A couple of days ago, Theo (Konstantakopoulos) sent me a message suggesting me to go try one of his new ascents in Canche aux Merciers, "Big Fish (assis)". As it was raining as good as all day yesterday, I only was able to go check it today this evening after work and dinner. We finished eating later than I expected, and it was already just past 20h when I arrived at the boulder. Even though it's not that noticeable on the videos, it was the very last light of the day and darkness was going to fall soon. I had to hurry. The starting pinches didn't suit me very well at first, but after a few minutes, featuring a few tries, I got the hang of it and topped it out. Pretty nice one indeed.
Fontainebleau - Canche aux Merciers - Big Fish (assis) 7A+
I still had a little time before it would be really dark, and I spent it on the other side of the boulder, trying "Pac-Man", also from Theo. A huge very violent move to the right, followed by a harder than it looks topout. Quite sketchy as well. Somehow, barely ten minutes later, I managed to stick the dyno, did the far move to the slopey arete and to my surprise, I didn't fall off. Improvising, I had to use a power scream to not fall off at the very end. It seemed to have helped, because I topped it out then.
Fontainebleau - Canche aux Merciers - Pac-Man 7B+(7B)
Yesterday, Saturday, it was my birthday and even though I wanted to climb in the morning, I had to keep the session short so I could do something with my family later that day. It would have been great to be able to do "Tempête Solaire" in Apremont Butte aux Dames, but the conditions weren't ideal and I didn't want to spend the whole session again trying the separate moves. Instead, I chose to go to the nearby boulder of "Bavaria", with the intention to try the harder problems on it, starting with "8-6 Bavaria (bas)". The transition low to the left using the beta I saw online seemed impossible at first, but thinking out of the box made me come up with another method, using a toehook for the right and a hidden kneebar for the left leg. It worked, but the crux near the end was giving me some trouble. Luckily it didn't take too long before I was also able to solve the problem there and a few attempts from the start later, I was able to make my way through to the end. I really liked the solution that I found on this one.
To finish the session, I made a quick ascent, from my first attempt, doing the slightly easier "8-6 Bavaria", which does use the better holds higher up. Nice one on itself.
Fontainebleau - Apremont Butte aux Dames - 8-6 Bavaria 7A+
Still hectic and stressful workdays, and with rain forecasted for the weekend, I was in a desperate need for a short climb this evening. I was keeping an eye on the sky outside during dinner and it looked threatening. I immediately left after dinner to the nearby La Ségognole, looking at dark clouds coming my way. I wanted to try the new "Sacrée Pince", just recently opened by Theo (Konstantakopoulos), but I feared that it would start raining as soon as I arrived. Luckily, it didn't, and I hurried putting on my shoes after having turned on the camera. Despite not having warmed up at all, there was a slight possibility that I would do this quickly. I wasn't very wrong and was able to send it on my third attempt. It was all about the first move, like many of Theo's first ascents. I did love the starting pinch, which seemed to fit my hand perfectly. I could feel a few rain drops while walking back to the car, and after only a few hundred meters of driving, the clouds turned on their tap and let it all out. It was suddenly raining cats and dogs and my street had almost turned into a river by the time I got back home. It was a perfect timing.
I didn't have a very good weekend climbing wise, but I had good company nonetheless. After a very heavy work week, I still felt tired throughout the whole weekend and it was hard to keep the motivation high somehow. Luckily Lars and Simi and also Theo on Sunday, were there to keep the session bearable, which made stay instead of just calling it a very short session. Yesterday, I wanted to try "Man Power" in Apremont Désert, and after a short warmup trying the moves of "Les Surimis" on the boulder next to it, I was pleasantly joined by Lars and his girlfriend Simi. Soon after their arrival, I was able to do "Les Surimis".
Fontainebleau - Apremont Désert - Les Surimis 7A+(7B)
My attention then briefly turned to "Man Power", but after having worked out almost all the moves separately, I somehow lost interest and didn't feel like trying hard. We decided to move to another boulder on which I briefly tried "Le Hurleuir", but also there lost interest pretty quickly as it just felt too hard for the day. Instead, after watching Simi send "Malicia" on the other side of the boulder, Lars and I started trying a harder version, "Malicia (droite)". Even though we had a good idea about how to the hard mantle, the whole crux of the problem, execution turned out much harder than the theory. In the end, I was able to get away with it, but Lars will have to come back, despite having been so close.
Today, I had agreed to meet Theo (Konstantakopoulos) in 91.1, and also Lars and Simi were there. Theo had found an isolated boulder just outside the main area and after some brushing and cleaning, we were able to imagine a logical problem. It turns out to be very hard, and despite having done the moves separately, none of us could do a full ascent yet. Would have been nice to get the team send. Theo then showed us one of nicer lines, "Philion", named after his son. I definitely see this doable one day, but my skin was thin, sweaty, and I couldn't motivate myself anymore to try hard. It was nice to see Lars do the standing start. Definitely one of Theo's nicest. I can't say that I had completely off-weekend, but it certainly and unfortunately wasn't so on neither.
My main goal for today was the new "Catastrophe Eclairée" in Roche d'Hercule, recently opened by Richard Reggio and his friends, at a couple of meters to the left of "Fenbren le Fou". It's a quite high boulder, but the landing is pretty good, so I wasn't bothered trying it alone. The initial jump felt scary at first, but after a couple of attempts building up confidence, I was able to do it every time. But it's only then that the real difficulty starts. The high crimps aren't very good and there is no way to try the upper part separately, so it took quite some time before I started getting comfortable on them, but with each attempt, I felt I was getting closer. Then suddenly, I stuck everything nearly perfectly, stayed calm and topped all the way out. Really a beautiful climb!
On the way back, I joined some Belgian climbers from Antwerp, trying "Le Temps est Arrêté", on an aesthetically beautiful boulder, but one that I never dared to try alone. Now, with maybe six crashpads and a spotter, I remained calm and only a handful of attempts later, we all did the problem. One of them will have to come back for it, but it only being his second 7th grade boulder, I was still impressed with his attempts.
Fontainebleau - Roche d'Hercule - Le Temps est Arrêté (direct) 7B(7A+)
I was completely exhausted when I arrived at home at 22h on Friday, after having spent all week in the South of France for my job. A busy schedule with very long days had worn me out and I still felt mentally tired when I woke up in my own bed yesterday morning. Despite the exhaustion, I went back to "Tempête Solaire" to spend another session on it, even though I knew that the warm conditions weren't in my favor. Nevertheless, I had a quite good session and was able to do the whole problem in two overlapping parts instead of three the previous session. I'm definitely still making progress on it. This morning, I needed a change and went for a playing session in Rocher de la Combe Est, a small area that I had never been to before. I started with "Playtoi", that I was able to do on my second attempt. A short roof boulder that really suited my style.
Fontainebleau - Rocher de la Combe Est - Playtoi 7B(7A+)
Next, I made the dyno of "Playground" on my first attempt, but dabbed on the swing. I moved the crashpad a bit and did it again without dab on my second attempt as well.
Fontainebleau - Rocher de la Combe Est - Playground 7A+
To end the session I had some fun with some playful climbing in a nearby big roof.
When I was browsing bleau.info, looking for inspiration a few days ago, I stumbled upon "Culbutor (assis)", and immediately knew that this was what I was going to try today. It had been on my list for quite some time, but I never took the decision to actually go and try it. Today was finally the day. It was already quite hot when I arrived this morning around 10h, but the boulder is facing North, so it was very bearable. I warmed with doing the standing start, which I did on my second attempt, failing on the first, because I didn't feel very confident. I immediately did it again afterwards to make I got the good method in my body and head, and to gain more confidence. When I then wanted to try the roof part and sat down for the start, the first move felt absolutely impossible. The really far left hand crimp/pinch looked like miles away and I already started thinking about letting it go. Figuring that I had come here for this boulder especially, I of course stayed and made minor changes after each failed attempt on the first move. When I finally found a way to do that move, holding it and moving the feet at first seemed even harder. Luckily, I was able to the first move early every time, and again after changing some micro beta for my body positioning and body tension, I also suddenly was able to move my feet and go for the second far right hand move to the lip of the roof. Now I only needed to be able to hold the huge swing when letting of the feet in the roof, but it turned out that this definitely wasn't the hardest move for me. Learning to hold swing went pretty quickly. Having done all the moves of the first part and having the second part a few times separately, I was confident enough to set up the camera. Somewhat surprisingly, I didn't mess anything up and almost cruised through the roof, held the swing, stayed focused and topped out. After a short break, I repeated it again, this time to be able to show the whole second part, which is a beauty on itself. I really loved the slow but steady progress on this one, one of the beauties of climbing.
All in all, I had done "Culbutor (assis)" quicker than I expected, so I still had time for a little bonus climb before it got way too hot. Being just below the top of the hill, I decided to walk all the way to "Asics" on the top of the hill in the Maunoury area. I had wanted to try this low roof for a long time, but it's a slow drying roof, and never had the luck to find it completely dry. I figured that that wouldn't be a problem now. "Asics" turned out to be a little bit more complex at first, but that's mainly because there seem to be so many options to climb through the roof. After deciding on which method to stick to, it went down relatively fast. Glad to have finally done that one.
