November 30, 2017 - Bad boy punished!

If I would make a video of all the times that I cruised through "Sale Gosse" but fell on the last move, it would probably fill up my computer's hard drive.
I had been trying it off and on over the last two years, each time comfortably making it up to the last move, the dyno. In last few sessions, my hand even reached over the slopey edge, but never managed to stick.
Believe me, I did try the static version with the slopey pinch right hand quite a few times too, but that method wasn't meant for me. I had to jump like most who have done it, or are trying to.

After what has been a very successful week up to now, I realised this morning that it might be a good time to return to the bad boy, the "Sale Gosse" as the French like to call it.
Like most other evenings this week, it had rained, but I was hoping that the conditions of the boulders would also be like most other days this week.
The ground was still really wet though, and this time I did have a look without the crashpad first to see if "Sale Gosse" would be dry, which it was.

Already from my first attempt, I easily climbed up to the dyno, jumped and slapped half of my hand over the slopey edge, but came off.
Nevertheless, the friction felt great and this first attempt was the best first attempt of any previous session I had on it before.
At that moment, I felt more confident than ever that the send would probably be today.
I didn't even feel the so called 'sending stress'. Most climbers will probably know what I mean with that.
Instead, I remained calm and focussed, gave it all I got with each try and most likely a slight bit more when the actual send came, accompanied by a scream of victory.
The bad boy is punished!

Fontainebleau - Roche au Sabots - Sale Gosse 7C

November 29, 2017 - Another classic.

It was still -1°C when I left for Cuvier at 9h in the morning. I had just finished scratching the ice of my windshield and it seemed to take forever for the condensed windows to clear up inside.
I left early, because I wanted to profit from the ice cold morning temperature to try "La Bérézina" (aka "L'Abbé Résina" in some topos).
It's one of the biggest classics of its grade for the area, but I had only spent some real time last Wednesday when the conditions started out good, but worsened quickly.
Even though it had rained last evening and the ground was still wet in most places, the skies had cleared up during the night, and when I came outside it was of those of days where you just feel it in the air that the boulders will be dry and in pristine conditions.
At that moment, I felt like the luckiest man on earth to still be in holiday.
I knew that I had to leave early though, because as soon as the sun would warm up the air, the icy frost would start melting and dripping from the trees, finding its way down on the boulders.

It felt freezing cold, but my fingers warmed up quickly on the slopers of "La Bérézina" that were stickier than I ever felt before.
The melting had begun however, and there was a constant ticking sound of drops falling from the big old oak tree onto the crashpad.
The boulder started dripping water, which was luckily guided by forces of nature, right in between the first two slopers.
Some slopers on the top were wet though, but after carefully marking where the dry spots were, I ended up finishing "La Bérézina" aka "L'Abbé Résina".

Fontainebleau - Cuvier - La Bérézina / L'Abbé Résina 7C

November 28, 2017 - Patience was a virtue.

It started raining heavily yesterday evening, and the last drops fell around 7h30 this morning.
Of course, everything was soaking wet, but around 10h the skies cleared up and allowed the sun to shine.
Despite that, our terrace out front (which is made of the same sandstone as the boulders in the forest) seemed be staying wet forever, and as I know by experience, the condition of that terrace is mostly a good indication of how dry the boulders are in some places.

I took a lot of time doing household and finally around 14h in the afternoon, the signs were starting to look in favour.
It's very unusual for me to leave that late, but this time I was extremely patient.
Still, after that long waiting, most of the streets were still wet and when I arrived on the parking of J.A. Martin, I even doubted to go have a look at the boulders without crashpad first.
It still looked wet, but knowing that the sector with "L'Étrave" dries really quick, I took the crashpad anyway to avoid having to come back for it.
In the worst case, the walk would have been only a bit heavier.

The only reason I wanted to try "L'Étrave (assis)", was because that I knew it's in of the quickest drying sectors in the forest, which increased my chances for climbing.
I expected at least the big undercling to be still wet, but I was very pleasantly surprised to see that the boulder was completely dry and felt in very good condition!

I had done the standing start only a few weeks ago, so as I still had that sequence in my head, I immediately started working the moves from the sit to the stand. Which took me only a couple of minutes by the way. The friction was great!
Already after a handful attempts, I fell off the last move and I decided to take a five minute break.

On the first try after my short break, I executed all the moves perfectly and used the friction to take my time for every move.
The sitstart doesn't add very much difficulty to the standstart, but the move to the undercling is much more powerful and requires a lot of body tension.
All in all, a superbe five star problem according to me!

Fontainebleau - J.A. Martin - L'Étrave (assis) 7C

On the way back to the car I kept on thinking that patience really did help this time. It was a virtue.

I also couldn't resist turning around and look back at the beautiful hill with the sector "L'Étrave".

Sector "L'Étrave" (J.A. Martin) on the top of the hill in the middle of the picture.

November 27, 2017 - Conditional luck.

I was away last weekend and I was disappointed to see that everything was wet when I arrived back home late yesterday evening.
With still one week of holiday left, I was hoping for good conditions.
This morning, it looked more or less dry and there was no fog, but a freezing cold mild wind, which was a good sign.
I got the feeling that I might be lucky today, and left to Buthiers Piscine with my mind set on "Dosage".

Upon arrival, I immediately noticed the dry state of the boulders and with a temperature of a mere 4°C, the conditions were close to perfect.
I only needed four attempts to get into the good position for the far move to the pocket that looked way too far. Still, I went for it, stretched out and grabbed it. Now I had to stay calm to finish it off.
I didn't know what to do at first, but remembered a pocket high up right.
It was barely, but I could reach it and climb on to the top.

Fontainebleau - Buthiers Piscine - Dosage 7C

Before meeting up with Stef (Jacobs) again in Franchard, I made a quite quick ascent of the nearby "Insistance", taking the advantage of the good friction on the bad slopers on the top of it.
Even with such good conditions, sometimes extra cleaning is required.

Fontainebleau - Buthiers Piscine - Insistance 7A(7A+)

I could see "Les Monos", in the Buthiers Tennis sector, from where the car was parked, and couldn't resist trying to repeat it for the video.
I needed quite some time for it, when I did it back in 2013, but now it went from my first attempt.

Fontainebleau - Buthiers Tennis - Les Monos 7A

Stef had told me on the phone that he wanted to try "Boule de Nerfs" in Franchard Isatis, which gave me the occasion to finally try "Alta" right next to it.

I arrived at "Alta" before Stef and didn't wait to give it some test tries already.
I used the beta that I remembered seeing on a video on bleau.info and already after my first attempt, I felt that this could be something for me.
When Stef arrived about five minutes later, I wanted to show him the method I was trying and suddenly, beyond all expectations, topped it out after a total of a handful of tries.
The conditions were amazing!

Fontainebleau - Franchard Isatis - Alta 7C

While Stef was preparing to start in "Boule de Nerfs", I used the occasion to quickly repeat it for the video.
It went down on my second attempt, just like the first time when I did it in 2011.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Isatis - Boule de Nerfs 7A+(7A)

Stef came really close to sending "Boule de Nerfs" and even fell off at the last move, but he will have to come back for it as he had to drive back home to Belgium.

He didn't mind though as he did "L'Angle Ben's" the day before.

November 23, 2017 - Out of energy.

I met up with Stef (Jacobs) and his friend Diet at bivouac of the hippodrome where they had spent the night.
Yesterday, I agreed to join them going to Cassepot where Stef wanted to try "Double Axel" in Roches Grises and "Nicotine" in Roches Oranges.
I didn't mind trying to repeat "Double Axel" again, and I hadn't done "Nicotine" yet, so I was in the game.

I was able to repeat "Double Axel" after a handful of tries and took a short break while Stef slowly but steadily made good progress.
He threw in the towel though, but we knew that we could stop here again on the way back and continued up the hill to "Nicotine".

It's a straight up wall with barely holds on it, opened by crimp master Philippe Le Denmat, with a tiny razor sharp crimp for the right hand.
It almost comes down to how much pain you are willing to endure to make it to the top.
With only seven registered repetitions, including mine, not many have felt like it, if they could reach of course. It is quite morpho.
Painful, but very nice! It was a good thing for my fingers that it only took three tries!

Fontainebleau - Cassepot Roches Oranges - Nicotine 7A+(7A)

While Stef worked a bit longer in "Nicotine", I started trying "Opportunity" on the nearby boulder of "Get On Up".
"Opportunity" starts deep under the roof with the left hand on the pedestal, then you have to make some annoying moves with foot locks for both feet, trying not to touch a small rock underneath your back, all quite morpho too, until you reach the start of "Get On Up" and exit straight above with some bad sloper sidepull's.

I managed to work out the sequence into the start of "Get On Up" quite fast, but it felt like annoying fiddling around.
It was when I started working out the second sequence, from the start of "Get On Up" and the exit above, that I quite liked this shortened version of "Opportunity" and decided to make a video of that sequence only.

That sequence alone took me at least half an hour to work out and is very hard on itself, much harder than the first sequence of the lower start.
I only noticed it at home when I wanted to export the video, that the battery of the camera was completely out of energy.
Luckily it had still captured the most important part. I should have played on the lottery today!

Fontainebleau - Cassepot Roches Oranges - Opportunity (raccourci) 7B(7B+)

Stef had started working in "Spirit of Cadeau" in the meantime, but after many attempts, he also was running out of energy and we made our way back to "Double Axel" down the hill.

The walk down served as a good rest, because while Stef was making very good progress in "Double Axel" again, I was able to do a quick repeat of its sitstart "Triple Axel".

I only needed a handful of tries, but they were enough to leave me out of energy again.

November 22, 2017 - Immortal.

When you think about it, we are all becoming immortal in some way and all that thanks to the internet.
Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc..., even this blog all contribute to our immortal presence throughout the world.
Traces of all of the above will be kept and cached somewhere as long as the internet exists.
But, anyway, I'm only mentioning that because I finally did "L'Immortel" today and thought the subject of immortality would fit with it.

Having a holiday, and as there's no school vacation, I thought it would be a good idea to go to Cuvier today.
The weather was announced to be sunny all day, so already at 9h in the morning, I started my warmup to profit from probably the best conditions of the day. I wanted to try "La Bérézina", so I needed them.

I warmed up having fun with the good old tree in front of "Le Carnage"...

And in "Coton Tige"...

Fontainebleau - Cuvier - Coton Tige 7A(6C+)

I spent over an hour trying "La Bérézina", and even though the conditions were looking good, the friction wasn't that good, it wasn't sticky enough.
I could easily reach the first sloper, but as soon as I applied pressure on it, I started slipping. It was quite frustrating.

Stef (Jacobs) suddenly turned up and I showed him where to find "La Gaule", of which I gave the sitstart some good tries.
I could get passed the start of the standing start, but the shady left side of the boulder didn't stick enough to do some valuable tries.

Looking for better conditions, I walked to Cuvier Ouest on the top of the hill, where the boulders catch more wind.
The conditions were indeed much better there and once again, I definitely wanted to try "L'Immortel".
Probably my tenth session on that very difficult dyno.
Finally, after what might be over 100 tries in total of all sessions spent on it, I was able to finish it off.
This felt really hard for me, despite being it totally my style.
Once opened as a 7A+, upgraded to 7B, to me it felt like a good 7B+!

Fontainebleau - Cuvier Ouest - L'Immortel 7B

Back down in Bas Cuvier, noticed that the starting pocket of "Pain against Gravity" was dry for once and I put on my climbing shoes.
I felt like I still had something in me and those short explosive problems seem to suit me well mostly.
After a couple of tries I realised where the name came from and had to tape in my whole right ring finger to help me withstand the pain when pulling up hard on the small two finger pocket.

What I thought would have been only one extremely hard move, turned out to be two of them in a row.
In a way, I kind of liked this problem, but on the other hand, I can understand that isn't (and never will be) a popular one.
Before my repetition, this had only 3 registered repetitions, out of which the last public one in 2011, and that for a boulder right at the entrance of Cuvier.

Fontainebleau - Cuvier - Pain against Gravity 7B+(7B)

As soon as I will click on "Publish" now, another piece of me will be immortal.

November 19, 2017 - Puzzled.

When I'm forced to stay at home due to it being wet outside, I can never sit still.
I can't sit or stand and do nothing. I always have to have something to work on, fiddle on, etc... to keep me busy.
What many people probably don't know is that, on dark evenings, I can spend hours of puzzling.
1000, 1500 and up to 2000 pieces. More than that and it wouldn't even fit on the table anymore.
It keeps me busy and at the same time calms me down and brings me into deep relaxation.

Yesterday, I questioned if patience if sometimes worth it.
Today, I must answer 'yes' to that question.
Because of the rain last night and the grey skies in the morning, I had no choice but to wait for it to dry.
To keep busy, I spent a couple of hours cleaning out and tidying up the washing room.
Having done that, it was already 14h30 when I arrived in 95.2.
For once, I didn't care about the crowd (which was definitely present). I just wanted to be sure to be able to climb something without having to look around too much and walked straight to "Captain Hook" on the top of the hill.
It's the most popular and thus most crowded part of 95.2, but I knew that "Captain Hook" isn't a popular problem, so most likely it would be free. And dry!

I had already worked out the sequence of "Captain Hook" before, but had to wait for better conditions to make some real attempts.
Surprisingly, the conditions on the boulder were quite good, much better than one would expect after such a wet morning, and after about fifteen minutes of work it was done.

It's a very short problem on a small boulder, but I can appreciate every move on hold on it.

Fontainebleau - 95.2 - Captain Hook 7B(7B+)

I still made some good attempts in "Futurs Barbares (direct)" and finished off the afternoon with a flash video repeat of "Triplette", which was also in surprisingly good condition.

Fontainebleau - 95.2 - Triplette 7A

Walking back to the car, I wondered what would be the best. Patience or no patience.

Sometimes you can be too early, but also too late.

I was puzzled.

November 18, 2017 - Patience.

"Il faut être patient!" (you have to be patient).
I will never forget the moment when Jean-Hervé (Baudot) told me that.
It was on a similar grey and humid Autumn day, like today, when I was looking for dry boulders in the morning.
I was patient today and only left around 11h towards the area of Maunoury, hoping to find some dry boulders there.
The dense fog had fallen down during the nigh and had made everything wet, but my plan was to walk all around the Maunoury area and try everything interesting and dry enough.

The first dry boulder on my path was the one with "Movement Activated", which was in surprisingly good condition as opposed the other boulders nearby.
Here, I wanted to try "Movement Activated (droite assis)".
What I thought would be not worth it, the sitstart added some interesting moves to the original standing one.
In my humble opinion, however, it just doesn't add enough difficulty to make it a spot on 7B though.
But then again, it does quite fit my style.

Fontainebleau - Maunoury - Movement Activated (droite assis) 7B

Here too, the high fog started to fall and I had the impression that conditions were starting to get worse.
The only thing that I still managed to finish, was "Jet Set biscuit".
On some previous visits, I could never stick the first move long enough to start the dynamic move.
Today however, for some reason, even though the 'biscuited' jug was wet, it went down on my first attempt.

Fontainebleau - Maunoury - Jet Set biscuit 7A

I still went all around Maunoury but couldn't find anything anymore that was dry enough.

While walking to the car, the sun came out shortly and I decided to stop at Mont Simonet and walk to the Mont Blanc area.

It was almost 14h30 and I hoped that by now the new boulder, opened by Laurent Darlot, would be climbable.

I walked all the way for nothing, because everything was too humid.

Even patience didn't help today.

November 15, 2017 - United Colors of Bleau.

Last weekend Pieter and Alberto came to the forest, but we never got to put on our climbing shoes.
It rained the whole weekend, so we didn't get further than walking, exploring the forest and locating new and old boulders in remote areas, such as Franchard Sablons Ouest.
The weather turned better on Monday, but I had to wait until today to be able to take a few hours off work for climbing.

I went back to Franchard Sablons Ouest where a couple of new boulders have been opened on the top of the hill by Jason (Kester) and his wife Helen (Dudley). They live in Arbonne-la-Forêt, so basically it's in their backyard.
I enjoyed the fifteen minute walk through the forest and the smell of it gave me energy.
My eyes were treated with the beautiful mix of colours that Autumn and the trees can offer. I loved it!

United Colors of Bleau in Autumn.

I started with "Into the Void", which looks (and is) the most interesting.
The conditions weren't in favour, but still I finished it on my second attempt.
It climbed very nice, but felt quite soft for the grade. Maybe more 7A+?
In any case, a really nice problem!

Fontainebleau - Franchard Sablons Ouest - Into the Void 7B

Up next was "Mr Grumpy Pants" just below "Into the Void".
This one I flashed with ease and felt more like a very soft 7A at most, but maybe I was lucky.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Sablons Ouest - Mr Grumpy Pants 7A+

From the start of "Into the Void", Jason also opened "Metu Oblivionis" which doesn't exit over the prow, but in the wall with crimps.
This one I also flashed quite easily and couldn't understand how this could be 7A+.
After watching Jason's method, I noticed that he did the first couple of moves of "Into the Void" to the right and came back into the wall on the left afterwards.

Anyway, here's what I call "Metu Oblivionis (direct)", for which I think it will be about 6C+(7A).

Fontainebleau - Franchard Sablons Ouest - Metu Oblivionis (direct) 6C+(7A)

Using Jason's method makes it a slight bit harder, but still didn't feel harder than 7A.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Sablons Ouest - Metu Oblivionis 7A+

Even though the grades might be on the soft side, still some nice new openings by Jason and Helen!

As the more interesting and harder problems required better conditions, I walked on the sector where "Matagot" is.
I was hoping that "Pince-Mi et Pince-Moi" would be in good enough conditions to try.

They turned out to be not too bad, but this took me more attempts than all the previous problems together that I did this afternoon.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Sablons Ouest - Pince-Mi et Pince-Moi 7B

There was no time left anymore to still start trying something else, but I felt relieved to have climbed again after a week of not climbing at all.

Those were two hours very well spent!

November 08, 2017 - Use the occasion.

Back at work since Monday and with the Winter hour that was set a while ago, it is already too dark by the time get somewhere after work.

This afternoon, however, I was working from home so I could bring Anthony to music school at 17h, which gave me about twenty minutes to go somewhere close and at least touch some rock.
The new boulders opened at Roche aux Sabots Sud, right next to the parking, are ideal for that.
One of those boulders, is the one with "La Libido" in the centre of the small area.

The sitstart has been opened by Tony (Fouchereau) and Thierry (Vasseur) and proposed as 7A+(7A).
They are both tall men and I guess the start must be harder for the tall, because it didn't give me any problems whatsoever and I flashed it with relative ease.

Fontainebleau - Roche aux Sabots Sud - La Libido (assis) 7A+(7A)

The exit to the left, proposed as 7B, looks interesting but the slopey top was too humid and it was already starting to get dark.

Good option for the next occasion.

November 03, 2017 - Going in deep.

Yesterday was dominated by condense in the morning and grizzle and rain in the afternoon.
No climbing possible!
This morning started with a dense fog, but the sun broke through and the fog dissipated quickly.
Everything was still wet when I parked at the buvette of Apremont and the place still looked empty, waiting for the crowd to arrive.
The crowd may come, because I was going in deep, to Apremont Fond des Gorges.
It had been a long time ago since I went there last time, but I remembered that some boulders were drying quickly.

The roof with "Strate Eau Sphère" was indeed lying mostly in the sun and was already as good as dry.
I started with trying "Féérite", but the big hold on the left was still too humid to hold the swing on, so I turned to "Strate Eau Sphère".

First I tried the easier direct version to see if the topout would be even possible i these still quite humid conditions.
That didn't turn out to be a problem, as I flashed it with relative ease.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Fond des Gorges - Strate Eau Sphère (direct) 7A

The longer original version however, required quite some more attempts.
Maybe, or probably, it was due to the unfavourable conditions, but this felt quite hard and closer to 7B+ to me.
I had to go deep for this one, but I say it again, the conditions play a big role.
Nevertheless, a very nice line that I enjoyed climbing!

Fontainebleau - Apremont Fond des Gorges - Strate Eau Sphère 7B(7B+)

I wanted more, but first something easier, which I found in "Chicken Noris (assis)" on the boulder just before the roof of "Strate Eau Sphère".
Even though it felt more like a short traverse, the movements were very nice to do.
Took me only a couple of tries to find a working sequence and top out.
This boulder dries very quickly!

Fontainebleau - Apremont Fond des Gorges - Chicken Noris (assis) 7A

On the way back to the car, I wanted to pass by Apremont Haut des Gorges to try "Aplats en Folie", knowing that it faces South and might be dry by now.

When I arrived, it looked only dry-ish, but the start and the first slopers felt good enough to go for it anyway.
I took my time to work out the start, perfected some movements and installed the camera when I felt that I could be able to reach the top crimpy slopers.
The first time I was able to reach the first crimpy sloper near the top, I could feel that it was wet there though and a couple of times I fell off the last move.
The only way that I was able to top out, was by taking the crimpy sloper only as a crimp, pull on my fingernails and hope that I wouldn't slip off.

It did feel hard and I had to go deep, but not it wasn't as hard as I would expect from a real 7C on slopers, especially in these conditions.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Haut des Gorges - Aplats en Folie 7C(7B+)

November 01, 2017 - Forgotten area?

It was sad to take Maarten and Milo to the train station in Maisse this evening, but we all enjoyed the time we spent together and that's what counts.

Maarten felt a bit soar this morning, so we spent the day mainly walking around and exploring the area behind Vallée Ronde near Vallée Chaude.
We did find quite a long cluster of medium sized and some taller boulders at about 500m behind the already known small area of Vallée Ronde.
The strange thing is that most of them have definitely been cleaned in the past, but looked unclimbed for a long time.
I haven't found any information about this small sector, located somewhere in the middle between Gros Sablons and Vallée Ronde, which surprises me a bit, because I did see some beauties that made me want to go back there with my pad and climbing shoes some time soon.

Besides walking and exploring, I was able to pick up two quick ascents of some easier problems.

First one was "L'Abribus", on the more or less only interesting boulder of the classical sector of Vallée Ronde.
Went down on my second attempt.

Fontainebleau - Vallée Ronde - L'Abribus 6C+

The other one was "Le Terrier" in the classical sector of the Bois du Rocher area across the road.
I flashed this with ease and think that 6C at most would fit more here.

Fontainebleau - Bois du Rocher - Le Terrier 7A(6C+)