August 26, 2026 - Not seeing many spiders.

Last week I had visitors from Thursday evening until Sunday morning, and even though I always like it when friends visit, it also wears me out completely due to the change in daily rhythm and routine. I did go for a short climb on Sunday afternoon after they left, but I was so exhausted and couldn't finish anything. When I came back home and told my oldest son how tired I was after being out of my own rhythm for a few days, he jokingly remarked that I probably don't see a lot of spiders, upon which I laughed and confirmed. We both knew why.
The thing is that he happened to mention a day or two earlier, that he once read or saw or heard , that spiders apparently keep a schedule of your doings in their heads to make sure that they hide already before you actually enter the room. People without a strict routine therefor have more chances of busting a spider, than people who do. I indeed don't see many spiders. Anyway, so far the biology lesson.

On Monday evening I felt better and went to Buthiers Canard after dinner to try "La Distinction". It had been on my radar for quite a while, but I was either waiting for someone else to be able to spot, or just too scared. I decided I was done waiting and just try the problem without any rush, slowly building up confidence. Eeven though I didn't finish it that evening, I was happy with finally having tried it and had gained quite some confidence.
Not wanting to let the muscle memory and confidence fade away, I went back this evening, determined. I wasn't in a rush or anything, just confident that I had a good chance of topping it out. 
The confidence was still there and pretty quickly I was able to reach my previous highpoint and went beyond, this time making it to the high sloper and thought it was as good as over. Not having done my homework for the topout, I struggled to get up and couldn't see the vague crack that should be there, but was covered with pine needles. I slapped, but missed and fell down from quite high, landing with both feet on my brushes that I had put on the small boulder behind the crashpad. This could have ended quite bad, but luckily it didn't.
The attempt that followed, I didn't make the same mistake and arrived prepared at the same point where I had fallen. This time, I slapped in the right spot, kept my calm and topped out. 
Really such a nice problem!

Fontainebleau - Buthiers Canard - La Distinction 7B

August 15-16, 2026 - One without the other.

The forest closures keep being extended everywhere except for the Buthiers areas that never were closed in the first place. It again limits the choice of what to climb where substantially, but luckily even in Buthiers there are some quiet spots with some isolated boulders. This time, yesterday morning, my eye fell on "X sans Y", opened by Manuel (Marques) last year I think. The boulder is well isolated in the Buthiers Ouest area, but I found it pretty quickly. A bit surprised by the bad landing, I knew I had to take this one slowly to build up confidence and determine where the crux is and how I would fall out of it. Being set on the wrong foot by trying Manuel's method, I lost a lot of time trying what he did, which didn't seem to suit me well and I felt stuck. After almost an hour I had almost accepted the fact that I might have to come back for this one, I decided to try my own method by making a dynamic move right hand instead of the always so controlled fashion of Manuel. Immediately I felt that this was more my thing and turned on the camera. I only needed two more attempts to stick the crux and make my way to the top.
I left the boulder pleased with the long session and didn't really consider the time as lost, but rather a training.

Fontainebleau - Buthiers Ouest - X sans Y 7B

This morning I went back to Buthiers Ouest to try "Jaspe", even more isolated than the other, but after almost an hour of looking for it, I was saved by David (Evrard) who was running in the area and came over to say hi. After so many years in the forest it was the first time that I actually met him in person. He was so kind to take me to the boulder of "Jaspe", where I discovered that I had stood at about two meters from the boulder two times while looking for it.
I was already tired and sweating like crazy when I finally got to try it, but wasn't able to finish it. It does come high up on my list though.

August 07, 2026 - Confusing closures.

The forests in the Essonne department are closed again from the 8th of August until the 10th at 7 o'clock in the morning. So closed for only the weekend. Forests closing and opening and then closing again causes a lot of confusion and almost starts to feel like bullying by the government instances. 
Last week I apparently did an unconventional exit of "Monster Hugo et Mister Fred" in La Grotte aux Fées, so just before the closure I went back to finish it correctly, by exiting just via the slopers just before the crack on the right. I tried out that exit as a warmup and it didn't feel harder than the exit with the crack on the right. As I still had the sequence of the line in my body, I was able to repeat it on my first attempt, this time exiting with the slopers just before the crack. Indeed felt like the same difficulty.

Fontainebleau - La Grotte aux Fées - Monster Hugo et Mister Fred (par convention) 7A+

Having finished so quicly, I still had quite some time left and moved over to the boulder with "Le Rêve d'Aphrodite". With a overhanging ascending arete to follow, it felt quite my anti-style at first. Especially just stepping into the boulder, trying to keep the body as much as possible under the overhang to avoid slipping of the bad slopers. It was a short learning curve though and I was able to finish it quicker than I expected.

Fontainebleau - La Grotte aux Fées - Le Rêve d'Aphrodite 7A(7A+)

"Le Rêve d'Aphrodite (assis)" uses the boulder on the left for the feet by convention, and even though it added a quite spicy move, this one also this went down relatively quick.

Fontainebleau - La Grotte aux Fées - Le Rêve d'Aphrodite (assis) 7A+

Finally with the time I had left, I decided to walk to the isolated mushroom shaped boulder about 400m to the South of the main sector. Quite hidden between the trees, but easy to find thanks to the small map on bleau.info, I was honestly a bit disappointed by the looks of it, as opposed to what I had seen on the pictures online.
There are many lines on this boulder but only one 'straight-up' in the seventh grade, "EPSilon". It required some cleaning, but once done, I had quickly found a sequence. I had a few footslips on my first couple of attempts, but once it stayed in place, I was able to finish the problem.

Fontainebleau - La Grotte aux Fées - EPSilon 7A(7A+)

August 01-02, 2026 - Hanging around in Essonne.

The closure of the Fontainebleau, Commanderie and of course Trois Pignons forests have been extended until the 7th of August for the time, and unfortunately the forest of Nemours and its surroundings are now closed as well until that date. Not surprisingly, the burnt sectors will remain closed for at least a year. On a positive note, it is still possible to climb in the Buthiers areas and luckily, the forests in the Essonne department are now open again to the public, with the exception of the part of Trois Pignons in Essonne, also known as the Coquibus.
Having spent quite some time in Buthiers, I was glad to find out about the reopening of the forests in Essonne, as it also opens up a wide choice of mostly smaller climbing areas and closer to home than Nemours. My choice yesterday went to a few less popular areas around the village of Beauvais and I started my session in Beauvais Guinguette where I wasn't able to top out anything, but I ended my session in the very small area of Bois de la Valette in the nearby village of Champcueil, where I ran into Christophe (Laumone) and Catherine (Miquel) by funny coincidence. They were rounding up their session and after I flashed the beautiful boulder of "Dolmen", we walked back to our cars together.

Fontainebleau - Bois de la Valette - Dolmen 7A

This morning, very close to home, but also already in Essonne, I went to the roof of La Grotte aux Fées in Oncy-sur-Ecole. I had only been there once, and was able to top out "Peter Pend" in bad conditions. This time I was there to try "L'Effet Toit" and "Monster Hugo et Mister Fred". Two lines that are not long traverses or loops as there are so many of them in that roof.
It was still quite early, and I was a bit surprised to meet two other climbers, Romain (who I already met once in Apremont) and Mickael.
I watched both of them doing a long traverse, while I inspected the holds and moves of "L'Effet Toit". After they finished their long traverse, I was able to finish "L'Effet Toit" on my first attempt with relative ease.

Fontainebleau - La Grotte aux Fées - L'Effet Toit 7A(7A+)

Romain and Mickael were having difficulties with the toehook in "L'Effet Toit" while I was working out the moves of "Monster Hugo and Mister Fred". The latter involves a big crack in the roof and at first I didn't understand how to move through the roof. Thanks to a tip from Romain to squeeze my feet in the crack, I saw a possibility. After some tweaking and finding a working method, it went down quite fast and I was happy with the result and having used some crack techniques.
In the afternoon, I went for a nice walk in a forest in Essonne with my kids. It feels great to be able to enter a real forest again.

Fontainebleau - La Grotte aux Fées - Monster Hugo et Mister Fred 7A+

July 27, 2026 - Time to fly.

At five minutes driving from my home is the aerodrome of Buno, one of the best planer plane clubs from France. When my oldest son Anthony was 13 years old, I offered him an initiation flight, many years later also my wife got one and I had always promised my youngest Noah, that he would get one too the year he turns 13, the required minimum age. Noah did turn 13 in january, so last week we drove to the aerodrome to reserve him a spot and today was the day. He had his flight. Despite having offered a flight to all my family members, I am the only one left to not have taken the flight, at least not with a planer plane. I had a different kind of flight this morning when trying the dyno of "Libellule" in Buthiers Tennis.
I got inspired by seeing a video on Instagram of someone doing it and it motivated me. It's located on the backside of the same boulder of "La Fourmi Verte", but also the highest side of the boulder and I had never dared to try it. With Buthiers one of the few options to go climbing, I decided to go for it.
Luckily Catherine (Miquel) happened to be there too, again trying the there and back traverse of "La Mygale" and she was so kind to offer me an extra crashpad and spotted me. Something that I especially benefited from mentally. It gave me enough confidence to push through and climb all the way to the top. A very nice line!

Fontainebleau - Buthiers Tennis - Libellule 7A+

July 23, 2026 - Live!

The forest fires are under control for almost a week now, but the ground contains a huge layer of turf and this is still smoldering up to half a meter deep in many places and can catch fire again at any moment. That's why close to 500 firefighters are still making rounds looking for those spots and drown them. This process will still take several weeks and the burnt areas will most likely remain closed to the public for a year. It's still unknown what will happen after that.
It's a true disaster for the forest and the many animals that have died, but I'm starting to be fed up with still constantly seeing pictures and videos of the fire and the aftermath on social media. Nobody truly knows how much the inferno has hurt me, but I try not to stay focused on the negative aspect of things. Instead, I have done quite a few things to help out our small community here in the little village of Noisy-sur-Ecole. I'm not going to name them because I'm not looking for compliments, but friends here and there will know if they ask about it.
I also haven't stopped climbing, because even though most of the forest is still closed to the public, and the unburnt areas will remain closed until Monday at least, but some areas around Nemours and the areas in Buthiers are free to enter. Those have never been closed. Climbing there has offered me a way out, away from the fires, and the oh so many depressing pictures and videos of the inferno on the internet. What happened happened and stopping with everything will not undo any of it. There's a time of mourning, but life still continues, despite the many calls to not go climbing out of solidarity or because of the risk of getting injured and requiring the need of rescue. Even though the latter might be true to some degree, where do we draw the line ? Should the inhabitants of the region stop riding their bikes, their cars, stop living their lives and stay in bed all day ? I choose to live.
As Buthiers is open and close to home, I have spent a few short sessions trying "La Fourmi Verte (assis)", right next to the big parking. I had done the standing start almost to the day five years ago I honestly didn't think that I would have needed three short sessions to do the sitstart. It's mostly quite good holds, but the crux requires a lot of power and is at the very top. It was especially the resistance power that I was lacking. Every time I made a small mistake before the crux, I didn't have enough left in me anymore to do and control the crux move.
The trick was to just repeat it over to dial in all the moves up to the crux to the point where climbing up to there would feel like only a formality. The sessions never lasted more than an hour, with long breaks in between attempts, trying to regain some power. On my third session, today, it finally all felt smooth and I was able to finish it on my second attempt.

Fontainebleau - Buthiers Tennis - La Fourmi Verte (assis) 7B+

July 14, 2026 - Man vs fire.

As most are probably already aware by now, on Sunday afternoon, several fires started along the A6 highway, near the Bois Rond and Vallée Chaude areas. Fires that quickly turned into a raging inferno, devouring the way too dry forest like the Cookie Monster in a pastry shop. It didn't take to become the biggest forest fire in the region for as long as I know. The days following Sunday, was a constant coming and going of Canadairs, two new DASH watering planes and three helicopters helping to try and get the situation under control. I have several pictures of the smoke and flying Canadairs, but I will not publish any of them here because there are many others already available online and it breaks my heart every time when I see them. Over 1200 hectares of forest has been burnt to the ground by now, but currently the situation seems to be more or less under control. 
After they manage to get the fires out, it will take another two weeks of keeping the soils wet to prevent fires from restarting and then it will take many many years for the forest to recover.
Despite all that, I do feel that life goes on and decided to go for a climb this morning in Buthiers Nord, one of the few areas where going into the forest was still allowed, according to the forest closures defined in the Arrêté Prefetorale published yesterday.
I managed to climb "Man vs Machine", even though "Man vs Fire" might be more fitting as a name now. Not the easiest of the grade for sure.

Fontainebleau - Buthiers Nord - Man vs Machine 7B

I did post the video also on Instagram, and as I expected quite quickly received comments hinting at it not being respectful towards the situation and firefighters in the current situation. It is my opinion however, that I didn't do anything against the defined regulations published yesterday and that it doesn't help anyone staying at home and not going for a climb where I was allowed to go. I am not disrespectful at all, but I'm a passionate climber and I just followed my passion despite the situation, but informed myself about where I was allowed to go. I don't feel sorry about having gone for a climb just because some might have a different opinion about good sense than I do. I will not necessarily do what others want because they feel it is their good sense.
I did have a phone call later with someone close to the ONF and was informed that the ONF, as a forest authority, had decided to close down the whole forest, including the areas that fall outside of the Arrêté Prefectorale. and they were going to the climbing areas still considered "open" to inform climbers about the extension of the closure. At the time of my climbing this morning, this was not yet public knowledge nor known to me.
It was therefor decided that instead of removing my post, which nobody would have noticed, I edited the description to inform about the new closures. At least that can be of a help to inform people instead of blatantly deleting a post without further ado.
To anyone reading this: it is not a good time to come to the forest, so please delay your visit as possible.