felt pumped after my first try.
Or maybe it was simply hard. It was then that I remembered that I found "Turbulence" also quite hard.
A must try when you're in the area, but a spotter would not be a luxury.
Fontainebleau - Justice de Chambergeot - Zigzag 7A
It was a cold and grey, but dry day.
I was all alone in Apremont Portes du Désert and I enjoyed it.
There were two problems in specific that I hadn't tried before and definitely wanted to try today.
The first one on my path, and my warmup, was "Extra Balle".
I could quickly do the jumpstart, keep my balance and campus the jug, reach the high sloper left hand, but couldn't (or didn't dare to) let go of my right hand to match the left on the high sloper.
I prefer a spotter for that one, so packed up and walked on to "La Colonne Plinienne", the other problem on my list for today.
On the video I saw from "La Colonne Plinienne", it looked like it would suit my style.
However the far move from the sloppy ledge to the high sloper was too huge for me.
I had to use a sharp two finger tiny crimp pocket left hand to be able to reach it.
Indeed quite my style and it didn't take me many tries to send this beautiful problem.
Fontainebleau - Apremont Portes du Désert - La Colonne Plinienne 7B
After eleven days of forced no-climbing, I could feel the short sessions from yesterday and the day before in my body. It was a very long time ago, but I actually had quite soar muscles.
So, not really having a further plan, I decided to look at the boulders in another smaller sector of the area.
I located some boulders for future reference and ended up flashing the relatively nice 7A prow "E=MC2" (I don't know how to type a C-square with my keyboard).
Relatively soft for the grade or relatively my style.
A first relatively reachy move, slap around the prow, slap again into the relatively good crack and end with a relatively dynamic move to the top.
Some nice straight forward bouldering.
Fontainebleau - Apremont Portes du Désert - E=MC2 7A
On my way back I briefly tried "Furtif Haut", but only got away with a flash of "Elementary (gauche)". Or maybe not.
There seems to be some confusion on how to start, and the description can be interpreted in many ways.
I looked for a way that would be near the proposed grade, but can't give it more than easy 6C+ at most.
But well, Bleau and grades, it's all relative.
Fontainebleau - Apremont Portes du Désert - Elementary (gauche) 7A
I took a few hours off work today but didn't have high hopes for climbing because at work, in Montereau, it snowed lightly and turned into a light drizzle by the time I was off.
The forest, that starts at barely 15 km from there, turned out to be dry, no sign of snow or any drizzle.
Somehow I had to think of "Monaco" and decided to stop at Rocher des Princes.
The ground was wet, but the boulder was perfectly dry and in unexpectedly very good condition.
I tried "Monaco" once briefly, but was never able to do the first far move and gave up quite quickly.
Now it still took me a short while to figure out the first move, but once I found my method, I could do it every time and the rest of them followed soon.
Beautiful problem!
Fontainebleau - Rocher des Princes - Monaco 7B
After a short stop at the post office of Fontainebleau, I ended up in Apremont Butte aux Dames to check out the newly opened 7B+, "Débardage".
It felt strange walking through the area.
Some organisation that I can't recall right now, has decided to restore the whole landscape from the Butte aux Dames until the Butte aux Peintres into the state it more or less was during the time that famous painters were inspired by it.
It apparently involves stripping that part of the forest from almost all of the pine trees scattered around, turning the boulders from 'covered by the trees' into 'naked in the open'.
It's a really awkward sight but at least the boulders will dry quickly now, which wasn't the case before in Apremont Butte aux Dames.
"Debardage" is somewhat hidden in a corner and too humid to give it some real tries.
Close by, "Les Baloches" was dry and I decided to give it some go's.
I spent some time in it on a hot Spring day in 2016, but couldn't stick the sloppy crack because of bleeding finger tips due loosing too much skin.
Now it only took me a handful of tries and felt like a hard 7A or soft 7A+ at most.
Certainly not the nicest problem in the area.
Fontainebleau - Apremont Butte aux Dames - Les Baloches 7B
It had been eleven days that I wasn't able to climb due to bad weather.
Climbing felt like ages ago, so when I got home from a work trip to Germany, I was happily surprised with nice dry weather.
It was already late in the afternoon, and after a six and half hour drive, I needed a break and decided to spend the last hour of sunlight in the nearby Gorge aux Châts.
To use the most of my available time, I stayed at the bottom of the hill and started with a short warmup in "L'Ami Sanglier (assis)", a 6C which is often confused with the 7A, "L'Ami Sanglier (du fond)", that starts far right under the roof, at the start of "Le Pare-Dessus".
Anyway, I had tried "L'Ami Sanglier (assis)" already a couple of times, but never found my way coming out of the roof.
I have no idea what I did differently now, but it all went like a charm.
Some very nice moves in a very underestimated 6C. For me this felt hard for the grade.
Fontainebleau - Gorge aux Châts - L'Ami Sanglier (assis) 6C
I had a look at the traverse under the roof that links up and makes the 7A, but the moves that I could imagine didn't seem very nice and I really didn't feel like twisting and turning under that roof just for chasing a grade.
Next problem that came into my mind was "Le Mur du Feu" at barely 20m from there.
It lies right next to one of the paths, in plain sight, but yet, with only one registered repeater (Ivan Moreels in 2007), tends to be invisible, forgotten or not deemed worthy enough to try.
I must admit that I already had a brief look at it a couple of times, but I never saw a way to start and didn't give much attention anymore.
This time I decided to spend some time in it.
The description says that you have to start with crimps and go for a high crimp left hand.
After finally figuring out how to start and move towards the high crimp, it started to become a nice challenge, and even though the high crimp was razor sharp, I enjoyed trying it more and more.
I didn't even want to let it go anymore but there wasn't much time left.
Too bad that "Le Mur du Feu" doesn't get the attention it deserves, even though I do think that it will get more repeaters soon now that a video of it is published.
This one also felt quite hard for the grade, but I really recommend it.
A little gem hidden in plain sight.
Fontainebleau - Gorge aux Châts - Le Mur du Feu 7A
The weekend was humid and the temperature felt soft compared to the last weeks. I didn't even have to wear a jacket.
This of course came with a lot of condensation and thus soaking wet boulders.
I set off anyway today and went to a new sector, Cuvier Sorcières, that has been published recently and features quite a lot of new problems.
It combines a few very small sectors above and next to Cuvier Est to which the sector with "Proueptologue" logically has been added.
Unfortunately all the new problems were either soaking wet or too humid to try.
The only dry enough problem I found, was "Petit Tas Petit", a 7B+ on the same boulder and just right of "Proueptologue".
"Petit Tas Petit" is a very atypical problem on very bad slopers that needed a good swipe of a towel to get them dry enough.
As the temperature felt so soft, I didn't mind waiting for the sun that barely broke through the clouds now and then, drying the slopers some more.
"Petit Tas Petit" is atypical in such a way that I actually had to use my elbow to be able to reach the slopers. There just was no other way to get to them.
As soon as I had figured that move, it didn't take me long to top out the problem, breaking a piece of the rock due to bad foot placement when stepping up.
Luckily, the piece that broke is not used for climbing the problem, but still ... mea culpa!
Very nice problem that is definitely worth the detour, but all in all, it felt soft for the grade.
Fontainebleau - Cuvier Sorcières - Petit Tas Petit 7B+
As everything else in the nearby areas was wet, I drove to Rocher Saint-Germain, only to find "Si t'es Petit, Sois Technique" wet.
I wanted to try the sitstart, but as it wasn't possible, I drove on to Rocher de la Salamandre Est that normally dries quite quickly, hoping that "Chaos Data" would be dry.
Just as I feared, the key holds under the roof of "Chaos Data" were wet and slippery to the point that I didn't even think of trying the moves again and checked bleau.info if there was still something else on the boulder that I could try and didn't require the wet holds.
Strangely enough, I noticed that "Extinguo" wasn't ticked off even though I was quite sure that I had done that already.
It turned out that the version I did had been renamed to "Extinguo (droite)" and "Extinguo" itself had become a different version, excluding one hold on the lip of the roof.
Strange, but at least I still had something left to do and it was dry.
It became a quick ascent that also felt soft for the grade even though it appears that I didn't start low enough in the roof, skipping one move that doesn't add anything to the grade.
Fontainebleau - Rocher de la Salamandre Est - Extinguo 7A
Here's the video from what is now "Extinguo (droite)" from a year ago, with the correct start.
Fontainebleau - Rocher de la Salamandre Est - Extinguo (droite) 7A
Personally, I don't think that there should exist two versions.
Both have the same grade, one uses an extra hold and both felt soft for the grade.
Despite that the conditions must have been amazing this week, I didn't climb since Monday until today. Too much work had refrained me from it, but today, thanks to the days getting longer again, I was able to spend about 45 minutes climbing after work.
I parked at a deserted Cuvier to profit from the good conditions and try "Out of the Blue" which requires good conditions, because those bad slopers depend on the friction.
It has been opened last Summer by our Belgian friends Jan (De Smit), Igor (Depoorter) and Tim Brijs.
I was amazed that such a beautiful line in the middle of Cuvier could remain untouched for so long. Then again, it is quite well hidden between some boulders and behind some bushes.
The first time I tried "Out of the Blue" was somewhere in November when the conditions in Cuvier Rempart were excellent, but unfortunately the topout of "Out of the Blue" was mossy and wet and I fell off the mantle while looking for something dry to hold on to.
I knew that I could do it, but not with a wet topout and me being too exhausted already after my many attempts.
Now the topout was dry, but it still took me the full 45 minutes before I was able to stick the top slopers and mantle out.
Great find by Jan, Igor and Tim! Keep 'em coming!
Some other day I will go back to the problem to try the sitstart, also opened by them and given 7C.
I don't know how come, but all day long it felt like fingers were greasy. Each time my fingertips came in contact with some rock, they looked and felt greasy.
Maybe it were the tiny frost particles on the rock that melted upon contact with my skin? Maybe my fingers were greasy because of loosing some skin the last couple of days?
I any case, it was annoying. The friction wasn't wasn't as I hoped.
My choice for Rocher des Demoiselles wasn't the best one because it was mostly shady and the few sunbeams that were able to pierce through the trees, weren't enough to warm the air up.
It didn't really matter, I didn't have any expectations for today and wandered around looking for something that I felt was worth trying today.
The first stop was at "Sainte-Nitouche (assis)".
A beautiful problem, to me at least, that turned out to be quite hard.
The moves were all ok to do, but my greasy fingers were making the slopers hard to trust.
It became my main project of the day as I liked it so much and had the drive to finish it.
A little bit more than half an hour later it was done.
Fontainebleau - Rocher des Demoiselles - Sainte-Nitouche (assis) 7A+(7A)
Further up the hill there is the small roof of "Karate Kid", and has some really nice moves.
I worked out all the moves and the moment I went for a full attempt, I made a bad fall trying to swing my feet over the other edge of the roof.
It gave me a light headache and I decided to move on.
Taking a bad fall in "Karate Kid".
I walked back down the hill a bit further so I could pass by "L'Espoir Naufragé" and maybe try it on my way back.
It definitely got my interest at first sight of it.
I watched a video for some beta to save some time and a handful of tries later, I made it to the top.
Nice problem! Physical.
Fontainebleau - Rocher des Demoiselles - L'Espoir Naufragé 7A+
I still wanted to make one more stop before leaving, and that was at "Crampe Man".
Even for 6C I would consider it as soft, because I flashed this easily and besides the first move, it felt like a walk in the park.
Fontainebleau - Rocher des Demoiselles - Crampe Man 6C+
I couldn't figure out the sitstart of "Crampe Man (assis)" immediately and as I didn't want to loose time to try one last problem that I had on my mind, I packed up and moved all my stuff to the boulder next to it.
I had never really tried "Chorizo" before, but today I wanted to spend some time on it.
"Chorizo" is quite my anti-style, a straight up wall where balance and subtle moving is what is required to climb it.
It took me many tries to be able to reach the crimp high left, keep my balance and move my feet.
Once I was able to do that, I was able to reach for the edge, start with the mantle, got spooked as there were no holds anymore and slid off. It was a scary fall.
The attempt right after it, I was able to climb it to the top, but it felt hard!
The mantle on the top was really scary and had a point-of-no-return. The point from where, once you've passed it, you will probably get hurt when you fall.
Very nice problem though!
Fontainebleau - Rocher des Demoiselles - Chorizo 7A(6C+)
It was time to leave now. Sausages, spicy or not, give me greasy fingers.
