January 12, 2025 - Stick to the (right side) story.

As I agreed with Olaf yesterday, we met quite early this morning at Rocher de Bouligny Est. I was pleased and psyched to visit a sector that was new to me. Something that had been a very long time ago. It was still quite early and freezing cold, but unfortunately, grey cloud covered the sky and we even felt some rain drops on our faces while walking towards the boulders. With most of the boulders on the North face of the hill, it turned out that it wasn't the best choice to go there, but I was in good company and I enjoyed the time.
The boulder that spoke to me the most when browsing bleau.info, was the one with "Left Side Story", "Right Side Story" and "Front Side Story". A visually stunning boulder, and one that would keep us busy for some time. As we already expected by the time we got to the boulder, the boulder surely wasn't in the best conditions, but at least it was dry.
I have to admit that I underestimated the difficulty of the problems, or I might as well say that I maybe overestimated the conditions. It was hard to find good friction on the slopers and the session started with a lot of slipping off "Right Side Story" for the both of us. It did get slightly better the more we tried, but it was really cold and we had to take a lot of short breaks to warm up our toes again. Nevertheless, we both made slow, but steady progress changing beta a lot of times during the process. Very strange and unstable body positions on this line that looked easier from the ground than when actually trying it. After some time though, I finally managed to top out from the standing start, knowing that I had to do it again, because the problem starts with a sitstart. Knowing what to do now, I thought that the two easy additional moves from the sitstart wouldn't make a lot of difference and another topout would be a quick deal. I was wrong.
The two additional moves from the sitstart are indeed easy, actually the easiest moves of the whole problem, but sensation of the friction on the slopers was remarkable. It took me at least another half an hour to finally make my way to the top again, this time from the sitstart. I had almost given up on it for the day, so I was really glad to get away with in the end.
Olaf made slightly slower, but still steady progress and came at one move from the end before he needed another longer break and the time came for me to have to leave.

Fontainebleau - Rocher de Bouligny Est - Right Side Story 7A+

January 11, 2025 - Moving on.

Those who read my previous post, know that I had started working on the ultra classic "Fourmis Rouges" during my Christmas vacation, but even after three sessions still hadn't gotten away with it. Then I had to go to Belgium for a few days to visit family and friends, after which I had to start working again last Monday. It had given me more than a week to rest and the weather forecast for today looked promising.
This morning, I met Olaf (Deppe) at "Fourmis Rouges", and the conditions looked very good. I tried to not make myself any illusions and just see how it would go, and had already decided that if it didn't go down today, I would give it a long break. I am not very keen on long projecting and mentally it was starting to weigh on me. Especially as the boulder is in an area that isn't my favorite due to its popularity and more than often being quite crowded. Also, I was starting to miss exploring other parts of the forest and trying different problems.
I started climbing today without pressure and needed a few attempts to get the muscle memory really going again. With Olaf being there and also giving it attempts, it allowed me to take it easy and take short breaks in between, enjoying the company.
It was very cold, barely above 0°C, but it was quite sunny and dry. The conditions seemed to get better with every attempt. When I then finally got the high sloper again, but fell off after a second or so, I felt that the game was on again and turned on the camera. Unwillingly, the feeling of 'sending stress' tried to get a hold of me, but Olaf succeeded well in his way, to keep me relaxed. On my second attempt after turning on the camera, I suddenly made my way to the top. The sense of relief was amazing. Not especially because I had just done "Fourmis Rouges", even though it played a big part of it, but mostly because I could let go of it, knowing that I don't have to come back to Cuvier Rempart any time soon. I had seen enough of the area and its crowds during my vacation.
Interestingly though, it was very crowded when the conditions were very bad during the vacation, today the conditions were great, but there was no-one around. And this on a Saturday.

Fontainebleau - Cuvier Rempart - Fourmis Rouges 7C

Olaf had another few attempts in "Fourmis Rouges", making very good progress with minor details and reached a new highpoint. He decided to end his "Fourmis Rouges" session on that positive note, and proposed to go up to "Immodium".
I had done the standing start of "Immodium" back in 2011, and the sitstart in 2017, but I gladly went with him, just to see if I'm still able to dyno after all these years. Surprisingly, I repeated it on my second attempt, and then again immediately after just to have another video.
Olaf only started trying a few dynos since not very long, but despite that, I saw him making very good progress on a very short time, being only at a few centimeters from the good hold. My time was up though and I wished him luck for the rest of his session, knowing that I will hear how it went on, when we will meet again to go to the far end of "Rocher de Bouligny Est". I'm so glad to visit another area than Cuvier Rempart tomorrow. It's time to move on.

Fontainebleau - Cuvier Rempart - Immodium 7A (repeat)

Christmas vacation.

As I had a two week vacation, I decided to just publish one post for the whole period, just like my previous vacation.
As it turned though, the vacation has been quite disappointing climbing and weather wise. I had set myself the goal to do "Fourmis Rouges", but the besides two good sessions, the other were overrules by bad and frustrating conditions.
Lot of fog, drizzle, rain, and humidity.

Sunday, 22nd of December, 2024

Yesterday, everything was soaking wet due to rain and even more due to condensation. In the late afternoon up to this morning, there was even more rain, but also a hard wind. I decided to look for dry boulders on higher ground, and found a good one on the top of the hill of Rocher de la Cathédrale.
Even though I tried it before, I had never been able to the first big move of "Le Gnou" or "Coup de Phil (assis)", but somehow, today it worked out pretty well and I was able to make a rather quick ascent of "Coup de Phil (assis)". "Le Gnou" on the other hand, didn't work out. Seems that the short traverse to the right seems to be the crux and I couldn't get passed it. Anyway, given the bad weather forecast for today, I was happy to have been able to climb at all.

Fontainebleau - Rocher de la Cathédrale - Coup de Phil (assis) 7A+

Monday, 23 of December, 2024

For some time, thinking years, I kind of secretly had this small dream of climbing one of the famous Big 5 in Cuvier Rempart. It always looked intimidating and scary at some point, but for some reason, I had been playing with the idea to try "Fourmis Rouges". Today, I asked my oldest son to join me to help me carry an extra crashpad and be there for a spot, so that thought finally became a reality.
I didn't finish "Fourmis Rouges" today after almost two hours of trying, but I was able to build up a great amount of confidence, and especially motivation to come back for it soon. I made some quite good attempts, and even though it very much sounds like an excuse, the conditions didn't feel exactly right. I made good progress though and feel like I'm close to a send, so I'm eager to return as soon as I have grown back some skin and conditions are favorable.
Below, a video of a handful of my best attempts today.

Fontainebleau - Cuvier Rempart - Fourmis Rouges 7C (attempts)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Filip Notebaert (@filipnotebaert)

Friday, December 27th, 2024

After another couple of really bad weather with no climbing possible, it was finally sunny yesterday, but unfortunately, the crack of "Fourmis Rouges" was still wet, making the problem impossible.
Slightly disappointed, I did have some fun with Olaf (Deppe) and Markus (Neher).
I was going to join them today at Mont Blanc, but when I saw how good the weather was, I couldn't resist and decided to go have a look "Fourmis Rouges". I was very pleasantly surprised that the crack was now dry and the conditions even felt really good. Instead of joining Olaf, Markus and their girlfriend/wife, I spent three another three hours trying "Fourmis Rouges". Still didn't send it,but was quite happy with the session as I had made good progress, making it two moves further several times. Three hours of trying had taken its toll though and I couldn't get to the top. 

Fontainebleau - Cuvier Rempart - Fourmis Rouges 7C (attempts, making progress)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Filip Notebaert (@filipnotebaert)

Saturday, December 28th, 2024

It was extremely cold with a lot of humidity in the air and even some light drizzle now and then.
Had a good time though, with the good company of Olaf (Deppe), Markus (Neher) and wife Kathy, and Lars (Haasis) and wife Simi.
Not very much possible due to the humidity, but "Hot Spring" just went, even though it didn't feel as hot as it would make one think in this weather.

Fontainebleau - 91.1 - Hot Spring (assis) 7A

Wednesday, January 1st, 2025

The forecasted wind for today was promising, but rising temperatures were concerning. When I left home in the morning, it all looked great, but the closer I got to Cuvier Rempart, the more foggy and I let go of most of the hope for topping "Fourmis Rouges" today.
Olaf (Deppe) had other important priorities today, but Lars (Haasis) and Simi were there. It was fun trying "Fourmis Rouges", but the conditions on the boulder were not good enough and the session was worse than the last good one I had a week before, in the sun.
I did, however, get a consolidation prize with a fairly quick ascent of "Ridicule", preceded by Lars doing this small but fun problem.
Tomorrow I'm leaving to Belgium for some family visits until Sunday, so I guess today was the last session of the horrible (weather-wise) Christmas vacation.

Fontainebleau - Cuvier Rempart - Ridicule 7B(7A+)

December 14, 2024 - Staying low among the high.

First, a video from two weeks ago, when the conditions were too bad for the bad slopers of the conventional "Take It Easy (direct)" in Rocher de la Reine. I did, however, get away with a non-conventional version, using a high, very sharp crimp left hand. Conveniently, I called it "Take It Easier".

Fontainebleau - Rocher de la Reine - Take It Easier 7A(7A+)

Last weekend, on Saturday, the conditions weren't too bad later in the day thanks to quite some wind, but I had left the house a bit too early. On top of that, I wasn't feeling in shape and didn't manage to top out anything, besides a 6A at the warmup.
Also last weekend, on Sunday, it rained as good a the whole day, so I only went out for a walk around Dame Jouanne. I mainly wanted to see "Perudo" and on my way there, I did get a glimpse of "Le Plafond". Even though I didn't even walk over to "Le Plafond", but continued straight towards "Perudo", I couldn't stop thinking about finally trying the very popular "Le Plafond" during the whole week. It only made sense for me to finally go try "Le Plafond" this morning. 
"Le Plafond" is a long and very popular roof and besides having a look at it many years ago, I somehow never even tried it. Today, I wanted to at least try it and hopefully get away with a send. One can't do the second without the first, but the first can be done without the second.
It was near freezing this morning, and I took my time to warm up and try all the moves separately. As soon as I had been able to do all of them, I turned on the camera and starting trying the whole thing. Maybe, I should have tried doing some better links first, because I lost a lot of time and energy falling off due to stupid little mistakes. I did end up sending it though, and it felt good. A really beautiful line.

Fontainebleau - Dame Jouanne - Le Plafond 7B+(7B)

Last week, I had also walked by the beautiful steep overhang of "Dévertige" on the top of the hill, and figured that with the time and energy that I still had left, that I would go try it.

I must admit that it looked harder than I expected, because this was almost a sending train just by myself. Just trying to see if I could do the start, I ended up flashing the 7A "Dévertige (direct)". It was so unexpected that I hadn't even bothered to turn on the camera already.
Feeling confident after the flash of the direct version, I turned on the camera and did "Dévertige (gauche)" immediately, on my first attempt.

Fontainebleau - Dame Jouanne - Dévertige (gauche) 7A+

I wasn't really attracted by the longer version, "Dévertige", which traverses all the way to the right, but now that I was there, I decided to give it a go. 
Surprisingly, on my first attempt, I made it all the way to the jug on the right, but missed the easy topout due to a footslip, bad conditions on the top, and not really what to to do.
I took some time to do the topout separately, took a short break and was able to finish it on my second attempt, barely ten minutes after the first one. Unfortunately, the battery of my camera doesn't like the cold and had decided to call it a day in the meantime. Therefor, I only have a video of my first attempt, failing on the topout. Bummer, but so be it.

Fontainebleau - Dame Jouanne - Dévertige 7B (failed topout on the first attempt)

November 30, 2024 - Thumbed up.

The morning started very promising with the sun already out early, but somehow, by the time I left for climbing at around 10h, a dense fog had formed and blocked out the sun completely. I was on my once again to hopefully try "Contrôle A", but once again, even though the top was dry this time, the part to the left of the arete was damp. With the fog, I didn't bother waiting and hoping for it potentially get better, so I reverted to plan B and drove to Buthiers Ouest to check out "Pouce Doudoud", another one of Manuel's (Marqués) new boulders in that small sector that I started trying after doing "Synchronicité" two weeks ago. To my pleasant surprise, it was completely dry and in noticeably good conditions too.  Two weeks ago, I could all moves, except for the last one, a huge dynamic move from a terrible sloper left hand and a weird pinch-like hold right hand, where placing the thumb correctly is key to holding on. 
After a short period of warming up in the moves, I got to the same point as last time, starting from two moves in, and always falling off the last one. I did start cruising through the first part, which allowed me to take slightly more time adjusting my body position for the last move and progressed steadily, coming closer to sticking it each time. Then finally, after again a very minor adjustment, I stuck it. Having started from two moves in, I jumped off and setup the camera for the real deal from the actual start.
Still being only 1°C at that moment, adding those two additional moves at the start made my fingers feel a little more numb by the time I arrived at the last one, which didn't make convenient to repeat it. I kept the focus though, and after a few attempts more, I finally made my way from the start to the top, with frozen toes and fingers, but I made it.
A really nice problem with great moves. Four stars for sure and a thumbs up!

Fontainebleau - Buthiers Ouest - Pouce Doudou 7B+

November 24, 2024 - Insta inspiration.

If you hadn't taken the time to clear the snow off of some boulders on Friday, then the chances were very big that they would be wet on Saturday. I didn't have that chance, so the boulders that I had hoped to try were of course wet. Instead of climbing, I decided to go for a short hike around J.A. Martin with Olaf (Deppe). We did find some dry boulders on our way though and were able to climb a little at least.
It looked lie Tony (Fouchereau) was able to climb and even find good conditions in Drei Zinnen, where he cleaned and opened another boulder behind blue n°6. According to his Instagram post, he thought "L'Arnaque Climatique" could possibly be 7C.
This morning, with the sudden much higher temperature, I really expected all boulders to be soaking wet due to condensation, but I took the chance and went to Drei Zinnen anyway. To my pleasant surprise, it was all dry and there was no sign of condensation, at least not yet.
Before trying "L'Arnaque Climatique", I wanted to try the original deep start of "Close Contact". The deep start adds quite some difficulty, but after some time, I did find a way to make it through and just past the more popular start on the right. It definitely had potential, but after a while, the roof started to become wet from condensation after all. Feeling around some other boulders, it felt similar.
The conditions were starting to become less good, so I hurried to try "L'Arnaque Climatique". Lifting up from the ground and doing the first move seemed to be the crux, but it only took a handful of attempt to get going. A few slip offs due to bad conditions later, I did manage to stick and climb on to the top. In my humble, it felt more like soft 7B+ at most, but nevertheless, a fun problem.

Fontainebleau - Drei Zinnen - L'Arnaque Climatique 7B+(7C)

November 17, 2024 - The one that got known.

When I checked my weather app yesterday evening, there was no rain forecasted for today, but this morning were very grey and looked kind of menacing. As if it could rain any moment. Thinking that it probably wasn't a good time to try harder projects, I decided instead to go to the boulder of "La Chevauchée" in 91.1.
I had done the standing start of "La Chevauchée" way back in 2016, and at that time it was still a very unknown boulder with only a few lines on it. It was so unknown that the now quite popular "La Chevauchée" was still published as "Le Surplomb Inconnu!", and that's how I still had it logged in my ticklist spreadsheet. As written, I had done the standing start back then, and it required quite an effort at that time, even needing the help of my good friend Maarten (Robays) who was there to point the best holds out to me.
Below, a video of that time doing the standing start.

Fontainebleau - 91.1 - La Chevauchée 6C+ (aka "Le Surplomb Inconnu!" back in 2016)

For some reason, even after doing some other lines on that boulder, I never bothered to do the sitstart of "La Chevauchée". A good reason to back for it this morning.
It clearly didn't give me as much trouble as eight years ago, because I did the sitstart on my first warmup attempt of the day.

Fontainebleau - 91.1 - La Chevauchée (assis) 7A(6C+)

Immediately after, I also did the version with an exit more to right, also on my first attempt.

Fontainebleau - 91.1 - La Chevauchée (droite assis) 7A

Being warmed up, I walked over to the main sector of 91.1 to try something harder, but unfortunately, by the time I got there, it had started drizzling. I immediately felt that this was the kind of drizzle that would make everything wet really fast and kept on walking, back the car, passing multiple groups of climbers on my way. By the time I arrived back at the car, I was soaking wet, and so were the surroundings.