April 05, 2016 - Methodman.

Sometimes it all stands or falls with the method!

With the hour that has changed to Summertime, there is considerably longer daylight. It even allowed me to go for a short climbing session after diner and come back home while it is still light.

I had prepared myself mentally to finally finish off "Outil de Coupe" in J.A. Martin, a 7A of which I always had the feeling that it was at least 7B.
I can't remember when exactly, but it's a couple of years ago that I tried this for the first time, and I immediately had the feeling that this was really hard.
I had several short sessions spread out over the years, and even when trying it with friends sometimes, I never saw someone actually topping it in real life.
I watched several videos of it, and nearly all used a different beta.
Even though I tried them all, none of them had worked yet, but each time I walked away from it, I thought I had found the correct method and next time it will go down.
I kept on changing methods however and never got close to the top.

I started this evening's session swearing each time I fell out, thinking that again I would have to leave it behind untopped.
I don't know exactly what it was suddenly, but I think it was again the small change of method.
Not a big change, but a minor detail that did the trick.
For a long time I thought it was at least 7B, now I stood on top thinking it was a basic 7A, maybe even to the soft side.
All in all it took me about 10 minutes this evening, but spread over the years it felt like years.

Fontainebleau - J.A. Martin - Outil de Coupe 7A

Now I still had some daylight left and went up the hill to finally try "Aphasie (direct)", opened a couple of months ago.

I never tried it before because it is quite expo with the small boulder underneath and especially with the small tree right behind it.

One would think that a small tree isn't that bad and I would say they are right, but what make it scary are the leftovers of the broken off twigs. These things are pointy and extremely sharp. I'm sure that if you would fall on them with your back that they pierce right through the skin.

I set aside the bit of fear that I had but kept on my T-shirt. You never know what can happen, and all bits can help.

At first the end seemed a bit hard, although I think that the scare factor played here.
After changing my method slightly by getting the left foot real high, it wasn't that difficult anymore.
I would say soft for the grade but sharp for the skin.

Fontainebleau - J.A. Martin - Aphasie (direct) 7A

Oh yeah, beware, the snakes are coming out again. I nearly stepped on one this evening.