November 30, 2019 - What a surprise.

I was fed up with the nearly constant rain and humidity and was looking forward to today, as they finally announced dry weather again for the weekend. It had rained until yesterday late afternoon though, and there seemingly wasn't enough wind for it to dry, so I feared for wet boulders after all.
This morning it felt great to see the sun shine and even though everything was still humid, it just needed some patience for it to dry.
After an absence of some weeks, Pieter had taken the risk and had arrived late last night. I proposed several options for chances of dry boulders and we decided to head towards the Maunoury area in Larchant.

With an empty parking and a wet ground, we were weary, but our worries quickly vanished upon seeing the first boulders of Dame Jouanne, most boulders were dry, and so was the big boulder of "Apophis" in Maunoury.
Pieter had tried "Apophis" on his previous visit in the area, but had too much difficulties with the required toehook for the right foot. I stood in front the boulder a couple of times, but had never dared to try it alone. It is quite exposed after all.
This time however, we were both of us, so it was the first boulder we headed for, and it was in surprisingly good conditions.
The boulder is very much my style and working out the moves and finally sending "Apophis" barely took me twenty minutes. It went flawless, but still the quick send was a nice surprise.
Pieter still needs to work on the right toehook though.

Fontainebleau - Maunoury - Apophis 7B(7A+)

The nearby 'Jungle Book' boulder, was too damp, and as we didn't really have a plan, we simply headed up the hill looking for more dry boulders and made our second stop at "Kut de Crêpe".
Pieter had done this last time but as the pillar looks so attractive to climb on, I wanted to give it a try.
A few minutes later I sent it with ease and Pieter agreed that this is rather 6C at most in our humble opinion. Nevertheless, still a very nice pillar which was worth unpacking for.

Fontainebleau - Maunoury - Kut de Crêpe 7A

By following the GR and the blue path over and around the hill, we still made several stops trying for example the high, exposed and very scary highball "Irréversible", the very hard lowball "Microclimat" and repeated "Waimea (droite)" and "Pars Pro Toto (gauche)" that I already had on video, but that Pieter now also can tick off.

After all it had turned out to be an excellent day with much more climbing than we had expected. What a surprise.

November 22, 2019 - In between.

An extremely busy period at work and bad weather the times I was free had prevented me from being able to climb the past two weeks. It was so bad that I even went bouldering indoors last weekend when I was in Belgium. It wasn't the forest, but at least I had been able to move and release some of the stress that had accumulated at work.
Finally, today, I obliged myself to stop on time and head to the forest for a short climb. I needed to get out!

The weather forecast for around Barbizon had predicted no rain all day, but when I arrived in Apremont Marie-Thérèse, hoping to try "Humourisme (direct)", everything was soaking wet. It looked like a heavy rain shower had passed over moments ago.
I only had about an hour of daylight left, so quickly walked over to the nearby classical area of Apremont where most of the boulders surprisingly were quite dry. That rain shower must have been really local, or even worse, with the temperature rising again, maybe condensation is setting in?

I wasn't able to try a much, but managed to flash "Légitime Adhérence (assis)" as a warmup.

Fontainebleau - Apremont - Légitime Adhérence (assis) 7A

November 09, 2019 - Here and there.

Rain, rain and more rain. Lots of it.
It was tense until this morning, but as soon as I woke up, I was delighted to see that no rain was predicted for the day. My best chances for some rays of sun were, according my weather app, around Barbizon, so I headed off to Apremont. Vallon de Sully to be precise.
It was grey, no sun to be seen and the air felt humid when I parked at the buvette, there even was still some fog.
Far from promising, but I had all day ahead of me and hoped for the best. After all, it was barely 10h in the morning so I could take my time.

Most boulders in the spread out area weren't wet anymore, but still felt damp from the morning dawn. "Le Pouce" however was doable.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Vallon de Sully - Le Pouce 7A

The next two hours, until just after noon, I spent trying the beautiful "Parenthèse", but fell off the last moves many, many times. One time I even had the final big hold, but slid off with wet fingers.
One I definitely will go back for when conditions are better.

After a long break, in the form of moving to Cuvier Est, I managed to make a quick ascent of "Nile Delta (assis)" and noticed that despite my long arms, I still came short for the first move of "Echoes (assis)".

Fontainebleau - Cuvier Est - Nile Delta (assis) 7A+

By coincidence, Jean-Pierre (Roudneff) walked by and we both made a flash ascent of a nearby arete on slopers and crimps. Only about 6B(6C), but one that apparently Grand Master Philippe Le Denmat wasn't able to do. He must have overlooked something.

Before going back home, I stopped at J.A. Martin with the intention of trying the real sitstart of "Yoshi & Yuki".
The conditions there were way better than elsewhere and with the help of a bad toehook that I found for the left foot, I made the (probably) first ascent of the real sitstart.

Fontainebleau - J.A. Martin - Yoshi & Yuki (assis) 7A+

November 02, 2019 - Autumn rain.

The past week has been dominated by rain, it's as if all the rain we didn't have during Summer, is trying to catch up.
Only a few moments a day when the rain stops, but never long enough for it to dry.
This morning however, everything was wet, but it wasn't raining and there was a lot of wind. Definitely worth the chance to go the "L'Étrave" sector in J.A. Martin, one of the quickest drying sectors in the forest. On top of that a new problem, "Yoshi & Yuki", was opened there recently.

"Yoshi & Yuki" was opened with a crouching start, one which I repeated very quickly and deemed quite soft for the grade.
A real sitstart is also possible, adding a hard violent move to start. I had started working on it, but the rain came back and chased me away.

Fontainebleau - J.A. Martin - Yoshi & Yuki 7A

October 27, 2019 - Old time(r)s.

Two of my youth home town friends, Bart and Lynn, were here for the weekend and the plan was to all spend the night on the bivouac of the Hippodrome in Fontainebleau, just like the old times when I was still living in Belgium.
Knowing that we were going to climb together yesterday, I hadn't really set any expectations besides having a good time together in the forest, like the old times.

I had chosen to go to the Apremont areas because Bart and Lynn were better off with climbing some of the circuits. However, after walking up the hill of Apremont Envers, they already needed a break, so I started working out the moves of "Compresse Nez", the version that I already thought was too morpho.
Surprisingly, I found a way through the first crux and when I also found a method for the end, I started giving some real attempts.
I hurt my fairy tailbone again by falling on a big stone with it, but despite that, I managed to finish it after all.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Envers - Compresse Nez 7B+(7C)

The rest of the day was spent climbing some different coloured circuit lines, and grabbed a quick ascent of the not so difficult "Stephalloïde" in Apremont But aux Dames.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Butte aux Dames - Stephalloïde 7A

Even though I had made a nice bed with the crashpad in my car, I had a terrible night due to a painful tailbone.

This morning I had the impression that wanting to do like the old times, rather made me feel like an old timer.

October 13, 2019 - Powerless.

After having spent three sessions trying and doing "La Coccinelle" this week, my body felt tired and is in need for some energy recovery.
Pieter and Alberto arrived Friday night and they had their mind set on trying technical slabs. Not really my style, but I was in for some  change and we met at Cuvier Merveille.
During the whole day, I worked in three 7A slabs and couldn't top out any of them and my body felt more tired than ever.

Today, we went to Buthiers Canard, still very tired, but at least managed to flash the rediscovered "Knee Bar", immediately followed by Pieter.

Fontainebleau - Buthiers Canard - Knee Bar 7A

Pieter still managed to finish the beautiful "L'Esprit du Knee Bar", which starts deep in the cave and end in "Knee Bar". I fell near the end two times, leaving me completely powerless for the rest of the day.

Trying "L'Esprit du Knee Bar". Thanks to Pieter for the picture.

October 11, 2019 - No doubt.

The last three sessions, each of about an hour, I had spent trying the harder version of the ultra classic "La Coccinelle" in Buthiers Tennis. Almost every time falling off the last moves.
I think that it was partly due to always having doubts after the dynamic move to the pinch, about which method to try.

Today, I got rid of all doubts and decided to really only focus on trying the easier version.
The first moves are so memorised in my body that they I even made the dyno to the pinch on my first try of the session today. But later on, my foot slipped and I had to start over.
I took a five minute break and made it through to the end of the 7C+ version.

I felt glad, but somewhat disappointed that I hadn't focussed on that sooner.
Anyway, the harder version is in sight. No doubt about that.

Fontainebleau - Buthiers Tennis - La Coccinelle 7C+(8A)