March 25, 2018 - Spring is in the air!

Another beautiful Spring day today!

I only climbed in the morning, because I had some things to do in the afternoon.
As I wanted some solitude again, I was already early in Côtes de Courances, deep in the Coquibus.
I wanted to try "Djembé" again, but already after five minutes into the session, I had to admit that I hadn't recovered enough from the hard work week which took me completely out of my regular living rhythm.
The switch to Summer time last night only seemed to have made things worse and I felt extremely tired. Also, my fingertips felt sweaty and I kept slipping off the key crimp.
Anyway, there more than enough excuses to let it go for today and focus on something less hard.
So I decided to walk on to the nearby Montrouget area to try "L'Angluée" again.

I had tried "L'Angluée" a couple of weeks ago, but wasn't able to finish it due to humid conditions.
Now it looked and felt much better and it didn't take long to top out on that nice overhanging arete.

Fontainebleau - Montrouget - L'Angluée 7A

Having done that, I started looking at a different approach and managed to do a possible first know ascent of what I call "L'Angluée (direct)".
Same topout, but a different start with a completely different style.

Start with a sharp crimp in the centre of the overhang left hand, the arete right hand and both feet against the boulder.
Dyno directly to the good hold of "L'Angluée" and exit in that one.

Not sure if it will get published, but to me it felt like a totally different climb than "L'Angluée" itself and it felt quite a lot harder too.
At that moment, it felt like something around the 7A+(7B) range.
Quite a nice variation and harder than it looks!

Fontainebleau - Montrouget - L'Angluée (direct) 7A+(7B)

Sadly enough after that, it was time to leave, but I enjoyed the walk back through the Coquibus, especially with the change of season.

People say Spring is in the air, but I keep on wondering how high.

March 24, 2018 - Bouldering is a nice hobby.

After a very long and exhausting work week away from home, I was delighted to wake up at home in own bed and smell the Spring in the air that came in through the open window.
As usual, I got up early and did some household before leaving towards Apremont Brûlis.

I chose Apremont Brûlis, because it I knew it would be all peace and quiet out there. I needed to be alone in the forest for a while to really disconnect.
Also, now was a good time to go that area, because in a few weeks, the ferns will have grown back and some sectors will be difficult to reach.

I started in the main sector where I wanted to try "Crucifrixion (direct)", a recently published problem of which Jo Montchaussé had already told me about at least two years ago, insisting that I should go and try it, along with the long traverse to the right he had opened.
Now I was finally going to, but not the traverse.

It only took me a handful of tries, but it was nice.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Brûlis - Crucifrixion (direct) 7B(7A+)

After receiving some directions from Jean-Pierre (Roudneff), I finally found the nice little pillar with "Hobby".
For those who want to know, it's on the small hill to the right of the small hill with "Saï".
I flashed this one with relative ease.
Still a nice little pillar.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Brûlis - Hobby 7A(6C+)

Deeper into Apremont Brûlis, in another sector, I wanted to try "Bon Vol vers la Pologne".
I found a different method than Manuel Marquès, but still definitely worth its grade and in the line.
Very nice problem this one!

Fontainebleau - Apremont Brûlis - Bon Vol vers la Pologne 7B

Later in the afternoon, after meeting someone in Buthiers, I was able to flash "L'Écureuil Fou (direct)".
I tried, but will have to come back to finish the original version with a much harder topout more to the left.

Fontainebleau - Buthiers Piscine - L'Écureuil Fou (direct) 7A+(7A)

It felt great to be outside with finally some nice weather!

Bouldering is such a nice hobby!!

March 16, 2018 - I prefer climbing.

As I had worked quite some overtime this week, I stopped work early afternoon today.
Even though there were some short rain showers in the morning and the sky remained mostly grey, the sun came peeking from time to time. Enough for most of the boulders to dry.

The conditions in Apremont Bizons were not as bad as I feared, but not really good neither.
Looking for some open ground, I walked toward the small isolated sector with "Scream" and "Basket Ball" a bit further.

I tried both, finished "Basket Ball" quite fast, completely improving the end.
"Scream" however, will require some better conditions despite having been really close.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Bizons - Basket Ball 7A+(7A)

There wasn't much time for trying other problems, because it started raining again.

March 14, 2018 - The dancing puppet.

I exceptionally had to work until 22h today, but between 17h and 19h30 I had some free time.
The weather was beautiful, so I spent it wisely at Rocher d'Avon, one of the areas that's closest to work.
It's already late now, so here's a quick update with what I was able to finish.

"Le Danseur", a classical dyno that I have tried at least once every time I visited the area, but somehow never managed to make it.
Today, it didn't feel hard at all.

Fontainebleau - Rocher d'Avon - Le Danseur 7B

Right next to "Le Danseur", the strange 'one-mover' named "ABC".
Very weird move which is much harder than it looks.
Not the nicest problem around, but fun.

Fontainebleau - Rocher d'Avon - ABC 7B(7B+)

I finished with "Master of Puppets (direct)", which I did on my first attempt.
Not harder than the original version (or I got stronger), but definitely still a great line on a beautiful boulder!

Fontainebleau - Rocher d'Avon - Master of Puppets (direct) 7B+

Edit to add ...

Apparently, I did the original version of "Master of Puppets" exactly (to the day) 5 years ago.

Funny coincidence!

March 11, 2018 - Swollen fingers.

After doing "Vandale" last week, my fingers were literally vandalised.
A tear in the skin next the nail of my pinky finger got infected and left me with swollen fingers.
Almost the whole week after, it had been raining, and for once I didn't mind that much. I wouldn't have been able to climb anyway with fingers that needed healing.
I knew, however, that by the time the weekend was there they could be fixed enough again for another dose of climbing, but the weather was announced to be rainy and thus very wet.

Saturday indeed started with rain, but early in the afternoon, the sky cleared open, the sun came out and with temperatures rising up to 18°C, it became very warm.
Unfortunately, the high temperature and the humid earth from all the rain condensed the whole forest and everything was and stayed soaking wet.
The only dry boulder that I found was "Ariane 5" in J.A. Martin, in which I made some good attempts, but I will have to go back for it.

Ariane 5 in J.A. Martin.

This morning, after a very rainy night, I did some household stuff to keep busy while being patient for it to dry outside and left just before noon.
Again, despite that it was forecasted to be clouded with showers, the sky was blue for most for most of the day.
I hoped for dry, non-condensed boulders in the quiet areas of Côtes de Courances and Montrouget deep in the Coquibus, but even though I tried a few boulders here and there, the conditions didn't let me finish any of them. It was mostly a lot of walking, but as I'm so fond of the quietness and beauty of the Coquibus, I didn't mind.

My body felt exhausted when I arrived back at the car around 16h, but thanks to the warm and beautiful day, I was hungry for more and decided to stop at Canche aux Merciers.
The boulders were much less condensed and had started to actually dry, but not enough to say that the conditions were in favour.
Despite that, I did end up repeating "Gros Doigts", just for fun and finishing at least something, and for my video archive.

Fontainebleau - Canche aux Merciers - Gros Doigts 7A(7A+)

March 03, 2018 - Vandalised!

There are problems that are special to me.
Especially those that I looked at years ago, wondering how it even could be possible to do certain moves in them.
"Vandale" in Rocher Cailleau is one of them.

I still remember it as if it was yesterday when I saw the boulder in real life for the first time.
It was on the 16th of April 2013. I know, because it was together with Klaas (Willems) and Igor (Depoorter) who had "Vandale" as a project and Igor sent it that day.
I remember watching Igor do that first move, thinking it was impossible for me to do.
When I tried it out of curiosity, I couldn't even get my butt off the ground, let alone let go of the left hand and do what seemed like a huge impossible move.

A little bit more than a year ago, I had done the crouching start of "Vandale" with relative ease, and having skipped only the first move, I knew that I only had to work on that one. The hardest one of the whole original problem.
I wrote 'original problem', because many videos unfortunately show a wrong start with only the right hand in the pocket under the roof and a pinch on the left with the left hand. Still a hard start, but it makes the first move to the better ledge much easier.
From that position, it didn't take me long to to reach for the better ledge, but that's not how the problem was opened by Christophe (Laumone). It was opened with both hands in the pocket under the roof, which makes the first move substantially harder.

Last year I had spent a few short sessions just trying the first move, but in the rare cases where I was able to lift my butt, stabilise and touch the edge, I never succeeded in grabbing the better ledge.
I let it go for a while, forgot about it somehow, but last week on Friday morning, I suddenly felt this urge to go and try the first move of "Vandale" again when I passed by it on my way to work.
That evening after work, I don't know what I did differently, but suddenly I was able to block enough to stabilise well, take the slopey edge and grab on to the better ledge above.
Bram (Honorez), who had joined me that evening, watched me fall off the before last move twice, but I felt too tired to finish it.
However, knowing that I could do the first move multiple times in a row now, gave me confidence, and I was determined to come back soon.

I went back last Wednesday evening, with wrecked skin from the last session, and I was immediately able to do the first move again.
My attempts went really well, I fell off the last move one time, but I still had enough energy left to go for it again a couple of times.
Unfortunately, it was so cold that after a while, my skin cracked on several fingers, up to the point that on some places even tape couldn't stop the holds from being covered with blood stains.
Even though I was quite sure that any of the next attempts would be successful, I had to let it go for the next time.
It sucked big time and the days after, I couldn't stop thinking about "Vandale".

Yesterday evening, super motivated, I arrived at "Vandale" after work, but the temperature had gone up and the humidity in the air had condensed the boulder completely. The holds were soaked.
I looked at the weather forecast and saw that my best chances would be the morning after. This morning.

I woke up early and the first thing that I did was checking the weather forecast. 50% chance of rain from 11h on.
I hurried to get up, had breakfast and arrived at the boulder at 9h10. Looking at the blue spots in the sky, I knew had more than enough time for a good session.
Surprisingly, the boulder was perfectly dry and in much better conditions than I feared at first.

After a short warm up, I was able to do the first move on my first attempt, but was doing something wrong to be able to match my second hand on the ledge comfortably.
After falling off the last move again, I realised that it wasn't a matter of power anymore at that point, but more of how friction you still have left after all those moves.
I had to perfection my sequence somehow and watched a video of myself doing the crouching start, which revealed that I was making a couple of mistakes each time.

I corrected my sequence where necessary and immediately it felt more fluent.
I sent "Vandale" a few attempts after.
My skin was completely vandalised, but I felt truly happy that I was able to send "Vandale", a true beauty!

Fontainebleau - Rocher Cailleau - Vandale 7C

By coincidence, I bumped into Christophe (Laumone) at our local supermarket an hour later, and with some pride I told him that I sent his "Vandale" masterpiece just moments ago.

He told me, by that way, that the pocket under the roof has partly broken off and that it was easier to hang onto when he opened it.