This morning it felt great to see the sun shine and even though everything was still humid, it just needed some patience for it to dry.
After an absence of some weeks, Pieter had taken the risk and had arrived late last night. I proposed several options for chances of dry boulders and we decided to head towards the Maunoury area in Larchant.
With an empty parking and a wet ground, we were weary, but our worries quickly vanished upon seeing the first boulders of Dame Jouanne, most boulders were dry, and so was the big boulder of "Apophis" in Maunoury.
Pieter had tried "Apophis" on his previous visit in the area, but had too much difficulties with the required toehook for the right foot. I stood in front the boulder a couple of times, but had never dared to try it alone. It is quite exposed after all.
This time however, we were both of us, so it was the first boulder we headed for, and it was in surprisingly good conditions.
The boulder is very much my style and working out the moves and finally sending "Apophis" barely took me twenty minutes. It went flawless, but still the quick send was a nice surprise.
Pieter still needs to work on the right toehook though.
Fontainebleau - Maunoury - Apophis 7B(7A+)
The nearby 'Jungle Book' boulder, was too damp, and as we didn't really have a plan, we simply headed up the hill looking for more dry boulders and made our second stop at "Kut de Crêpe".
Pieter had done this last time but as the pillar looks so attractive to climb on, I wanted to give it a try.
A few minutes later I sent it with ease and Pieter agreed that this is rather 6C at most in our humble opinion. Nevertheless, still a very nice pillar which was worth unpacking for.
Pieter had done this last time but as the pillar looks so attractive to climb on, I wanted to give it a try.
A few minutes later I sent it with ease and Pieter agreed that this is rather 6C at most in our humble opinion. Nevertheless, still a very nice pillar which was worth unpacking for.
Fontainebleau - Maunoury - Kut de Crêpe 7A
By following the GR and the blue path over and around the hill, we still made several stops trying for example the high, exposed and very scary highball "Irréversible", the very hard lowball "Microclimat" and repeated "Waimea (droite)" and "Pars Pro Toto (gauche)" that I already had on video, but that Pieter now also can tick off.
After all it had turned out to be an excellent day with much more climbing than we had expected. What a surprise.