June 01, 2020 - Whit Monday.

Whit Monday is a public holiday in France, so I had the time to take advantage of the beautiful weather and drove the nearby Boissy-aux-Cailles again. This time though, I parked at the cemetery, where I was not the only one.
I think it was Romain Pigeat who arrived just before me, with what I believe was his wife and twin babies. Just like me, they were heading to the relatively unknown sector of Boissy Le Plaid. But we kept our distance.
Maxime Baroud has opened quite some new problems during the quarantine, such as "Mat". Grade-wise, his easiest one I think.

Fontainebleau - Boissy Le Plaid - Mat 7A

Up next, was "Johnny Rotten". A crimpy overhanging arete which is humid most of the time, but now it was well dry. I think it must have been last Summer when I tried this for the first time, but just couldn't work myself good enough through the first part. I had forgotten about it since, so now was a perfect moment.
Hurt my index finger on one of the crimps when I did it the second time to capture the start, but it was all worth it and it doesn't feel too serious anyway.
Don't hesitate to try this one when you happen to find it all dry.

Fontainebleau - Boissy Le Plaid - Johnny Rotten 7B+

May 31, 2020 - Just one thing.

Still trying to avoid popular areas and big crowds, I drove to Boissy Le Goulot in the beautiful surroundings of Boissy-aux-Cailles.
I had the desire to try "Into the Wild", but wasn't able to work on it for very long. I hurt my back yesterday, and the small roof with very reachy small holds wasn't doing it any good.
I did however, get away with "One Thing", which I never tried before because it was either humid or looked dirty. It was still dirty at the start in the pit, but at least it was pitch dry. Just like the whole forest.
"One Thing" is actually a very nice problem. Much nicer than it looks!

Fontainebleau - Boissy Le Goulot - One Thing 7A+

May 30, 2020 - Keeping my distance.

With again a long and beautiful pre-Summer weekend ahead of us, it promised to be very crowded again in the popular areas.
Making sure to keep my distance, I headed to the quiet area of Mare aux Joncs in the Coquibus.
It started to get hot soon though, but the boulder of "Plasma" was luckily for the most in the shade. Not a luxury with the bad slopers that had to be used for the last moves.
I had noted down quite some boulders that I wanted to try again, but already after my first attempt on "Plasma', I knew that I would have to make the choice between keeping on trying until the finish and loose a major amount of skin on my first boulder of the day, or go for the others first.
For several reasons, I chose the first option, lost a lot of skin, but ended up doing "Plasma".

Fontainebleau - Mare aux Joncs - Plasma 7B

I did still try the nearby "Le Tri-Phasé" which unfortunately was getting direct sun after a short time and got close-but-no-cigar on "Les Abstentionnistes" on the same boulder, but then the shady side.

Close to home, the gendarmerie had blocked the access roads towards the big popular parkings of Les Trois Pignons.

May 22, 2020 - Aiming for luck.

I wasn't exaggerating yesterday when I mentioned that crowds visiting the forest was worse than any Easter weekend that I can remember. Browsing through the local news, I actually stumbled upon a news article that mentioned this. It's in French, but the picture on it can give you an idea: https://actu.fr/ile-de-france/noisy-sur-ecole_77339/seine-marne-dimpressionnants-bouchons-foret-fontainebleau-plus-300-pv-dresses_33775245.html
Police gave over 300 fines yesterday apparently.
When I came back from Les Béorlots Ouest, where I climbed this morning, the gendarmerie (police) had blocked the road between Le Vaudoué and Milly-la-Forêt. The situation was apparently the same as yesterday, even though I didn't cross or see anyone during the few hours that I was in Les Béorlots Ouest.

My session started at the big roof boulder of "Jeu de Pierre".
I wanted to warm up in "Santa Carina" with a backwards dyno, which turned out to to become much more than a warmup.
Not a far jump, but the lip is not that good for taking the big swing. I needed a lot of attempts and lost a huge amount of skin with this one. Felt like at least a 7A+.

Fontainebleau - Les Béorlots Ouest - Santa Carina 7A

I had hoped to do some good attempts in "Jeu de Pierre" and "Egérie sans Vergogne", but my skin was so wrecked that it was no use.
Instead, I decided to stroll around and have a look for a recently boulder from David Evrard, the one with "Petit Lu".
Les Béorlots Ouest is a wide area, with spread out pockets of boulders, and as there was indication as to where exactly the boulder is located, I had no choice but to walk up onto the plateau and aim for luck.
Somehow, out of several possible locations, I immediately chose the right one and had walked straight towards the boulder. I found it with a lot of luck.

My first idea to try was "Petit Lu (assis)", but during my attempts, I realized that it was harder than it looked (especially with this wrecked skin), so moved a few meters over to the right and started with "La Rayée".
I got a bit lucky with "La Rayée" as I got on there with the last bot of skin that I had. Very nice problem!

Fontainebleau - Les Béorlots Ouest - La Rayée 7A

May 21, 2020 - Not quite the freeze.

It was announced to be very warm today, with temperatures tickling the 30°C. Considering the huge crowds that made it to the forest last weekend and the fact that today is the first day of an elongated weekend, it promised to be very busy again.
Trying to avoid the peak, I left early to Rocher du Guetteur, where I worked in "Mister Freeze" last week. I could do all the moves, but couldn't hold the swing of the dyno when coming from the start. Due to lack of skin and power left in me, I had to leave it behind, but with the intention to come back and finish it very soon; as in today.

It was 9h30 when I arrived packed with two crashpads on the top of the hill of Rocher du Guetteur, and I was amazed by the huge numbers of people that were already on the red '25 Bosses' path that passes right next to "Mister Freeze".
Last week, I was a bit surprised by the swing after the dyno, and landed beyond the crashpad a few times. An extra crashpad was not an unnecessary luxury. It definitely made me feel more at ease and climb more focused on the actual moves.
It was already starting to get hot up there, and the amount of people walking by grew by the minute, so I was glad to top "Mister Freeze" quite quickly and move to more silent grounds.

Fontainebleau - Rocher du Guetteur - Mister Freeze 7C

The way back home was zig-zag'ing between cars that were parked everywhere. The number of visitors in one day must have broken some record. I had never seen anything like that; it was worse than the busiest Easter weekend that I can remember.

May 17, 2020 - Happy Easter!

I left early towards Franchard, only to discover that the parking of Franchard Isatis was still not accessible. Despite that I was early, a good handful of cars was already parked along the road instead, and so did I.
With social distancing on my mind, I had planned to try some isolated boulders in Franchard Hauts Sablons and walked straight to the one with "Délit de Droite".
The skin on my fingers felt sore from yesterday, but still I was able to do "Délit de Droite" on my first warm up attempt. The boulder still felt cold from the night and the slopers were in quite good condition.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Hauts Sablons - Délit de Droite 7B

On the same boulder and sharing the same exit, "La Gauche au Pouvoir" took me quite some more tries and skin, but I managed to work me up. Very bad sloper for the left hand on the first move.
I nearly finished the longer version that starts all the way left, but my fingers skin was starting to become sweaty and the slopers were warming up in the sun.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Hauts Sablons - La Gauche au Pouvoir 7B+

Back at the car,  cars  were now parked until very far in both directions and both sides.

Making a detour through Achêres-la-Forêt on the way home, all parkings of the Trois Pignons were more than full and area around Noisy-sur-Ecole was completely congested as it would be on an extremely busy Easter weekend.

After all, you can't blame all the people that want to enjoy the forest after such a long time.

UPDATE:
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

May 16, 2020 - Social distancing.

The forest has opened up again, but social distancing is advised and groups can not be bigger than 10 people.
I left early today and went to Mont Pivot, knowing that I would not see much people there.
A few years ago, I had tried "Le Passeur", but somehow, despite many attempts, never was able to hold steady on those starting crimps and couldn't even set off for the dynamic move.
It didn't give me much trouble now, as I did it on my first attempt today.

Fontainebleau - Mont Pivot - Le Passeur 7A

I briefly tried "Stalker" next to it, but couldn't even lift my butt off the ground, so decided to walk to the more or less isolated boulder of "À Bout de Souffle", just below "Pancras".
I can't remember who and when told me about an easier "biscuited" 7B variation on "À Bout de Souffle", with a dyno to an oblique hold on the left, but it turned out to be a very nice version. The dyno is less far, but the swing afterwards is quite hard to hold.
Took me quite some effort and lost a good amount of skin, but it was well worth it. I wonder why it has never been published.

Fontainebleau - Mont Pivot - À Bout de Souffle Biscuit 7B

In the meantime I heard a lot of hikers walking on the nearby 25 Bosses path and by the time I arrived back at the car, it was fully parked everywhere and there was no sign of social distancing.