February 24, 2019 - Spring feeling.

With again a beautiful, warm and sunny day, it really feels like Spring has started even though we're only just nearing the end of the Winter.
The birds and animals don't seem to care, and with them, the growing number of visitors of the forest.
Climbing, walking, biking, whatever your thing might be, everyone seems to enjoy the beautiful surroundings in one or another way. Even my teenage son, Anthony, felt like coming with me to join Pieter and Alberto in Rocher de la Reine. The Spring feeling must be boiling in him as well.

I didn't have any projects in mind at Rocher de la Reine, but warming up repeating "Le Dragon du Komodo (droite)" a few times, was a good idea, as Pieter was also able to tick this one off.
Anthony climbed some blue ones with ease, but if he would have been less shy, he definitely would be in for some harder stuff.

After a while, we decided to move down the hill towards the boulder with "D'un Trou à l'Autre", where Pieter and I were able to do a quick send of the shorter "Partie Fine".

Fontainebleau - Rocher de la Reine - Partie Fine 6C(7A)

Soon after, even though surprised, I was able to send the very nice "D'un Trou à l'Autre".
Pieter lacked the energy to link all the moves together, but could do the problem in two overlapping parts.

Fontainebleau - Rocher de la Reine - D'un Trou à l'Autre 7B

We were all running out of energy and played around a bit higher uphill.
For the video, I quickly repeated "Napoléon (assis)" before calling it a day, a beautiful Spring-like one.

Fontainebleau - Rocher de la Reine - Napoléon (assis) 7A(6C+)

February 23, 2019 - A touch of Easter.

Pieter and Alberto are in the forest for the weekend, just like many others who had seen the great forecast or simply had planned to come over already.
With the school holiday in many countries and the beautiful warm weather, it felt like it was Easter weekend already when I was waiting for Alberto and Pieter. We had planned to go to Cuisinière, where Alberto had very long time project to finish.

There's always a lot to do in Cuisinière, but luckily there were no big crowds. Pieter and I had a lot on our list of problems to try, and decided to warm up in "Blocage Mental (assis)".
This one turned out to be much harder and more physical than expected and quickly sucked quite some energy out of us. Pieter came close, but had to give up after a while.
Seeing Pieter getting so close, I, who had already given up on it, gave it one last try and was able to finish.

Fontainebleau - Cuisinière - Blocage Mental (assis) 7A+

We showed Alberto a few methods for doing his project before turning to one of my already long term projects, "Le Bleurb".
Very bad slopers from the start until the last and only good one on the top.
While we were fighting and loosing a lot of skin, Alberto was able to top his project.
Even though we got at inches from the last hold, "Le Bleurb" had completely shut us down and we were in need for a break.

Trying some other problems in between, but in vain, we finally ended up at "Contorsion Égocentrique", a small 7A that I had already tried a couple of times, but was never able to do the first move.
Pieter had found a small foothold though, and with it, I was finally able to do the first move and sent the problem minutes later, followed by Pieter right after.

Fontainebleau - Cuisinière - Contorsion Égocentrique 7A

Driving away from the parking, there were many cars parked until far down the gravel road towards the big road. This really felt like a touch of Easter.

February 22, 2019 - When motivation takes over.

Finally I was able to enjoy the beautiful weather again that it has been already for a whole week.
Long days at work had prevented me from going out, but this afternoon I was able to compensate some hours and enjoy some climbing in the forest.

For some time, I had my mind set on trying "Kric-Crak" on a beautiful impressive boulder in Rocher des Souris, but had never dared to really try it.
A few years ago, I once tried it until one hand was on the big undercling, but totally chickened out.
The line had never really left my mind though and for long I was waiting for good conditions, an extra crashpad and a good spotter.

I had an extra crashpad, the conditions were quite good, but I had no good spotter.
That's, however, when motivation took over and I found myself standing in front of the huge boulder, determined to give it all what I had and hopefully finish it too.

The impressive boulder of "Kric-Crak". Simply beautiful!

I was surprised how pretty relaxed I still was when holding the slopey arete, but immediately afterwards, found out that the crux was still to come. 

Reaching for the far crimp right hand wasn't as easy as it looked like on the two videos that I saw.

I had first tried Manuel Marquès' method, but that seemed impossible, so I started spending time on trying Luca Modoni's method, but that didn't work out either.

Trying to find an own method seemed to get me closer, but not close enough.

Half an hour later, when I tried Manuel's method again, I suddenly had the crimp, but was kind of spooked by it and slid off.

The attempt after, I stuck the crimp again and made it through to the top with a great relief. 

Such a magnificent line on such a beautiful boulder in a breathtaking scenery.

I was completely disconnected.

Fontainebleau - Rocher des Souris - Kric-Crak 7B

February 15, 2019 - Just like Spring.

The whole week, the weather was beautiful and temperatures were slightly rising.
It was a perfect moment to compensate some overtime this afternoon, and spent in Apremont Ouest.
I wanted to see some of the even more new boulders that had been published a few days ago.
When I bumped into Pascal and his wife and later also Bart (Van Raaij) near the parking, it was clear that the forecasted sunny weekend promises to be busy.

One of the new boulders that stood out and that I wanted to see as first, was "Bishopbleau", which has four variations on it.
At first "Bishopbleau" looked kind of easy, but each attempt sucked the energy out of me and I had to admit that I had greatly underestimated it. It's the easiest of all variations and I was already getting pumped.
Finally when I managed to work myself through the physical first part of the problem, I was spooked that it still wasn't over yet, on the contrary.
There was still a hard mantle coming up and I wasn't sure if I still had enough power left in me, but staying calm and taking my time to look helped me up.
This felt hard and might as well have been 7B if you ask me.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Ouest - Bishopbleau 7A+

As this easiest line had already taken so much of me, I decided to keep the other lines for some other day and went up the hill to find the new "Piece of Mind", graded 7C(8A).
I suppose the 8A would be for the less tall climbers, because even with my arm span, I couldn't even find a slightly possible way.
The variation "Piece of Mind (droite)", though, I was able to flash without too much difficulty. Still nice line though.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Ouest - Piece of Mind (droite) 7A

After over a year of absence, Marc Lehner is in the forest with his family for a few days and after a small chat, I headed to "Massacre à l'Intermarché", where I enjoyed the sun.
I made some good attempts in it, but with the sun, the bad slopers were losing their friction.

On the way down, I stopped and did something with "Cartoons", but as the top was covered with moss, I had to find a different method which made it feel more like a soft 7A at most.
Not sure if this method is allowed though. (Update - too far off the line for "Cartoons")

Fontainebleau - Apremont Ouest

February 09, 2019 - Follow the wind.

There still fell quite some rain during the night and even though the streets were still wet when I left home, I was quite confident that the strong wind and the peaking sun sometimes would do a good job.
It was only a matter of knowing where the wind would reach the boulders the most.
At the base of the hills and between the trees, the boulders at Apremont were still wet, but knowing how the boulder of "Soleil du Nord" is orientated towards the sun and the direction of the wind, gave me a good feeling about walking to the top. I had even taken an extra crashpad for it.
The higher I got, the drier the boulders were and "Soleil du Nord" was even in very good conditions. There where the boulders were dry, they felt sticky.

Still remembering the moves from when I did the variations yesterday, I quickly cruised through the first part, but almost got shut down by the very hard topout on very bad slopers.
I had to fight hard, but it paid off in the end.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Ouest - Soleil du Nord 7B(7B+)

Needing a small break, I thought about some nearby boulders that would definitely be dry with this wind, and decided to go and try "P'tit Oeuf (assis)" in Apremont Vallon de la Solitude. Not very nearby, but well worth the walk.
I still kind of remembered the moves from when I did the standing start almost a year ago, but was still surprised with how quickly I was able to tick this beauty off.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Vallon de la Solitude - P'tit Oeuf (assis) 7B+(7C)

I briefly tried the nearby "Globe Climbing", but as it didn't feel too good for my back, I quickly stopped.
There were too many people around the boulder of "Féérite" in Apremont Fond des Gorges, so I decided to walk back and try something in Apremont Butte aux Dames instead.

Unfortunately the big key hold, required for the first moves of "L'Étoile Noire (assis)" was wet, so I was forced to turn to "Bélouga (gauche)", one of the last lines that I hadn't done yet on that floating boulder.
I had never tried it before due to bad conditions, but now it was perfectly dry and it looked like I was going to flash it without too much effort. Nothing could be less true.
It took me about twenty minutes and many tries to finally work my way through the hard slopey end.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Butte aux Dames - Bélouga (gauche) 7A

All in all a very good day with unexpectedly good conditions. 

It was well worth the long beautiful walk around a big part of Apremont!

February 08, 2019 - Be the judge.

Finally after ten days of bad weather and recovering from a bad back after a work related trip to Barcelona, I was able to head to the forest this evening after work.
It's already very noticeable that the days are getting longer, and even with this clouded light grey sky, I knew that I had at least of climbing time ahead of me.
I went straight to Apremont Ouest to check some the new boulders that were recently published.
In the short time that I had, I had a look at all of them, but only decided to try "Soleil du Nord" today.

As I'm still recovering from a back injury, I didn't want to try to much on the "Soleil du Nord" itself, which exits on the right of the rounded top.
I did manage to do the other versions quite quickly, but somehow I have the impression that those grades got mixed up according to their description.

"Soleil du Nord (direct)" mantles up almost straight up.
This felt more like a soft 7A.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Ouest - Soleil du Nord (direct) 7A+(7B)

"Soleil du Nord (gauche)" climbs the arete and exits on the left of the rounded top, so I mantled up higher, to the left of the rounded top.
This felt closer to a hard 7A, maybe 7A+ in my opinion.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Ouest - Soleil du Nord (gauche) 6B+(6C)

Don't let the videos be the judge, but head out there, try them and be the judge yourself.