March 15, 2016 - Two days and a layer of tape.

Pieter was in the forest this weekend and we climbed together on Sunday.
My body was tired and the skin on my fingertips was as good as gone, but I showed Pieter around in Apremont Butte aux Dames.
He was, just like me on my first time in that area, pleasantly surprised with it.
We climbed a bit of the black circuit and I showed him some harder problems. He actually got really close to sending "Game One" (7B+) on his second try.
The slopers ate a lot from my skin again and I couldn't stick the far second move anymore.
I did, however, still repeat "Le Pilier de sa Dame" and its left variation.
Pieter did the original but just couldn't make the left version.

He had to leave back home around 16h, so to finish off the day, we had a look at one of the classics of the area, "L'Etoile Noire".
The boulder 'floats' on a couple of other boulders, creating a roof with quite some problems and variations on it.
The easiest one is the standstart of "L'Etoile Noire", with an exit on the prow (7A) and an exit left of the prow, in the straight face of the boulder (7A+).
We jokingly called the boulder the 'Death Star', and it turned out to be death for the skin on my fingertips.

After a couple of tries, the skin on my fingertips had given up and small drops of blood started coming out.
I was pretty close to doing the problem, even still fell out on the last move. It was hard to give up.
Even with bloody fingers I still continued, as I knew it could happen any minute, but I had no choice but to give up in the end.
Thanks to the adrenalin my fingers didn't hurt, but because of the blood drops, it was becoming too difficult to stick the slopey holds.
A bummer, but I knew I would be back soon.

Yesterday, Monday, a new workweek, even though I could have gone back quickly after work, I refrained from climbing. The skin was still a bit too sensitive.

But today, knowing that I have to be away for work the next couple of days, I couldn't resist and made the small detour via Apremont when driving home from work.

Here's what happened two days and a layer of tape after Sunday ...

Fontainebleau - Apremont Butte aux Dames - L'Etoile Noire 7A(7A+)

The first time I got there, my foot touched the boulder on the right, so with the energy still in me and the urge to continue climbing, I did it again without 'dabbing'.