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!
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+
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.
The Trois Pignons forest and all forests in the Essonne department are closed again due to fire risk during this heatwave. So I drove to Nemours to try "L'Air de Rien" in Les Mammouths. I had tried this once a few years ago with Pieter, but the dynamic move to the big sloper was giving me too much trouble with the bad conditions we had that day. I did manage to do it isolation, but it didn't feel easy at all. Therefor, I focused on that move first when I arrived. It again felt really hard, so I tried to find some minor details that would make the move consistent. After some small tweaks in foot placement, I finally felt solid on the move and turned on the camera to try from the start. Somehow, I cruised through it as if it was nothing. Not too early, because it was starting to get too hot again already. Really longing for some rain to rinse the boulders and please nature.
Fontainebleau - Les Mammouths - L'Air de Rien 7B(7A+)
Those that climbed on the ultra classic beautiful boulder of "La Baleine" in Petit Bois before me, most likely yesterday, as I was early this morning, ought to be ashamed of themselves. Big fat tick marks and a thick layer of chalk on the holds showed that they hadn't clean the boulder at all when they left. They should go back to their indoor gyms and stay there until they learn to have some respect for the boulders they climb on and for those that come after them. It's such a small effort for a big positive result. As one might have noticed by now, I went to Petit Bois morning to try the direct version of "La Baleine", the latter I did back in 2015, almost to the day already eleven years ago. Back then I had hesitated quite some time before I dared trying this beautiful and impressive problem just by myself. The boulder is still impressive and quite intimidating, but I had more confidence than eleven years ago. The far move to the lip looked too far at first, but I made it there already on my first attempt and jumped off to setup the camera. I knew I would be able to get there every time, and that it was just a matter of getting to the high but good sloper. Not being tall enough, I had no other option but to jump and go for it. I had brought two crashpads for the occasion, but still needed some attempts to gain more confidence and really commit myself to it. All in all, it didn't take very long before I was able to top out, standing satisfied on top of this beautiful boulder. I cleaned the boulder afterwards, of course, and I hope the ones that come after me will do too.
Fontainebleau - Petit Bois - La Baleine (direct) 7B(7A+)
The temperatures have been rising more and more throughout the week and the nights stayed hot. On top of that, the temperature in my home office just below the roof rose up to 34°C every day of the workweek. Even the water of our swimming pool reached up to 35°C, so that even didn't cool me down enough. My only cool moment was under a cold shower in the evening, but those didn't last for long. The heatwave is taking its toll and they even closed the Trois Pignons forest due to too high risk of fire. We are longing for this extreme heatwave to stop and cool down, especially during the night. Yesterday early morning, with the Trois Pignons (including Coquibus) still closed, I drove to Rocher Saint-Germain to try "Sérendipité (assis)", but this being in the sun in the morning, I passed on it and walked on to "Mazurka". This one being well in the shade, was very doable and the one hard move seemed to suit me well as I had it on my third attempt and topped out. Didn't feel hard enough for the grade, but I was happy with it. After briefly trying "Le Guerrier Gris", it quickly became way too hot and I went back home.
Fontainebleau - Rocher Saint-Germain Centre - Mazurka 7B+
Yesterday evening we finally had a short thunder storm and despite heavy wind and having big hope for some rain, it settled with only a handful of drops, not enough to make anything wet. It did cool down slightly and the night almost felt bearable. Being a cloudy morning this morning, the temperature didn't rise as quick as the previous days and I went back to "Fat Teddy's Drop" in Eléphant Nord. It was only a short session because it finally started raining lightly, enough to make the top of the boulder quite wet. The boulder felt warm, so I knew it would dry very quickly once the rain stopped, but I didn't know how long it would rain and I didn't want to wait it out, so I went back home to do some work around the house and in my barn. By early afternoon, the temperature again reached well above 30°C, but somehow I had a feeling that I should go back to "Fat Teddy's Drop". After a few moments of doubting, I decided to pack up again and go for it, despite the heat. The boulder was still warm, but the friction felt good and I knew that I could have chance. Already on my first attempt, I finally stuck the campus move briefly, but fell off due to firing off the big crimp right hand. A short rest later, I went for another attempt and immediately felt that it felt right. Everything flowed and I stuck the dyno to the slot. As I already done the second part, starting with the campus move, on my first session, I knew what to do and cruised through to the top. Going back had been totally worth it. Did the crouching start, as recommended on bleau.info, to avoid the big, very sandy, low holds.
Fontainebleau - Eléphant Nord - Fat Teddy's Drop 7C+(7C)
Like in many other countries in Europe, there's a severe heatwave and climbing is only possible in the morning. Not a good time for hard climbs, but nevertheless, I went to Eléphant Nord yesterday morning to try "Fat Teddy's Drop". Just like "Coup de Lune", not the best time to try it, because despite bein on the North side of the hill, the boulder does get sun in the morning, so the temperature there rose quickly. Not a session in vain though, because I was able to do all the moves and climb the boulder in two parts. Catching the swing followed by the campus move, seems to be my crux. This morning, I chose something extremely shady and drove to Marlanval to try "Mach 4". The boulder being in a very dense part of the forest, would surely be shady, and moreover, dry. It's a very humid spot though, also in this heat, and insects seem to like it there a lot. It didn't take long before the mosquitos found out I was there and feasted on me like I was the first breakfast they had in weeks. Yet there also, the temperature was rising fast and I was glad it didn't take me too long to finish "Mach 4", albeit with slightly shaky legs at the topout.
