October 28, 2018 - Return of the cold.

After having driven for almost nine hours yesterday, to Belgium and back, I felt stiff and tired this morning. The hour had changed to Winter time during the night, but I was awake and up as usual. Only this time I had to wait longer for the supermarket to open and do some shopping.
To my pleasant surprise, the predicted rain had stayed away and made place for quite hard and freezing wind.
It would have been a great opportunity to go and try a hard project, but I felt too tired to motivate myself to climb anywhere but nearby. On top of that, I was meeting some friends from work who are on holiday for a week and wanted to borrow one of my crashpads for that time.
We were only supposed to meet on the parking of La Croix St Jérôme around 11h30, but I was there well before so I could try "Squeeze Me" again at only 50m from there, before joining them to Rocher des Potêts.

Long before the beautiful, but ethically contested roof of "Haute Trahison" was officially published, Ivan (Moreels) had opened a hard line with the arete and a hard pinch on the other side of the boulder.
He named it "Squeeze Me" and if I remember well, had given it the grade of 7A at that time.
For some reason, this was quickly downgraded to 6C, despite only two registered repetitions, by both tall climbers.
After many sessions, spread over several years and in all kinds of conditions, this morning I finally managed to top out the standing start of "Squeeze Me" and still it had felt hard.
According to me, this should have stayed the well deserved 7A that it was.

Fontainebleau - Rocher des Souris - Squeeze Me 6C

There was still time left for me to try the sitstart, and I remember thinking that it would be a quick job  immediately after doing the stand, but I couldn't have been more wrong.
Unless you have really big hands, that pinch right hand is so hard to hold.
I really can't understand why this is graded only 6C+. It deserves to be a full grade higher in my opinion.
Nevertheless, a very nice underestimated problem with surprisingly few repeaters, being so close to a big and very popular parking.

Fontainebleau - Rocher des Souris - Squeeze Me (assis) 6C+

I was done just in time and joined the friends I was waiting for, to Rocher des Potêts. Most of them are beginning climbers or even first time ever in the forest, so Rocher des Potêts is like an ideal starting area for them.
For me, however, there is not much to do if I want it to be a challenge.
Grade wise, there are only four problems in the '7' range and after today, I can say I have done half of them.

The only problem that I had ever tried there very long ago, was "Snoopy", but it were the bad footholds to start with that prevented me from standing long enough on them for the dynamic and only hard move of the problem.
It doesn't look like it, but it's still quite nice.

Fontainebleau - Rocher des Potêts - Snoopy 7A

It was quite crowded in Rocher des Potêts, so I was glad that the other 7A, "Le Gueulard" was a on the outskirts of the area, and nobody else had found their up to there yet today.
"Le Gueulard" is far from a beauty, but even though it was already done on my third attempt, I really had fun with this one.

Fontainebleau - Rocher des Potêts - Le Gueulard 7A

I briefly touched "La Traversée du Gueulard", but it was too dirty and mossy and I didn't feel like spending time cleaning it. It didn't look attractive enough anyway.

It would have been nice to do the hardest problem of the area, the 7B, "Le Grand Vide", but it is way too morpho for me. At least, that's how I decided it.

October 26, 2018 - King of the hill.

I always feel extra motivated and strong after not having climbed during the week, and I notice that difference a lot when it's finally Friday late afternoon and time to go home without any meetings coming up anymore.
Seeing that two new problems in Apremont Butte aux Dames had been published on bleau.info yesterday, seemed like a perfect coincidence.
Looking at the pictures, they seemed to be in my style. Short and explosive, compression, slopers, reachy moves, and on top of all that, right next to the parking and only a five minute detour on my way home.

The first one, "La Renverse (assis)" didn't take me very long.
Stick a far bad sloper with the right hand, throw the left heel, hope the right hand will stick long enough on that bad sloper to do the next far dynamic move left hand to a good jug.
If all goes well, you end up hanging on the jug and climb out in "La Renverse", a 5th degree problem.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Butte aux Dames - La Renverse (assis) 7B(7B+)

At only 20m from there, I found "Tempête Magnétique" somewhat hidden between other small boulders, but upon inspection it looked to be much nicer than at first sight.
A very small boulder with a bad landing and desperate slopers and a tiny slopey crimp as a key hold.
It really felt like it was made for me somehow and in a way, I surprised myself being so motivated for such a small boulder.
In Dutch we have a saying for that, which roughly translated says that he who doesn't honour the small is not worthy the tall or something like that.

The slopers were really bad and I feared that tiny crimp, but after each attempt, I trusted it more until it nearly became a routine. Then suddenly it all clicked and I topped out.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Butte aux Dames - Tempête Magnétique 7C+(7C)

It took a while to kick in what I just did, when I finally topped out and packed my stuff, but while walking back and standing high on the Butte aux Dames, I felt like the king of the hill.

It was only for a moment, but at least it's one that they can't take away anymore.

Alone on the top of Apremont Butte aux Dames, right next to the parking.

October 21, 2018 - Last bits.

The after Summer is on its last bits, and so was I for the weekend.
Having planned to meet Dave and Svenneke at Rocher de Bouligny this morning, I had a lazy Sunday in mind.
I didn't look up any boulders before leaving, I was going to let the others take the lead and see where it will bring me and decide at that moment what to climb.
I had never been further than "Le Plat Pays" though, so I did make the suggestion to walk to the back of the area and work our way back, more or less.

While the others were looking for their warm up, I found mine in "Tumeur d'Amour (assis)". With its last registered repetition back in 2011, it required some cleaning though.
Maybe it was because my body still needed a wake up call, but this one turned out to be harder than it looked and I had expected it to be.

Fontainebleau - Rocher de Bouligny - Tumeur d'Amour (assis) 6C+(7A)

I joined Dave and Svenneke who were trying "Pair de Claques", which I flashed quickly, followed by its sitstart on my first attempt.
As I had the impression that it felt hard enough to flirt with the 7th degree range, I looked it up on bleau.info where it was confirmed to be 7A, so I repeated it as quickly again for the video for my "archives".

Fontainebleau - Rocher de Bouligny - Pair de Claques (assis) 7A

Next stop was at the beautiful big boulder of "La Citadelle" where I had some fun playing around with the others.
While having fun, I did some traverse variation that also felt like coming close to 7A, but couldn't find it registered anywhere.
I asked Dave to film it and for now, I named it "Tendresse (retour bas)".
Start at "La Citadelle", traverse to the right with the beautiful pinch undercling, stay low while going more right and finish in the easy "Le Pince-Nez".

Fontainebleau - Rocher de Bouligny - Tendresse (retour bas) 7A

We finished with a sending train of the technical slab next to it.

Next week it will start getting cold, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

October 20, 2018 - The coincidental wait.

I had a plan when I parked for Apremont Désert late this morning. I wanted to be alone and try the right exit of "La Corne de Rhino".
Coincidence wanted that "La Corne de Rhino (droite)" fulfilled to both of my wishes, so I knew where to go. On top of that, even though the air was still a bit damp in the forest, I knew that the boulder was in the open and would be nicely in the sun.
Apparently, coincidence also wanted that exactly that boulder was still in the shade when I arrived at it at 11h.
One high tree at about 50m was exactly where the low sun would shed its light on the boulder and covered it in shade.
The bad pinch and slopers depend a lot on friction but they still felt damp, so I had to wait for the sun to pass the tree and and make them dry.

The tree.

In total, I only had to wait for about half an hour but it felt like ages. I couldn't even play a game on my phone as I wanted to preserve the battery for using it as second camera.

Finally, when it was good to go, the conditions didn't feel good enough yet, but luckily they got better after every try and careful brushing in between.

I still remembered the moves very well from the original exit to the left, so it didn't take me long to find my way through them.

Getting through the right exit was another story though and I had to go deep to finally finish it off.

Grade wise this exit should be easier than the original, but even though I already found that version already hard for 7B+, the right exit that is supposed to be 7B, felt quite a bit harder.

In my opinion, this is more like a 7C compared to the left exit.

All in all, it took me less than the wait, but it was totally worth it!

**EDIT** Upgraded to 7B+(7B) now **EDIT**

Fontainebleau - Apremont Désert - La Corne de Rhino (droite) 7B+(7B)

I didn't want to leave yet, but didn't have too much energy left and didn't feel like being around other people in the main area, so I went to the top of the hill, where I knew of an isolated small roof with a soft 7A on it, "Le Diable de Tasmanie".

It took me only a handful of tries, but that isolated boulder is almost never being climbed, so the slopers were mossy and needed more force applied to them than when clean.
Felt closer to 7A than 6C+, but might be different when completely clean.
Fun problem.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Désert - Le Diable de Tasmanie 6C+(7A)

October 19, 2018 - Sleep, work, eat.

Sleep, work, eat, repeat.
That's how I would describe the best how my work week was.
Besides driving through it on my way to work or back home, I didn't set a foot in the forest once, and even while driving, in my head, I was exporting data, filtering it, creating input files and writing scripts, moving emailboxes and so on. My head was full of it.
Even though I worked quite some overtime again this week, I didn't have the possibility to stop earlier today.
Nevertheless, as I (try to) avoid working overtime on Fridays, I had some free time after work and stopped at Cuvier Bellevue on my way home.

It had been a while since last time that I climbed in Cuvier Bellevue but frankly, I didn't really care where I was going, as long as it was in the forest and it involved climbing boulders. The choices are legion, for there are many.
The forest smelled marvellous and I enjoyed wading through the dry brown ferns, making my way towards the first boulders. There was nobody else around and it felt just perfect.

The first boulder I settled at was "Kettle Bell", a small compression problem where only the first two moves are difficult. However, didn't feel difficult enough, I'm going to keep it on soft 7B.

Fontainebleau - Cuvier Bellevue - Kettle Bell 7B(7B+)

I had already tried "Crypte Show" once before, but had quickly given up on it as I couldn't even do the first move.
Still today, sending it didn't go without a fight. Some very delicate climbing on bad slopers, but much nicer than it looks.
Definitely 7A+ this one!

Fontainebleau - Cuvier Bellevue - Crypte Show 7A(7A+)

The sitstart of "Crypte Show", makes it even nicer and complete.
Even though having done the standing start just before, the final send still took a while.

Fontainebleau - Cuvier Bellevue - Crypte Show (assis) 7B+

I can't describe how good and relieved I felt when walking back to the car.

My head was begging to be disconnected from work and the forest and the climbing had made this possible. I wouldn't want to be without anymore.

October 12, 2018 - Whatever was nearby.

It had rained hard and a lot last night and this morning, everything was still wet.
Again, I had worked enough overtime hours this week to be able to take the afternoon off, which I really needed.
Even though the forest still looked humid, this afternoon was the only moment this week for me to be able to climb, so I had to make the best out of it.
For some reason, I felt like going to the Franchard area, up the hill above Hautes Plaines and Sablons. Knowing that I would most likely be alone up there probably was one those reasons.

I started off with the recently published "Donation", slightly above the boulder of "Le Solitaire" and next to "Bossanovabrasil".
"Donation" has a very bad landing though, and after coming down badly with my heel on one the boulders below me a couple of times, I wisely decided to let that one go and continued my way up the hill.

The more I moved up the hill, the dryer the boulders felt and I decided to walk on towards the beautiful strange looking boulder of "Les Précieuses".
One rainy, when I was doing a walk with Pieter and Alberto, we passed by that boulder and the features looked so nice that I had never forgotten about it. It didn't matter what I was going to try on that boulder.

When placing down the camera, it looked like the view was better, but it turned out not to, so unfortunately the start can barely be seen.
Basically all you do is squeeze your body between the boulder and those stalactite like features until I come back into view. It looked nicer than the problem actually was. It was fun for sure, but I was glad that I flashed it, so I didn't have to squeeze me through that again.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Hauts Sablons - Les Précieuses (par le haut) 7A

My interest in the boulder got a bit lost after "Les Précieuses (par le haut)" and I looked in the topo for whatever was nearby.
One of the nearby boulders, at barely 50m or so, "Assiette Bleausarde", was next.
A small, but nice looking roof where you follow the edge on slopers and exit around the corner.
Not a give-away, but not hard for its grade.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Hauts Sablons - Assiette Bleausarde 7A+

On my way back down the hill, I stopped at the nearby area of Franchard Sablons. I had seen "Hippocampus" from the path I was walking on, and felt like giving it a try again.
Despite it being quite my style of climbing, I had never been able to reach and hold on to the right arete.
This time it went down on my first attempt of the day, and the conditions weren't even that good.
Still, I would say this is hard for the grade.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Sablons - Hippocampus 7A

Before leaving, I had another look at the nearby beautiful arete of "Talons Aiguilles". A line that doesn't look hard, but it is. At least for me.
It took me a while, had to change my method a few times, but in the end, I finally was able to tick this beauty off.
Definitely not an easy one!

Fontainebleau - Franchard Sablons - Talons Aiguilles 7B(7A+)

October 06, 2018 - Near miss.

The weather promised to be beautiful today and with the rain that's predicted for tomorrow, I wanted to get the best out of it.
I was surprised to see that the big parking of the Buvette in Barbizon was still nearly empty at 10h30 this morning. Either way, I didn't expect to see many climbers where I was going.
There are not many climbable boulders in Apremont Buvette, and mostly slow drying, but they are beauties. It makes me wonder they only have a handful registered repetitions.

One of these beauties is the boulder with "Polêmikôs", of which I had done the easier right exit two and a half years ago. As the left exit on bad slopers looked too hard at that time, I hadn't bothered trying it, but it never left my mind.
I took my time working out the moves, and managed to send "Polêmikôs (gauche)" about half an hour later.
A great line that honestly felt more like a hard 7B.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Buvette - Polêmikôs (gauche) 7B(7A+)

At about 50m to the left of "Polêmikôs" and a bit higher up, somewhat hidden next to the blue path, I saw "La Manta" for the first time. Again a beauty!
This beautiful prow has quite an exposed landing though and being on my own I hesitated to try it for a minute, but in the end, I'm glad that I did.

The sketchy landing under "La Manta".

Working out the moves one by one slowly built up my confidence and as soon I could link everything, I sat down for a real attempt.
I smoothly climbed my way through the physical first part, stayed calm for the second part, but failed on the last move and had a near miss with the boulder below me. However, the big scrape wound on my back did make me sing in the shower this evening. It could have been worse though.
Having given almost everything on that attempt and to get my senses back, I needed a short break and sent it right after.
Hard for 7B+ and maybe flirting a bit with 7C according to me. In any case, this is truly a masterpiece! A real hidden in plain sight gem.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Buvette - La Manta 7B+(7B)

October 05, 2018 - All but one.

Quite a few new boulders in Bois Rond Auberge had been published this week and finally, as it's Friday, I was able to go try some. On top of that, the weather was great!

"System Training" serves as a good warmup but only involves one delicate move.
However, from all the problems I did today, I spent the most tries on that move.

Fontainebleau - Bois Rond Auberge - System Training 7A

Just by looking at the picture under its name on bleau.info, I immediately knew where the name "Pinky Challenge" came from. The small crack over the lip of the small roof is one of those where the pinky finger might suffer under the pressure.
However, after flashing it with relative ease, my pinky finger didn't hurt.

Fontainebleau - Bois Rond Auberge - Pinky Challenge 7A

Right next to "Pinky Challenge" on the backside of the boulder of "Adamaya", I was able to send "Keep Calm and Eat Pizza" on my second attempt.

Fontainebleau - Bois Rond Auberge - Keep Calm and Eat Pizza 7B

Followed immediately after by "Tunnel Vision" which required a handful of tries, but was the nicest up to now.

Fontainebleau - Bois Rond Auberge - Tunnel Vision 7B+

From the seven lines in the seventh grade that have been published this week, I had now done all but one, "1302".

Definitely not the hardest one, but with a very delicate move from a rounded crimp on which I lost some chunks of skin on the back of my fingers when sliding off it.

October 02, 2018 - Adamaya.

Just like last week, I have a day more or less inversed.

A meeting with my US colleagues is planned until midnight Central European Time, my time, so I was allowed to start the working day around noon, which gave me the possibility to go to Bois Rond Auberge this morning and try some of the new problems open by Bart (Van Raaij) and published yesterday.

We’re only having a short break now, so I will keep this very short.

 

The start of “Adamaya” and “Adamaya (direct)” involves a small sharp crimp, so I needed a short warmup to preserve my fingers.

Once warmed up though, and as the style of the first moves completely suits me, I didn’t need a lot of tries to finish of “Adamaya (direct)” as first..

Even though the first two moves are quite hard, the complete line didn’t feel hard enough for the proposed 7C. On the other hand, as I hadn’t climbed over the weekend, I felt quite strong and full of energy.

Fontainebleau - Bois Rond Auberge - Adamaya (direct) 7C(7B+)

“Adamaya” itself followed directly after.

The only apparent difference is that the big hold on the right is allowed to be used.

Personally, I find it strange to make a distinction between the two versions, but anyway, it was fun.

Fontainebleau - Bois Rond Auberge - Adamaya 7B+(7B)

With the time and energy left, I added a small variation, starting like “Adamaya (direct)” and at the big hold go left and finish in “1302” before I went back home and started working.

Fontainebleau - Bois Rond Auberge - Adamaya-1302 7C