A bunch of friends from my birthplace Grimbergen in Belgium are here for the long weekend, and we all went to the Diplodocus area.
Maarten, Perre, Dave, Bruno and Svenneke are only a few of the old Grimbergen crew that used to meet up regularly for some nice climbing weekends in the forest.
There's only a handful of harder problems in Diplodocus and most of them are quickly crowded, but luckily that's not the case for "Vir Desirium" (Latin for "desire", so I read), an old project that was my main goal of the day. The hardest problem in Diplodocus.
I had only tried it one session before, and I remember that I was completely stuck and it felt way too hard.
Looking at Manuel Marquès climbing on a video he posted, it didn't seem that hard, but then again, that was Manuel climbing it.
On my video, I have that same impression, but I can tell you that it definitely didn't feel as easy as it looks. Don't be fooled like I was.
It does basically come down to two very hard moves that have to be executed perfectly that make the grade. Taking the intermediate crimp under the roof to pull on through to the far sidepull.
From there on it's certainly not over yet, but there's room for small errors and corrections.
I'm glad to have finished this one off!
Fontainebleau - Diplodocus - Vir Desiderium 7C
The remainder of the day, I spent with the guys doing the blue circuit in Diplodocus and some of the beautiful red ones in Rocher Guichot.
I did nearly all of them on my first or second attempt, but I had a fun nostalgic time with the guys and I considered it as good training.
Earlier this week I had to attend the "ITIL Foundation in Service Management" course in Belgium, with the certification exam immediately after.
It was one those exams where I had the feeling it could have been bad or good, I really had no idea.
Today finally came the good news that I had passed and achieved the certificate.
I am now ITIL certified ... BOEIEUHHH!!! (Dutch expression for "who cares?")
Some more good news came into the form of confirmation of today's delivery of the swing that I had ordered for the kids.
It meant that I didn't have much time to climb after work, because that swing of course still had to be assembled.
Gorge aux Châts is always good for a quick climb, as long as it's not too crowded, which it wasn't today.
I decided to spend the time on "Pierre Vicieuse", a very eliminate 7A, that I had never bothered giving much time before.
The hardest part probably is trying to avoid the many big holds, that seem to be almost everywhere, just to make it difficult enough for the grade.
It's quite obvious that the big crack on the left is eliminated, because otherwise it was too easy, so I used a small sharp crimp left hand.
Anyway, a very eliminate, illogic and ugly problem.
It's rare that I give less than three stars for a problem, but "Pierre Vicieuse" doesn't deserve more than two, and still I felt generous giving those two.
Fontainebleau - Gorge aux Châts - Pierre Vicieuse 7A
At least I was able to move a bit after work.
The kids enjoying the swing. Yes, we had take-away pizza while assembling it.
I left early again this morning to climb before the heat and because I had to drive to Belgium early afternoon.
The drive took me almost seven hours instead of the normal four, so I'm quite exhausted now.
This morning I quickly went to Rocher du Potala with the plan to climb "Samarkand (rallongé par le bas)" without the left part of the boulder by convention.
A convention that was added after I repeated the problem a first time about two years ago, but with using the left part with my feet.
It took me quite some energy to repeat it without the left part of the boulder, but that was mostly due to my body that was starting to feel tired from the days before.
In any case, the way I recall it, the non-conventional version felt like a good 7B already.
Climbing it by convention (without the left part) adds a small '+' to it, but still enough to be a 7B+ in my humble opinion. Or my body must have really felt tired.
Great problem either way!
Fontainebleau - Rocher du Potala - Samarkand (rallongé par le bas) 7B(7B+)
A long period with a lot of rain, means a lot of standing water, which results in a lot of mosquitos as soon as it gets warm. Especially in the forest.
I left home early this morning so I could take advantage from the cool temperature and cooled down sandstone thanks to the night. It was exactly 8h30 when I started the car.
Not a luxury when another high temperature record is announced for today, the third consecutive day in a row that the record would be broken.
To be on even the safer side, I went to the North part of Franchard Raymond, knowing that it's in the shade all day.
It's in fact that much in the shade, that even after two very hot and dry days, the key hold of "Étalonnage Physique" was still feeling humid.
Add the pollen, that are constantly falling out of sky with this weather, to that, and it becomes very slippery.
Even though I managed to find a way through the second part of the problem, I kept on slipping off the hold when coming from the start.
There was no way that it was going down today, so I continued my way down on the blue path.
I had a walk in mind that would take me around the whole area and along some problems I wanted to try.
The first one on my route after "Étalonnage Physique" was the relatively unknown, rarely repeated and isolated boulder with for instance "The Mask". But first I wanted to do the easier variation with the arete, "Coco Bongo".
The boulder was lying nicely in the shade and the temperature there was very comfortable. But also so for the mosquitos apparently.
They like to gather together in dark, shady and seemingly humid places. Exactly like where the boulder can be found.
The boulder was full of them and I had to make a lot of wind to chase them away. They didn't seem to like it, because one of them slapped me right back in the face. Or so it seemed.
Despite the mosquitos, "Coco Bongo" climbs very nice and I'm sure that it would be very popular if it would have been located in another better known area.
Went down on my second attempt.
Fontainebleau - Franchard Raymond - Coco Bongo 7A
"The Mask" is its direct variation without the arete and it is a totally different story.
Very bad slopers, a hard mantle into the hollow of the boulder and then very subtle movement to a better over the belly, followed by another hard mantle on slopers.
Not the hardest for the grade, but I can imagine that a lot of (mainly) gym climbers, who are less used to the subtle movement in Bleau, can have a much more difficult time with it.
Fontainebleau - Franchard Raymond - The Mask 7B+
Some more problems were tried when I arrived at the South part of Franchard Raymond, on the way back, but the only one that I was able to finish was "La Belle Proue (assis)".
A beautiful prow indeed, just waiting for it to be climbed!
Fontainebleau - Franchard Raymond - La Belle Proue (assis) 7A
It was 13h30 when I arrived back at the car, and the thermometer said 31°C in the shade, where I strategically parked in the morning. It was too hot for climbing now.
At 19h15, it was still 26°C when I arrived at Roche aux Sabots after dinner and the place was still quite crowded for an normal Thursday evening.
I guess many people waited for it to cool down a bit because when I left home after work, the car thermometer fluctuated between 29 and 30°C.
Luckily, what I wanted to try, "Beau Travail", was left alone.
For long I had no idea about this problem, until a couple of weeks ago after seeing a video of Jason Kester doing it.
He's very tall though and he could reach the edge of the boulder as good as statically with one move from the starting position.
I clearly lacked the length and had to do three extra moves in between to be able to go dynamically to the edge.
Static start (as in the video) is 7B+ and the dynamic start (jumpstart) 7A+. I kept the latter for my next visit.
Fontainebleau - Roche aux Sabots - Beau Travail 7B+
I had only really tried "Pokemon" in Gorge aux Châts once, which is kind of strange as it is so close to home and barely five minutes walking from the parking.
For a long time, however, I had thought that it might be impossible for me. That I wasn't tall enough to reach the small crimp and never going to get out of the roof into the wall above.
It all seemed too hard and too far, but somehow I always thought that there must be a way and the problem never left my mind.
Exactly one week ago, when I was in Gorge aux Châts, the local young Bleausard, Denis Titouan, topped "Pokemon" and he gave me some advice concerning body position to be able to get to the two small crimps over the edge of the roof.
As he's about the same height as I am, this gave me hope and I was eager to try out his advice, but I was out of time.
Having less time than earlier this week, I decided this evening to go to "Pokemon".
Thinking of Denis' method, I immediately felt a positive difference, so much that I even gained hope and started working out all the moves separately.
It took me some time, but after a while, I was able to do the first part nearly every time.
Even though I had done the standing start to practice the topout, the last part proved to be delicate until the very end, especially with the sweaty fingers that I started to have.
I almost gave up on it for the day, but installed the camera again and gave it one last go.
It turned out to be the good one, but I can assure you that it was very sketchy at the end.
The whole time, until I had the final good edge of the boulder, it felt like my fingers or even feet could slip at any moment.
Great, beautiful problem!!
Last Friday evening, when I met Bram (Honorez), Jan (De Smit) and their respective girlfriends Ruuth and Nataleigh, I joined them to the boulder of "Cross-Fit" in Rocher du Télégraphe.
A boulder with plenty of variations that I had never quite understood what goes where when looking at the maze of lines.
Looking at the picture with all the lines drawn on them, it reminds of this game I liked as a kid, where there's for example a cat that has to find the way to the milk through tangled lines.
All the possible lines (up to now) on the "Cross-Fit" boulder.
Nataleigh wanted to try "Cross-Fit (prolongé)", but the weather then was grey and humid with an occasional shower and the slopers at the end felt humid.
The weather was that bad that I didn't even bother bringing a crashpad, but as I did have a pair of shoes with me, I worked out the first part and was able to do the topout separately.
The conditions were too bad to go for a real attempt, so I decided to come back for it another time.
Nataleigh however, used all the dry time there was up to when the first drops fell while Jan and Bram desperately tried to keep the slopers at the end dry.
She almost made it, but fell at the end.
Nataleigh on her ultimate last attempt, Jan and Bram try to keep it dry.
For the second day in a row, it stayed dry today. The sky was blue and temperature rose up to 24°C.
I couldn't stop thinking about being in the forest so I asked and received approval to pick up some overtime.
It allowed me to leave work two hours earlier, which gave me plenty of time to go and try "Cross-Fit (prolongé)".
I was able to finish it on my second attempt, but I have to admit that I needed a long break to catch my breath in between the two tries.
Maybe I should have started with something easier, but knowing that this would be my 900th video on YouTube, I wanted it to be something special.
Fontainebleau - Rocher du Télégraphe - Cross-Fit (prolongé) 7C
After another long break, I was surprised to stick the first move of "Burpees" on my first attempt, but I kept calm and topped out. The fact that it has the same exit as for "Cross-Fit (prolongé)" definitely helped.
Fontainebleau - Rocher du Télégraphe - Burpees 7A(7A+)
Last, but not least, I ended with "Cross-Fit (direct)".
Too bad for the camera position, but otherwise the sun had started to shine directly into the lens, making it impossible to see.
Anyway, "Cross-Fit (direct)" starts off easy, but the topout is quite much harder than it seems at first!
Fontainebleau - Rocher du Télégraphe - Cross-Fit (direct) 7A+(7B)
There are still a lot of lines left to do on that boulder, so reason enough to back again one day.
As my wife and kids are not at home, there was no need for me to drive straight home after work today, so I decided to stop by Rocher de Corne-Biche.
I wanted to check some new problems and try "32 Millièmes", a boulder that I had never seen before, until some new problems were opened on it.
Every time, I seem to forget how long the walk up to there actually is, but it didn't bother me this time.
There was no hurry, the sun was out and it was a beautiful Spring evening.
It was thanks to Jan (de Smit) that I was able to find the boulder so quickly. By coincidence, he had told me about this boulder past Friday.
By the way, my deepest respect and huge congratulations to Jan who managed to climb the 8B+ "Mécanique Élémentaire" on Saturday, after doing the 8A "Magnéton" the day before. Strong!
I had fun in the beautiful 7A "32 Millièmes", which took me only two attempts. Very nice prow!
Fontainebleau - Rocher de Corne-Biche - 32 Millièmes 7A
Now that I was in the area, I thought I'ld try finish my business with the nearby "Le Vin du Dimanche (direct)", even though I don't drink alcohol.
A problem in my style, opened as 7A, and still I hadn't been able to finish it on at least two sessions.
Surprisingly, I managed to stick the dynamic move on my second attempt this time, stayed calm and topped out.
It has been correctly upgraded to 7A+ now. Very nice problem, the best wine I ever had!
Fontainebleau - Rocher de Corne-Biche - Le Vin du Dimanche (direct) 7A+
Yesterday I left home early, drove over 800km to Belgium and back, cleaned the bathroom and mowed the lawn. No wonder I still felt exhausted when I woke up this morning.
The sun was already shining though and knowing that it wouldn't be like this all day, I left immediately after my morning coffee.
The walk to "Cosmos" sector in the back part of Mont Aigu always feels long and boring, but this time I enjoyed it and filled up my lungs with clean oxygen each time I took a breath.
I embraced the moment while it lasted.
To warm up and loosen my body, I made a first stop at the recently opened "Snout".
One mantle and that's it, but it turned out to be not the easiest one.
Perfect lowball boulder to practice your mantle skills on!
Fontainebleau - Mont Aigu - Snout 7A
Immediately after that, I was able to flash "Beau Bi la Pointe" on the boulder at 5m to the left of "Snout".
Opened with an original method of 7A+, but adjusted to 7A+(7A) until the repetitions decide.
To me it felt like 7A at most.
Fontainebleau - Mont Aigu - Beau Bi la Pointe 7A+(7A)
Now that I was warmed up, I was a bit disappointed to discover that "Cosmos" itself was still too wet. At least, so were the starting hold and the topout.
It felt like a pity because it was my main reason to come this sector.
Luckily there's still some more to do, but the only problem that I hadn't done yet and was in climbable condition, was "La Force de la Gravitation".
It needed some cleaning, but I managed to top it out.
Looks like that small pine tree suffered from a severed case of being unable to resist the gravitational force.
Fontainebleau - Mont Aigu - La Force de la Gravitation 7A+
Wandering around a bit more, trying to avoid other people in the main area, I made a quick video repetition of "Tante Pollewop (assis)". Never understood where that name comes from.
If anyone knows, feel free to comment.
Fontainebleau - Mont Aigu - Tante Pollewop (assis) 7A
On my way back to the car, I was thinking about gravitation and how cool it must be to do 4m far dyno's on the moon.
On the other hand if it would all be too easy, it wouldn't be fun anymore after a while.
So I decided that I love gravitation and went to Apremont Bizons to maybe finally try "Dominum".
Previous times I was in Apremont Bizons, "Dominum" had come to my attention, but either the rain prevented me from trying it or too many people were trying "Sarkopabo" right next to it.
Now, finally, neither of both and I could start.
It took me a while before finding a good method, which was still for me at the edge of my morphology.
It might look easy on the video, but in reality it didn't feel that way.
Maybe there was more gravity on that spot.
I met C and his wife Giorgia at Gorge aux Châts this evening, but the rock felt quite warm and the conditions didn't feel good.
Despite that, while C was working the moves of "Le Pare Dessus", I was able to repeat first attempt as a warmup climb.
Playing around a little bit, I discovered that the first moves of "L'Ami Sanglier (du fond)" were more fun than I expected and decided to give it some real tries.
It only took me two, but all the moves combined together, this was more than enough.
A very atypic, special, but fun line!
We believe that the grade depends on how many seconds one rests while being tucked in the small "cave".
What a difference compared to a few days when the forest was crowded with people on vacation.
I expected it to be the same this evening at Roche aux Sabots, but the place was almost completely deserted.
The forest is coming to peace again and besides a couple of quick climbs, I was going to leave it that way.
I started with a quick ascent of "Achille Talon".
*EDIT* Apparently, I did a direct dyno version of "Le Porte à Faux" without the arete. The description of "Achille Talon" has been adapted accordingly to avoid confusion. I would say the grade would be around 6C+, or low end 7A. *EDIT*
Fontainebleau - Roche aux Sabots - Le Porte à Faux (direct) 6C+(7A)
Followed by a video repetition of "Élucubration / Le Quark".
Fontainebleau - Roche aux Sabots - Élucubration / Le Quark 7A
I ended with some good attempts in the 7B(7B+) "Beau Travail", but the only success there was having fun and enjoying the attempts.
It's my oldest son's 15th birthday today, and I had taken the day off for the occasion.
Of course, he had to go to school, so I was able to profit from a beautiful warm and sunny Spring day.
Blue sky, sun, the warmth that comes with it, singing birds, flourishing trees and plants, ... it was all for free at Rocher Canon this morning. Even the hugs were.
Even though I'm not a real hugging type, but when it's a boulder and for free, I'm all for it.
"Free Hug" needs a lot of hugging.
Beautiful pillar with hard compression moves on very bad slopers from start to end.
Fontainebleau - Rocher Canon - Free Hug 7B
Despite it being a regular Friday, the area was quite crowded.
From all the other problems around that I still want to do or try, only "Babaobab" was free, as usual.
The lowball does indeed seem to be lost a bit in between all the bigger boulders nearby.
It looks like something small and easy, but reality proved the contrary, about the easy part at least.
Maybe it felt hard because of the higher temperature, but nevertheless, a fun boulder, definitely worth the effort!
The sky looked grey at first this morning, but a quick look at my weather app confirmed that it was going to clear up soon and that temperatures of 17°C to 18°C can be expected.
Good weather on Easter Monday always equals huge crowds in the forest, but when I parked at the buvette of Apremont this morning at 9h30, the place was still deserted.
It stained when I had to let go of "P'tit Oeuf" on Saturday, but my mind was set on finishing it today, so I set off to Apremont Vallon de la Solitude.
I wanted to be there early already, because on Easter weekend, even there, solitude is far from guaranteed.
Already on my first attempt, I felt that my chances were much higher now.
The slopers felt stickier and I definitely felt stronger as opposed to last Saturday.
I stuck the crux move to the arete faster than I expected but felt great relief when I did.
Very nice, but though problem!
Fontainebleau - Apremont Vallon de la Solitude - P'tit Oeuf 7B(7B+)
In the meantime I could hear distant voices coming closer.
Many people had reached the far end of Apremont by now and it probably wouldn't take long before some of them would continue on to here.
Before leaving the area, I spent a short but nice time doing the sitstart of "Deltaroc".
Some beautiful delicate climbing!
Fontainebleau - Apremont Vallon de la Solitude - Deltaroc (assis) 7A
With the first groups of climbing having arrived in Apremont Vallon de la Solitude also by now, I fled deeper into Apremont towards Apremont Mare aux Biches.
Only a handful of boulders, but solitude for sure and a couple of problems I still wanted to try.
The only one I was able to finish there though was the fun but daring jump "Made in Januel" which I flashed with relative ease.
It's a matter of daring to go for it. But very fun the least!
Fontainebleau - Apremont Mare aux Biches - Made in Januel 7A+
Even on a sunny and warm Easter Monday, I managed to spend a few hours of climbing in complete solitude.
Walking past the popular sectors on my way back, it was a bit ironic to see the crowds almost standing in line, waiting for their turn.
Driving home, I stopped at Bois Rond to try "Spider Bloc".
No solitude at all, but I have this problem quite a few times and it was only after seeing a video of Maxime Baroud climbing it, that I knew what I did wrong.
Using his method, I managed to finally tick this very nice problem off, but still it felt hard.
Quite a different atmosphere also, compared to the one I was in before.
It was another busy week at work and on Thursday I had calculated that in the past two weeks, I had accumulated a total of 30,5 hours of overtime.
No wonder that I felt really tired yesterday and didn't manage to finish anything.
This morning though, I felt better, but everything was wet. So after playing Easter Bunny and acting surprised at the amount of eggs that the creature can shit, I took the kids to the Black Diamond "Chasin' the Rubbish" event at the parking of Roche aux Sabots.
In barely two hours, we were able to fill up a 100 liter bag completely with trash found just around the big parking. Not a bad contribution.
Early afternoon, as usual during the Easter weekend, the parking of Apremont in Barbizon was crowded, but I found some solitude at the boulder of "Shoot" in the back part of Apremont Bizons.
It felt good to flash "Shit (assis)" as my warmup climb, because it meant that my shape was coming back, which boosted my motivation.
I needed some more tries in "Acrobatique" next to it.
Even though it looks very easy, it is much harder than one would think.
Fontainebleau - Apremont Bizons - Acrobatique 7A
Hearing not too many voices coming from the main area down the hill, I decided to move over there to have a look around.
There were more people than I had expected, but "Secret de Confession" was left alone so I started trying it.
The dyno is not very far, but getting into good position for it is the hardest part.
All in all not vey hard, but definitely a lot of fun!
Fontainebleau - Apremont Bizons - Secret de Confession 7B(7A+)
After a short break, I wanted to move away from the little crowd so I went back to the boulder of "Shoot".
I noticed on the topo that I had missed another not too hard line under the small roof.
"Le Dégraissé" starts at the same spot as "Shit (assis)", but exits to the right. Quite a nice problem.
