February 25, 2023 - Hip without hop.

There was a lot that I had and wanted to do at home, and as I knew that it would take a lot of time, I left very early this morning for a not too long climbing session in Rocher des Princes. It has been quite a while that "Prince Hip" was opened and I wanted to give it a try for long already. The boulder merely being about 100m from the parking was an advantage and it allowed me to carry two crashpads, just in case.
It was quite cold and it took me a while before my hands were warmed up while I was trying out "Prince Hip", but as soon as I was warm enough, I was able to top out quite fast.

Fontainebleau - Rocher des Princes - Prince Hip 7B

The logical next step was of course its sitstart which isn't named "Prince Hip (assis)", but "Prince Hip Fluorescent", because it starts in "Fluorescent Adolescent". Having never done the latter neither, I couldn't figure out the method immediately, but after a while, I got the hang of it and the ascent followed soon. Some really nice moves on that one, I enjoyed it a lot.

Fontainebleau - Rocher des Princes - Prince Hip Fluorescent 7B+

February 19, 2023 - Mr. Cab Driver.

Yesterday afternoon my oldest son received the last of his mandatory driving lessons and now has to drive under my surveillance for the next two or three months. During that period, whenever he's at home, I told him to drive me everywhere that I need or want to go, something that he gladly accepted. It started this morning, when I told him to drive to Franchard because I wanted to go there for a climb. Of course, this meant that he had to wait for me to finish my session as he is not allowed to drive alone yet, but he didn't mind.
We walked to Franchard Hauts Sablons, where I easily flashed "Toutes des Précieuses" on my warm up attempt. This felt like a soft 7A+ at the very most, but it's a fun problem, climbing those strange features of that beautiful boulder.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Hauts Sablons - Toutes des Précieuses 7B(7A+)

The main reason why I wanted to go there, was to try "Porte à Gauche" again, on the same boulder. I had already spent a few sessions, but somehow never found a good method to come out of the roof. This time, it seemed like I wasn't going to do any better at first, but I made persistency count and ended up topping out, thanks to a change in a minor detail. Thanks to small detail, I even managed to do repeat immediately for a different camera angle. Nevertheless, this very nice problem felt quite hard in my opinion and nothing compared the previous, difficulty wise. Can very well 7B+ this one.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Hauts Sablons - Porte à Gauche 7B(7B+)

Making a very long detour on the way back, Anthony drove us home again.

February 18, 2023 - Vandalized skin.

Last Sunday, Pieter and I went to Rocher Cailleau to have some fun on the boulder "Vandale". Pieter tried "Vandale", while I was going for "Vandale (direct)". We were both quite quickly able to their respective standing starts, but Pieter still had to work out the hardest move, being the first one, and even though I needed some time to get acquainted with it again, I did manage, but fell off the last move two times. We had done good, but when we went into reserve energy after a while, we both realized that it would be require another session.
I was able to stop work a little earlier, but was greatly disappointed to find the roof and the starting pocket in it, soaking wet due to condensation. I did however, do the standing start again, just to keep the muscle memory trained. This morning, I went back, feared and prepared for the worst, but to my pleasant surprise it had already dried up. I did the standing start of "Vandale (direct)" on my first attempt as a warmup, which gave my confidence a boost. It still took quite a few attempts to come from the sitstart, but after a longer break, I managed to top out. Just in time, because the skin on my fingers was starting to get heavily vandalized.

Fontainebleau - Rocher Cailleau - Vandale (direct) 7C+

February 11, 2023 - Time to split.

After a week of sunny weather, but extremely cold temperatures down to -7°C, it was finally time for it to split and make way for a very enjoyable sunny 12°C. With this nice weather, Pieter of course had to join the party and came over again. I gladly accepted his proposal to do some climbing in the quiet area of Apremont Sanglier. 
It had been dry the whole week and it was the first time that we found the nice roof boulder of "The Enterprise" dry. With quite positive holds and a crux in the first part of the problem, it was a good one to warm up in and give our bodies a wake up call. After working out the crux, I was able to send it quite fast, and it looked like Pieter was going to do the same, but unfortunately he fell off the very last move due to exhaustion. I tried to motivate him to have a rest and try again, but he didn't want to be shut down at the warm up and proposed to go the next boulder.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Sanglier - The Enterprise 7A(7A+)

We found "Day of Tentacle" to be dry as well, but it was dirty and covered with grainy moss. Despite a long effort trying to get it as clean as possible, our hands got dirty after each attempt and made the friction bad to almost non existent. We agreed that it was no use to keep on trying and a good rebrushing with a steel brush would be required to make this actually climbable again. I have several steel brushes in the car, but it made more sense to come back on a rainy day and brush it then.
On our way up the small chaos on the Southern hill, I really wanted to try "La Catapulte" for which Pieter passed because it involves a huge two meter dyno, not his style nor his favorite move.
I expected it to give me more trouble, but surprisingly only needed three attempts to make it up the boulder. It was long ago that I did such a dyno and it was quite fun to do this one.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Sanglier - La Catapulte 7A(7B)

Pieter was able to finish "Tics Tocs" fast, on his third attempt. As I had done the problems on that boulder already, I used the occasion to rest and keep my energy for "Spidercochon (droite)". With the split in my right index finger not fully healed yet, I deliberately kept this one for last, knowing it involves a tiny very sharp crimp for the right hand for the crux move.
Last time I tried "Spidercochon (droite)" I fell several times while on the crux move going from the tiny crimp to the arete far right and higher up, despite being able to touch it every time. This time, I was able to stick the crux move, but the last move requires a lot of balance and delicate moving, which I didn't expect and still fell off after the crux. The attempt after that, I felt the crimp cutting deep in my finger and opening the split in my right index finger. The cut was even deeper than two weeks ago and I was forced to quit. Despite that, it was a good session with yet another step further. Anyway, it was time to split after all.

February 05, 2023 - Out of the box.

It drizzled until late yesterday evening, but this morning the sun was out and it looked very promising. Staying on the safe side, I decided to drive to the mostly quick drying area of Rocher de la Reine. Manuel (Marquès) had opened some new problems there lately and it was a good occasion to some of them out. By the time I had arrived, the sky had turned grey again and the clouds looked like they drop rain any moment.
I took the time to work out the moves of "Les Grands en Boîte" but right after I had figured them all out and even did the topout on slopers cleanly, there was a mild drizzle again. The holds under the overhang didn't get wet and the marbled arete and crimps in the face were easy to keep dry with the help of a towel. It took a few attempts to link everything together and when I finally got the top slopers, I learned that they had become wet and had quite a struggle to get myself up. A couple of times, when I wanted to pull myself up, my right hand slipped and my body was lowered again with each slip of the hand. I didn't want to let go anymore and leaving aesthetics way behind me, I made it to the top.
I figured that there was no point in even trying something else after that.

Fontainebleau - Rocher de la Reine - Les Grands en Boîte 7A+(7B)

February 04, 2023 - Ruined.

It was a big disappointment to see that it was wet this morning due to some totally unexpected rainfall during the night. The sky was covered with grey clouds and with hardly any wind, it didn't seem that it would be dry soon. It was only in the early afternoon that it started to look more dry and as I had planned to go to Eléphant Nord, I left for that area against my better judgement. It was clearly the wrong choice, because everything that I had hoped to dry was still too humid to climb on. I feared that my chance of climbing was ruined but I changed plans and decided to drive to the nearby tiny area of Les Pentes du Marchais. Only boulder of interest there, but I figured that there wouldn't be a big chance to try and climb a lot. Besides, as I hadn't been there before, at least I would know where it for a next time if the boulder that I wanted to try turned out to be wet as well. I was lucky this time though, because "La Ruine" was dry and I could at last start climbing.
It was nice to be all alone out there and I took my time to try, and I had to try a lot. I have long arms, but having longer legs would definietly help with "La Ruine". At times, I really thought that it was way too morpho and simply not possible for my height. Perseverance helped and many attempts later, I finally got to climb to the top. Despite the morpho aspect, a really nice technical problem.
I tried the sitstart also a couple of times and was able to get past the standing start, but my skin was ruined, and the vertical crimp right hand had opened the cut in my right index finger again. The cut from last week didn't have the time to heal completely and the many attempts for the standing start had already taken their toll. It was okay though, it's a quiet place where I don't mind going back to another time.

Fontainebleau - Les Pentes du Marchais - La Ruine 7B

January 28, 2023 - Elementary, my dear Watson, elementary.

It was my youngest son's, Noah, tenth birthday yesterday, so I didn't go for a long climb, and I didn't even bother writing a blogpost in the evening.
I met Pieter at the small parking of Gorge aux Châts early in the morning, and despite being 4°C, it felt much colder. We started with trying "Rififi" in the Eastern part of the area. Even though I was able to stick the first move a few times, my legs apparently aren't long enough for my right foot to remain on the foothold and I always cut loose after making the move. At least, it didn't seem impossible anymore for climbers of mine and Pieter's height. I was motivated to try more, but after cutting a split in my right index finger, we had to try something else. Not having much time left, we walked to the bottom of the hill to try "Arcenic" which I had tried once long ago, but didn't dare to do the topout, being alone by myself. With a spotter like Pieter, I knew that there would be better chance.
It didn't take Pieter long to get to the topout, but he chickened out a few times and jumped off. I had much more trouble than last time and couldn't even get to the part where Pieter got stuck several times. Then out of the blue Pieter came up with another method for the first part and topped all the way out. It was a beautiful method, totally my style and it allowed me to top out immediately after Pieter. It felt really cold and I was honestly glad that it was time for me to go back home.

Fontainebleau - Gorge aux Châts Est - Arcenic 7A

This morning, being only -3°C, it was even colder than yesterday, but this time the sky was clear and the sun was out. I had agreed to meet go with Pieter to Apremont Portes du Désert, mainly to try "Elementary", which we both tried about a year ago or something and we got quite close. Being with only really bad slopers, the cold temperature of today was more than welcome. 
Arriving on the parking, it was a very pleasant surprise to see that Paul (Van Daele) and his girlfriend were coming with us.
We warmed up in the low roof of "Dégazage" and all topped it out relatively quickly. 

Fontainebleau - Apremont Portes du Désert - Dégazage 7A+

Pieter quickly seemed to remember the method we used last time for "Elementary", but we were all stuck at the topout, no holds, nothing but really bad slopers. We spent a lot of time and many attempts, but all in vain, until I decided to try something slightly different at the end. This time, I got into reach of the final hold, touched it, but fell off after my foot slipped away. Many attempts followed, and when I had the impression that I couldn't even reach where I got the first time, I decided to make a small change in foot placement at the end. It seemed to have been the trick, because I suddenly topped out, making it even look quite easy. I had reached my goal of the day.
A little later, using the new beta, Paul was able to top out as well.
Pieter got closer and closer, but had spent so many attempts and had reached the point being out of energy and he decided to give up. It will be next time for him.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Portes du Désert - Elementary 7C