June 30, 2019 - (Un)conventional.

With temperatures above 40°C nearly every day this week, it was too hot to even think of climbing anything. The mornings could have worked out, but with still 23°C during the night, the boulders didn't cool down and I had to work anyway.  The few times I did try to climb, it was too hot to finish anything.
Finally today was supposed to be less hot, but still the thermometer came close to 40 again in the afternoon. This morning however, it took a little longer before the heat returned, and I used the opportunity to go to Gorge aux Châts for a climb ... in the shade.
I had tried "Phase Finale" for the first time not long ago, and I could do all the moves separately and did the problem in two parts, it was just a matter of linking it. On top of that, the hardest part being under a shady roof was ideal for today.

"Phase Finale" starts with a beautiful, but very hard pinch for the left hand and a small crimp for the right. Lift up, take another sidepull crimp further right with the right hand and dyno from that crimp and the hard pinch to a sloper over the edge of the roof. From there it's only a 6A, but still one where you have to keep focussed.
While working on it again this morning, I managed to do an unconventional start first and decided to keep and publish a video of it because it felt worth it.
Start the same as "Phase Finale", with the feet in the back of the roof, the left hand on the hard pinch, but take whatever you can already reach with the right hand.
In my case, I can already reach the second crimp on the right from that position, basically skipping the first move of the original problem. Still hard enough for a hard 7B in my opinion.

Fontainebleau - Gorge aux Châts - Phase Finale (sans convention) 7B

Not very long after, but with some breaks in between, I also managed finish it from the original, conventional start too. Adding that extra move to it, does make it substantially harder.
That pinch is so nice that the whole problem got four stars from me on bleau.info. Up to now I seem to be the only registered repeater, but "Phase Finale" definitely deserves more.

Fontainebleau - Gorge aux Châts - Phase Finale 7C

June 21, 2019 - Focus.

It was hot this early this evening when I arrived in Apremont Ouest, but luckily the side of the boulder with "Crispr Cas9" was in the shade. Not a luxury for this slopey mantle.
It's one of the many recently published boulders in Apremont Ouest, opened by Tony Fouchereau and Thierry Vasseur, and I kind of have been intrigued with from the first time I tried it a few months ago, when it was still cold.
The first part of the problem is quite easy, however, it is still possible to fall off every move when you don't stay focussed.
The second part, the mantle into the slopey slab, felt really hard for me.
Spread over now four sessions, I wouldn't be able to put a number on the amount of times that I fell off that mantle, but it's a lot.

 In one sentence, somewhat easy start into a very hard and quite scare topout.
I liked it a lot, but was relieved when I finally made it! Just remember to stay focussed!

Fontainebleau - Apremont Ouest - Crispr Cas9 7B(7B+)

June 20, 2019 - In a hurry.

Last Sunday, when I did "La Pomme (assis)" in J.A. Martin, I had also started trying "L'Homme Pressé" two metres to the left of it. I didn't have enough skin nor power left in me though, to be able to pull enough on that hard right pinch and make the next dynamic move.
In a way, it's funny how "L'Homme Pressé" can be translated into "the man in a hurry", because I kind of was in a hurry when I wanted to go out for a quick climb after work this evening.

"L'Homme Pressé" basically comes down to one very hard move after pulling up with a bad slopey crimp left hand and a bad slopey pinch right hand.
Hard to lift your ass, even harder to get into position and go for the far slopey hold.
After almost an hour of trying, I really had to hurry and only had time for one last attempt, but suddenly I stuck the dynamic move. I had only tried the next move once separately out of curiosity, and I didn't make it then, so it took some effort to keep calm and match with the right hand on a crimp. From there I thought it was over and simply mantling up, but it wasn't over yet, far from it.
I had to use my right thumb to not balance out when trying to get my leg from under the overhang, and it felt like I could still fall out any moment. The relief was great when I placed my second foot high up and found my balance again.
You better don't be in a hurry for that topout.

Fontainebleau - J.A. Martin - L'Homme Pressé 7C(7B+)

June 16, 2019 - An apple a day ...

I kind of felt tired this morning, and knowing that it could be hot today, I left without a real plan.
The idea was only take the smaller Drop Zone pad and stroll around near Rocher de la Cathédrale.
Somehow, I ended up at J.A. Martin where I found myself standing in front of "La Pomme", of which I had tried the hard sitstart already a few times. Despite it being quite my style though, I had never succeeded. Until today.

A small boulder, but some hard physical moves and powerful compression on very bad slopers. Just my kind of fruit.

Fontainebleau - J.A. Martin - La Pomme (assis) 7C

June 14, 2019 - Simple pleasure.

It was less than two hours after work that I could climb this evening, but they were well spent in Apremont Marie-Thérèse.
Nothing but pleasure on some of the recently published boulders. A bit sandy here and there, but the conditions were not bad at all and the friction was quite good.

Warmed up with "Ze White (assis)".

Fontainebleau - Apremont Marie-Thérèse - Ze White (assis) 7A(7A+)

Then climbed the right exit of the standstart on my second attempt.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Marie-Thérèse - Ze White (droite) 7B(7B+)

Immediately followed by the sitstart on my first attempt. The sitstart doesn't add very much to it, I must say.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Marie-Thérèse - Ze White (droite assis) 7B+

Then moved over to the nearby somewhat hidden boulder of "Simple Plaisir", which I was able to flash with a lot of pleasure.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Marie-Thérèse - Simple Plaisir 6C+(7A)

But most of the time I had, was spent on "L'Humorisme", which turned out to be much nicer than I had expected.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Marie-Thérèse - L'Humorisme 7B+(7C)

Short and simple post, but to the point. It was my pleasure.

June 10, 2019 - Sue the weatherman.

My now ex-colleague but still good friend, Harco, was supposed to come over to visit and climb, but due to the bad weather forecast, he decided to stay home. Considering the predicted rain, it was a logical decision, despite my proposal that we could always do a walk, a sarcastic joke we use trying to stay positive at rainy times.

This morning, everything was indeed wet and from time to time a darker cloud dropped some light drizzle. By noon however, the sky cleared up here and there, and despite it was still wet, I headed to the forest.
To keep it safe, I stayed close to home, and went to 95.2, where it turned out to be much more crowded than I had expected. The boulder of "La Ritz" was dry enough and I decided to try the sitstart.

It didn't take long before I was able to quite easily work my way through the first part, up to the crux move, which I couldn't manage to stick. At least not using the method I used when I did it from the standstart not long ago.
I had to find another, more static, method to get past the crux move and focussed on doing the standstart again with another method.
I managed to top out the standstart again using a static method, but had lost too much skin and energy in the meantime to repeat it from the sitstart. However, I'm quite sure that with this method, I will be able to do the sitstart soon.

Fontainebleau - 95.2 - La Ritz 7A+(7B) (static method)

I had to think of Harco sometimes, that maybe it would have been worth the trip after all. With all these wrong weather forecasts, somebody should sue the weatherman. Or he could have gone for the walk instead and be treated with climb as bonus.