May 07, 2017 - Election day (short version).

It's presidential election day in France today, but as I don't don't have the french nationality, I don't get to vote, so that's all that I have to say about that.

The few times that I was able to climb since my last post, I spent trying "Lamia-San", a new 7C in La Ségognole, hidden from all the rest, opened by Gregoire (Thibault).
It's a 4m straight up wall on bad slopers and a very hard dyno to very bad sloper as a last move. In a way it reminds of "Sale Gosse" in Roche aux Sabots.
I can do all the moves except the last one, the crux.

Yesterday it was raining nearly all day, but I didn't really mind as I I knew that it would clean the boulders and it gave me some time grow back some skin. Skin that I lost again today while trying "Dracool" in Éléphant Nord.

This morning everything looked still wet, so I took the occasion to look at the new boulders from Manuel (Marquès) in Mont d'Olivet, a small area right outside the centre of Nemours.
I found everything quickly, but nothing attracted me and the graffiti tagged boulders reminded me too much of the city, so I left, thinking to maybe stop at Éléphant Nord on my way back home.
Éléphant Nord would seem like a very bad idea after a day of rain, but I wanted to try "Dracool", and remembering from pictures that I had seen, it was in a quite open spot.

The whole area was wet and humid, but just as I hoped, "Dracool" was dry enough to try.
It turned out to be harder than I expected.
The small pocket right hand is very sandy and it felt like I could slip off any moment.
The high sloper left hand was not too bad, but everything that followed after that was covered with small grainy pollen from the nearby pine trees. It felt as if the top slopers were covered with a small layer of sand. Hard to completely clean off too.

I was stubborn though, I persisted, lost much more skin than I wanted in the process, but made it after all.
The small shout of relief at the top is more a release of fear.
It's not visible on the video, but right behind where you have to dyno there is a small one meter high boulder where you don't want to fall on. I was really close once.

Fontainebleau - Éléphant Nord - Dracool 7B

I still went to check the state of "Lamia-San", and it's already dry.

It will be hard to resist giving it a quick try after dinner this evening. I should grow some skin again first.