May 15, 2020 - Two months, one kilometre and four ticks later.

For two months we were ordered to be quarantined, but were allowed to go out for necessary shopping after completing a document stating the reason why one was out. Outdoor physical activities were allowed, as long as they were practiced within a one kilometre perimeter from home. The forests were closed down by the ONF though, but luckily from where I live, the privately owned forests of La Charbonnière, La Renardière and Le Groison are all well within my 1km perimeter and not allowed to be closed down by the ONF.
It became quickly obvious for mountain bikers, hikers and even some climbers from the village, like me, to use these parts of the forest as their local outdoor playgrounds, as long as the land owners didn't complain, which they didn't. One of them is a climber by the way.
For two months, whenever I could, I hiked though these dense forests, looking for new boulders and lots of brushing and cleaning them; mostly completely alone, sometimes with the help of my kids. I was amazed by the amount of boulders that had remained hidden well within my allowed area. I even took the time to create a small topo; not detailed, but enough to locate the boulders. Some of them, I even consider as true hidden gems.
Grades are going from 2 up to 7B+, although, be aware that the grading was merely an indication of the moment and is subject to be changed by repeaters. Time will tell.

Location of the boulders. 2, 5 and 16 were already known and published, but added as a reference.

Some of the boulders have several problems and/or variations on them, and some lines are still a project, but for all care, free for all to try and claim a first ascent. As long as you keep the area clean and respect the environment.

I will now sum up the boulders in the order that I cleaned them and opened the first problems. There are a few of them that are very easy, but in the end it was a nice journey of discovery for myself and my kids.

BOULDER 4

As boulder 5, the one with "Shogun" and "Ronin" was already known, I was familiar with that part of the small forest and started my cleaning journey there by cleaning boulder 4. Slightly above and about 30m to the right of "Shogun".

Opened a total of 4 problems, going from about 6B up to 7A+, maybe 7B.

Before cleaning.

After.

"Dans le Périmètre" 6B(6B+)

"Dans le Périmètre (droite)" 6C(6C+)

"Moins d'Un Kilomètre" 7A(7A+)

"Moins d'Un Kilomètre (rallongé)" 7A+(7B)

"Moins d'Un Kilomètre" 7A+(7B) continued

Fontainebleau - La Charbonnière - Dans le Périmètre 6B(6B+)

Fontainebleau - La Charbonnière - Dans le Périmètre (droite) 6C(6C+)

Fontainebleau - La Charbonnière - Moins d'Un Kilomètre 7A(7A+)

Fontainebleau - La Charbonnière - Moins d'Un Kilomètre (rallongé) 7A+(7B)

The following boulders can be found along or close to the yellow path on the topo. The obvious path that enters the forest is almost directly behind a small company called "TLS Etiquettes", look it up for your reference if needed.

BOULDER 13

After about 200m down the path after entering the forest, the huge boulder can be seen at about 50m on the left of the path.

I stood in awe when I walked around what seemingly looked like a small boulder covered with a thick layer of moss. With a big sort of pit in front of it, it turned out to be a huge overhang with several lines waiting to be opened.

While cleaning, I was stuck with only one obvious in mind, and ended up opening only that one, even though there are possibilities to open some more variations.

Boulder 13, "Les Quarante Haines" is one of the gems on the topo.

Before.

During.

Fontainebleau - La Charbonnière - Les Quarante Haines 7B

BOULDER 12

About 50m past "Les Quarante Haines", the arete with "Arête au Confinement!" looks easy, but didn't feel as it looked. 

Not as nice as the previous but still worth the visit if you ask me.

"Arête au Confinement!" 7A+

"Arête au Confinement" 7A+ continued

Fontainebleau - La Charbonnière - Arête au Confinement 7A+

BOULDER 15

Boulder 13 was not cleaned by me, nor the problem opened by myself and I do not claim a first ascent of it.

It was a fellow villager who saw me cleaning boulders and he told me about a boulder close to his house and that there was chalk on it. Being a climber himself, he said that he had tried it with some friends and that it might be around 7A.

The next day, I found the boulder and was a bit sad that I flashed the line that my fellow villager told me about. It was a nice boulder and again a beautiful setting.

For the time being, until more information arises about the boulder, I named it "Pas à Moi", because it is not mine.

"Pas à Moi" 7A(6C)

Fontainebleau - La Charbonnière - Pas à Moi 7A(6C)

BOULDER 11

Small boulder with an easy problem. Not the nicest problem, but I cleaned the boulder and liked its shape.

"Titrou" starts with both hands in a pocket in the roof and the feet in the back.

Fontainebleau - La Charbonnière - Titrou 5C(6A)

BOULDER 10

This low boulder has some very easy children slabs, a traverse a game and an open project with an extremely hard topout by convention.

Fontainebleau - La Charbonnière - Câlin Confiné 5C(6A)

Fontainebleau - La Charbonnière - La Balade des Confinés 6C(7A)

BOULDER 14

I found boulder 14 on my way back from "Pas à Moi". Located right next to an obvious path through the forest.

Covered with moss and couldn't resist imagining lines.

Ended up opening only two problems, using the same sitstart, because I had found already more boulders to clean in the meantime.

Before.

"Backyard Lockdown" 7A+

"Backyard Lockdown (gauche)" 7A

The first line though, "La Fissure à Noah" was opened by my youngest son, at 7 years old.

Fontainebleau - La Charbonnière - La Fissure à Noah 3+

Fontainebleau - La Charbonnière - Backyard Lockdown 7A+

Fontainebleau - La Charbonnière - Backyard Lockdown (gauche) 7A

BOULDER 7

I found boulder 7 almost by coincidence. Covered with moss, it was hardly visible through the small trees there, even at only 20m from the path. Located at only a few meters from the fence of someone's garden, discretion is advised.

Before.

"Le Père Est Maître (assis)" 6C+

"Le Fils Est Sûr (gauche assis)" 6A(6B)

"À Vue de Nez" 7A

"À Vue de Nez (gauche)" 6C

Fontainebleau - La Charbonnière - Le Père Est Maître (assis) 6C+

Fontainebleau - La Charbonnière - Le Fils Est Sûr (gauche assis) 6A(6B)

Fontainebleau - La Charbonnière - À Vue de Nez 7A

Fontainebleau - La Charbonnière - À Vue de Nez (gauche) 6C

BOULDER 3

This time, on the on expedition through another part of the forest, but still within my 1km radius, I went direction the already known boulder 2, with "Beauty Full".

On my way, at only about 100m from the graveled road, I stumbled upon a floating boulder where I imagined a start from in a pit between the boulders it was resting on, and started cleaning to free "Confinîle Flottante". Little gem I would say.

After cleaning.

"Confinîle Flottante" 6C(6B)

Fontainebleau - La Charbonnière - Confinîle Flottante 6C(6B)

BOULDER 1

About 250m deeper down in the dense forest, I found another chaos of boulder with still quite some boulders that I already started cleaning, but this was near the end of the lockdown and I still had other easier reachable boulders that I prepared elsewhere, but ended up opening another gem. I literally said "Ouf!" when I discovered the boulder of "Confinouf!".

"Confinouf!" before cleaning.

After cleaning.

Fontainebleau - La Charbonnière - Confinouf! 7B

 

Fontainebleau - La Charbonnière - Confinouf! (assis) 7B+

BOULDER 6

Back to the previous sector, I had noticed a small cutout in on old quarry, and it attracted me, so I went ahead, cleaned it and opened some games.

After cleaning "Arête de Carrière".

1. "Arête de Carrière" 6B+ (exit left of the arete with a big hold on the left)

2. "Arête de Carrière (direct)" 6C  (exit direct and left of the arete without the big hold)

3. "Arête de Carrière (droite)" 6B (exit right of the arete)

Fontainebleau - La Charbonnière - Arête de Carrière 6B+

Fontainebleau - La Charbonnière - Arête de Carrière (droite) 6B

Fontainebleau - La Charbonnière - Arête de Carrière (direct) 6C

BOULDER 8

Small boulder of which I didn't know what to expect, but it looked fun.

"Jouet de Bloc" 5C(6A)

Fontainebleau - La Charbonnière - Jouet de Bloc 5C(6A)

BOULDER 9

The lockdown was already over when I opened "Déconfinement" but as I had already spent quite some time cleaning this one, right next to the path, I came back to finish what I had in mind for it.

Green: "Déconfinement"  6C+(7A) (sitstart with left hand on low undercling and right hand on the arete; finish right)

Blue: "Déconfinement (gauche)" 7A(7A+) (sitstart left with slopey crimp, traverse to the right with crimps; exit in "Déconfinement")

Fontainebleau - La Charbonnière - Déconfinement 6C+(7A)

Fontainebleau - La Charbonnière - Déconfinement (gauche) 7A(7A+)

Got me four ticks in those two months. Nasty buggers!

It took me several evenings to create the topo and this whole long post, so in the meantime, early this evening I made a fairly quick repetition of "Vétille" in Gorge aux Châts Est.

Fontainebleau - Gorge aux Châts Est - Vétille 7A(7A+)

UPDATE May 17, 2020:
The line "Pas à Moi" on boulder 15 on the topo of La Charbonnière, was opened by David Evrard; originally with a sitstart.
David has opened much more variations, that can be seen his video on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/326997026

March 22, 2020 - Don't be like me.

I realize that this post will make a lot of people angry and that I will gain quite some disrespect with it. I could have simply written nothing and stayed silent about it, however, I want to stick to the truth and be honest about what I did, hoping that some will understand my point of view and the dilemma that I faced.

Last weekend, I had started working in "Hallelujah" and amazingly, was able to do all moves and do the boulder in two parts. I only needed to fine tune the overlapping crux, but I knew that this could be my very first of the grade. The problem is short, powerful, slopey and on compression; exactly my style and what I like.
Two days ago, on Friday evening, when climbing was still allowed, I went back and fell off the last move a few times, when coming from the start. It was about 20°C though and the slopers had warmed up. I knew that if the conditions would just be a tiny bit in favor, it would have most likely been a send.
Yesterday though, the forest closed down for any kind of sportive activity and it was just then that the temperature cooled down with ten degrees and a mild wind from the North-East set in. Just the conditions that I needed for that last sloper and most likely be able to send "Hallelujah".
The problem and the conditions were racing through my mind all day yesterday, and even though I'm not the kind of person that can stay at home for long, I managed to stay away from the forest.

This morning, I was up early and the conditions were still quite ideal. I didn't want a bad mood and extreme frustration of not being able to go back to a boulder at a stone's throw from my house, interfere with my family life, so I admit, I cracked and left at 8h30 this morning.
Barely an hour later, having finished "Hallelujah", I was back home.

Fontainebleau - Roche aux Sabots Sud - Hallelujah 8A(8A+)

I know that it will be in vain for the most, but I will now try and explain my silly and irresponsible action.

The country is closed and we have to stay at home against our will, but for the sake of humanity. Even though the supermarkets are ideal grounds for any contamination, we are allowed to go shopping for necessary supplies and walk our dogs on the condition that you are alone.

I completely understand that the parking grounds around the forest were being closed, as to avoid gatherings of crowds (at least, that was my understanding), but I couldn't grasp the fact individual people were also being refused access to an area where the air is the cleanest and the risk of contamination is the least.

It was only after the facts that someone made me realize that in case of an accident and for example a broken leg, it would require emergency services resources, which could indirectly lead to more Corona deaths.

"Hallelujah" is my first of the grade, and now I'm having mixed feelings about it. I don't feel any pride and the joy from the first ten minutes after the ascent is gone and replaced by guilt.

I know that I do a lot of good things every day, but it are these kind of selfish and silly one time actions that will be remembered the longest.
Unlike the desire of some, I will not remove my video from YouTube, as I do feel like sharing this magnificent piece of rock and the brief but true at the time happiness that I felt climbing it.

I didn't mean any personal disrespect to anyone, but I have regretfully broken the new rules, disrespected humanity and my civil duty, for which I truly am deeply sorry. 

How hard it may be, stay home and don't go to the forest like I foolishly did.

If you want to be a civil example, be a hero or even a better person to society, then don't be like me.

March 13, 2020 - Lockdown.

The world is in a lockdown. At least, that's a bit how it feels with everything that's going. Yesterday evening the president of France announced drastic measures such as closing all schools and universities for at least two weeks. Just like many countries had already decided before and others, such as Belgium and Germany followed.
Some countries even decided to close hotels, restaurants, bars and even shops. The crowd with full carts at the supermarkets here, show that a lot of people fear the same will happen here too. It reminded me of a scene out of an apocalyptic movie.

Anyway, having a day off today, I had some time to go the forest for a climb and be away from all the fuss and the Corona talk.
I don't know why, but for some reason, my right wrist hurts with most movements, not much, but enough to not feel at my strongest. The motivation however, was very present and I decided to go for some less hard boulders in Apremont Butte aux Peintres.

I started off in back end of the area and only needed a handful of attempts to finish "Une Pensée pour les Petits".
The conditions weren't as good as I hoped though.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Butte aux Peintres - Une Pensée pour les Petits 7A

Found some better conditions in the center of  the area, but even though it basically only consists of two moves, "Bi Movie" was harder than it looked at first sight.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Butte aux Peintres - Bi Movie 7A+(7A)

"Gecko Tokay (direct)" only needed two attempts, but it was sketchy until the very end. Hard to see on the video though.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Butte aux Peintres - Gecko Tokay (direct) 7A(7A+)

The slopers were taking their toll on my wrist and even though I still tried a few more problems, I couldn't get any top out of it anymore.

March 07, 2020 - Not a traverse.

My good friend Pieter is leaving for a one year trip in a few weeks and this weekend was his last weekend that he could come over to the forest. Sadly enough, due to circumstances, I only had until early afternoon, but we made the best out of it.
We chose a nice spot on the crest of Mont Pivot, to try "Limparfait du Subversif". Even though it's not a new problem at all and at only a few minutes from my doorstep, I hadn't seen or tried this one before, mostly due to the fact that in most topo's and on bleau.info, it's categorized as a traverse.
It does climb about two meters to the right, from the start, but it's such an obvious and logical line that it doesn't feel like climbing a traverse at all. A very nice line that both Pieter and I were able to finish quite quickly.

Fontainebleau - Mont Pivot - L'Imparfait du Subversif 7B(7A+)

Pieter did need more time though, so in the meantime, I worked on and did a slightly more direct version of "L'Imparfait du Subversif".
My first thought on the grade is a small 7A, but needs to be confirmed.

Fontainebleau - Mont Pivot - L'Imparfait du Subversif (direct) 7A

February 29, 2020 - Blue star.

Last week I crossed paths with Tony (Fouchereau) and Thierry (Vasseur), and they told me about a new very quick drying boulder they cleaned and opened many problems on in a remote part of Gorge aux Châts Sud.
This morning, everything was wet, and after a few rain showers, I even was almost convinced that there would be no climbing today. Luckily, in the afternoon, the sky cleared up and the sun in combination with a lot of wind made everything dry quickly.
I wanted to be sure though, and headed out to the boulder that Tony and Thierry told me about.

Located at about 350m past the boulder of "Le Ressort Titan", by following the blue path to the South-East and up the neighboring hill, it is hard to miss just on the right and below the blue path. Marked with a blue star, it is indeed a remarkably beautiful piece of rock.
Not yet published on bleau.info, but it's a good thing that Tony publishes his new boulders on his Instagram page, so more information about the boulder and the problems on it can be found here: https://www.instagram.com/bleautony/?hl=en

I warmed up with "L'Etoile Bleu (direct)", which did require a small leap of faith at the end.

Fontainebleau - Gorge aux Châts Sud - L'Etoile Bleu (direct) 7A(6C+)

Sadly enough, part of a hold broke, but "L'Etoile Bleu" is still possible using a different methods. Also involved a small leap of faith.

Fontainebleau - Gorge aux Châts Sud - L'Etoile Bleu 7A

I very much liked the big shoulder move and pinches in "L'Etoile Bleu (gauche direct)", and yet again a small leap of faith.

Fontainebleau - Gorge aux Châts Sud - L'Etoile Bleu (gauche direct) 7A+(7B)

Same thing for "L'Etoile Bleu (gauche)", but with the big hold on the right. Was a quite morpho to the right, but only a tiny leap of faith.

Fontainebleau - Gorge aux Châts Sud - L'Etoile Bleu (gauche) 7A

February 16, 2020 - Dream boulder.

More than a year ago, in November 2018, Pieter and I had tried the beautiful but scary "Onde Sensuelle" in Apremont Mare aux Biches, for the first and only time. I had already seen the boulder long before, but it is so exposed that no hair on my head ever thought of trying it alone.
After the session we had in 2018, I knew that it was possible alone, with at least two crashpads and from time to time, I felt the urge to go back, but never did. After all, I did kind of promise to Pieter that I wouldn't go back without him.
Pieter and his wife have taken a year off work and will be leaving for a very long trip in about a month, so I was glad when he yesterday proposed to go to "Onde Sensuelle" today. After having waited for so long, it did make me nervous though.
To be able to climb more comfortable, we decided to take four crashpads, and like mules we each carried two and hiked towards my dream boulder.

Walking towards "Onde Sensuelle", of the top can be seen on the right, above the middle of the picture.

Knowing that that every separate move is not extremely hard, but that lacking resistance to execute everything from the start made us fail last time, I was prepared and even ate some breakfast. (For those who don't me very well, I usually only eat in the evening.)

I didn't want to lose too much energy, so only worked out the crux moves before starting to make attempts from the start. Quite some attempts later, every time falling on the before last move, I adapted my foot placement and finally stuck the final jug. Unfortunately, I dabbed the crashpad when taking the swing, so I wanted to do it again, but clean. 

I took a long break and a few attempts later, grabbed the jug again, made the small swing, didn't touch anything and screamed out all the relief when I stood on top of the boulder again. They might have even heard me up to Barbizon.

Stupidly enough, even though I had re-positioned the camera after my break, I forgot to press record. Strangely though, it didn't bother me too much, as Pieter was there as my witness and my consciousness is clean. Anyway, the boulder police will have their say again.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Mare aux Biches - Onde Sensuelle 7B+

Pieter still continued for a while, but after two hours and a half, he was out of power.

As we had four crashpads with us now, we took the occasion to try one of higher boulders just above "Onde Sensuelle", on the top of the hill and chose the very nice looking "Véridique".
We seriously underestimated the difficulty, but after another hard fight and using Pieter's method, I managed to top this one out as a nice bonus.
Even though Pieter found the method and still tried hard, he was totally out of energy and got shut down after a while.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Mare aux Biches - Véridique 7B

It was a beautiful warm day with temperatures up to 18°C and an almost warm hard gushing wind and the view from the top of the hill was just magnificent.
Carrying the crashpads back to the cars felt much harder than this morning though. The body was tired, but I was satisfied.

Walking back down the valley of Mare aux Biches.

February 15, 2020 - About a stone.

Yesterday I received a message from Pieter, saying that he was coming to the forest, but only able to leave on Saturday morning. That's why it was already past noon when we met up at Rocher Canon.
The conditions on the North side of the hill, where most of the most interesting boulders are, were humid, but "La Théorie du Chaos" lied perfectly dry in the sun and caught a nice breeze.
Having done this beautiful, but very hard problem in March 2019, so not even a year ago, I was able to repeat it relatively quick. At least, much faster than on the below video from March 2019.
I came close to doing the sitstart, and Pieter very close to the stand, but no sigar.

Fontainebleau - Rocher Canon - La Théorie du Chaos 7B

After discussing further options, we decided to pay a visit to the small Rocher Canon Ouest area where we had the beautiful boulder of "Chute de Pierre" all for ourselves.
The standstart, "Chute de Pierre (debout)" took longer than I had expected to find a good method for the topout. We helped ourselves by watching a video on bleau.info and then a send followed soon by both of us.

Fontainebleau - Rocher Canon Ouest - Chute de Pierre (debout) 7A

The low sitstart felt very hard, but having done the standstart just before, I made this on my second attempt.

Fontainebleau - Rocher Canon Ouest - Chute de Pierre 7A+

We finished the half day on the other side of the boulder, where I quite easily flashed "Rêve de Pierre", but then again, this fits my style quite well.
Pieter had a long fight, especially with his fear and was close to giving up, but ended up working his way through using his own method. Unfortunately he was too tired and didn't want to do it again for the video, so I can't show the nice way that he solved that.

Fontainebleau - Rocher Canon Ouest - Rêve de Pierre 7A