February 29, 2020 - Blue star.

Last week I crossed paths with Tony (Fouchereau) and Thierry (Vasseur), and they told me about a new very quick drying boulder they cleaned and opened many problems on in a remote part of Gorge aux Châts Sud.
This morning, everything was wet, and after a few rain showers, I even was almost convinced that there would be no climbing today. Luckily, in the afternoon, the sky cleared up and the sun in combination with a lot of wind made everything dry quickly.
I wanted to be sure though, and headed out to the boulder that Tony and Thierry told me about.

Located at about 350m past the boulder of "Le Ressort Titan", by following the blue path to the South-East and up the neighboring hill, it is hard to miss just on the right and below the blue path. Marked with a blue star, it is indeed a remarkably beautiful piece of rock.
Not yet published on bleau.info, but it's a good thing that Tony publishes his new boulders on his Instagram page, so more information about the boulder and the problems on it can be found here: https://www.instagram.com/bleautony/?hl=en

I warmed up with "L'Etoile Bleu (direct)", which did require a small leap of faith at the end.

Fontainebleau - Gorge aux Châts Sud - L'Etoile Bleu (direct) 7A(6C+)

Sadly enough, part of a hold broke, but "L'Etoile Bleu" is still possible using a different methods. Also involved a small leap of faith.

Fontainebleau - Gorge aux Châts Sud - L'Etoile Bleu 7A

I very much liked the big shoulder move and pinches in "L'Etoile Bleu (gauche direct)", and yet again a small leap of faith.

Fontainebleau - Gorge aux Châts Sud - L'Etoile Bleu (gauche direct) 7A+(7B)

Same thing for "L'Etoile Bleu (gauche)", but with the big hold on the right. Was a quite morpho to the right, but only a tiny leap of faith.

Fontainebleau - Gorge aux Châts Sud - L'Etoile Bleu (gauche) 7A

February 16, 2020 - Dream boulder.

More than a year ago, in November 2018, Pieter and I had tried the beautiful but scary "Onde Sensuelle" in Apremont Mare aux Biches, for the first and only time. I had already seen the boulder long before, but it is so exposed that no hair on my head ever thought of trying it alone.
After the session we had in 2018, I knew that it was possible alone, with at least two crashpads and from time to time, I felt the urge to go back, but never did. After all, I did kind of promise to Pieter that I wouldn't go back without him.
Pieter and his wife have taken a year off work and will be leaving for a very long trip in about a month, so I was glad when he yesterday proposed to go to "Onde Sensuelle" today. After having waited for so long, it did make me nervous though.
To be able to climb more comfortable, we decided to take four crashpads, and like mules we each carried two and hiked towards my dream boulder.

Walking towards "Onde Sensuelle", of the top can be seen on the right, above the middle of the picture.

Knowing that that every separate move is not extremely hard, but that lacking resistance to execute everything from the start made us fail last time, I was prepared and even ate some breakfast. (For those who don't me very well, I usually only eat in the evening.)

I didn't want to lose too much energy, so only worked out the crux moves before starting to make attempts from the start. Quite some attempts later, every time falling on the before last move, I adapted my foot placement and finally stuck the final jug. Unfortunately, I dabbed the crashpad when taking the swing, so I wanted to do it again, but clean. 

I took a long break and a few attempts later, grabbed the jug again, made the small swing, didn't touch anything and screamed out all the relief when I stood on top of the boulder again. They might have even heard me up to Barbizon.

Stupidly enough, even though I had re-positioned the camera after my break, I forgot to press record. Strangely though, it didn't bother me too much, as Pieter was there as my witness and my consciousness is clean. Anyway, the boulder police will have their say again.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Mare aux Biches - Onde Sensuelle 7B+

Pieter still continued for a while, but after two hours and a half, he was out of power.

As we had four crashpads with us now, we took the occasion to try one of higher boulders just above "Onde Sensuelle", on the top of the hill and chose the very nice looking "Véridique".
We seriously underestimated the difficulty, but after another hard fight and using Pieter's method, I managed to top this one out as a nice bonus.
Even though Pieter found the method and still tried hard, he was totally out of energy and got shut down after a while.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Mare aux Biches - Véridique 7B

It was a beautiful warm day with temperatures up to 18°C and an almost warm hard gushing wind and the view from the top of the hill was just magnificent.
Carrying the crashpads back to the cars felt much harder than this morning though. The body was tired, but I was satisfied.

Walking back down the valley of Mare aux Biches.

February 15, 2020 - About a stone.

Yesterday I received a message from Pieter, saying that he was coming to the forest, but only able to leave on Saturday morning. That's why it was already past noon when we met up at Rocher Canon.
The conditions on the North side of the hill, where most of the most interesting boulders are, were humid, but "La Théorie du Chaos" lied perfectly dry in the sun and caught a nice breeze.
Having done this beautiful, but very hard problem in March 2019, so not even a year ago, I was able to repeat it relatively quick. At least, much faster than on the below video from March 2019.
I came close to doing the sitstart, and Pieter very close to the stand, but no sigar.

Fontainebleau - Rocher Canon - La Théorie du Chaos 7B

After discussing further options, we decided to pay a visit to the small Rocher Canon Ouest area where we had the beautiful boulder of "Chute de Pierre" all for ourselves.
The standstart, "Chute de Pierre (debout)" took longer than I had expected to find a good method for the topout. We helped ourselves by watching a video on bleau.info and then a send followed soon by both of us.

Fontainebleau - Rocher Canon Ouest - Chute de Pierre (debout) 7A

The low sitstart felt very hard, but having done the standstart just before, I made this on my second attempt.

Fontainebleau - Rocher Canon Ouest - Chute de Pierre 7A+

We finished the half day on the other side of the boulder, where I quite easily flashed "Rêve de Pierre", but then again, this fits my style quite well.
Pieter had a long fight, especially with his fear and was close to giving up, but ended up working his way through using his own method. Unfortunately he was too tired and didn't want to do it again for the video, so I can't show the nice way that he solved that.

Fontainebleau - Rocher Canon Ouest - Rêve de Pierre 7A

February 09, 2020 - Gone with the wind.

The streets were still wet from yesterday evening's rain when waking up this morning, but a hard stormy wind was gushing, so Pieter and I decided to go to Mont Simonet and try our chances there.
We arrived there quite early and even though the boulders on the top of the hill were dry, the others below or on the flank needed some more time, depending on how much wind they got.
On top of the hill, the most logical choice for warming up was on the "Pitt Boule" boulder, on which I repeated the classic "Pitt Boule" on my second attempt, immediately followed by Pieter.
As I already a video of "Pitt Boule", I didn't bother making a new one, but did take out the camera when we started trying the left version, "Pitt Boule (gauche)". It took a while before we found a method that worked, but once figured out, we both sent with quite some ease.

Fontainebleau - Mont Simonet - Pitt Boule (gauche) 7A(6C+)

Same counted for the right version, "Pitt Boule (droite)".
It took a while, but as soon as Pieter showed me how to get up, I followed right after him. All in all, this felt rather like a soft 7B at most.

Fontainebleau - Mont Simonet - Pitt Boule (droite) 7B+(7C)

In the meantime, the blazing wind had blown most of the "Duke Nukem" boulder, near the bottom of the hill, dry, so we moved over to that one with the idea of trying "Poignée d'Amour".
Unfortunately, it seems that the starting hold for the left hand has broken off, and even if a complete sitstart will still be possible, this has become much, much harder than the 7B that it was supposed to be. It was too hard for us at that moment, so we contented ourselves with doing a crouching start, keeping the starting holds low in the crack, forcing you to make a first quite hard move. All in all, 7A according to me if the conditions are dryer, 7A+ according to Pieter.

Fontainebleau - Mont Simonet - Poignée d'Amour (accroupi) 7A(7A+)

To finish, Pieter wanted to try the beautiful, but very hard "Altération" on the other side of the boulder.
I had tried that one already about two years ago, but ended up thinking that it was too morpho and impossible for me. However, with the motivation from Pieter, who ended up showing me how the crux was done, I unexpectedly managed to top this beauty too.
Pieter came really close, but lacked remaining energy to make to the end and will have to come back for it.

Fontainebleau - Mont Simonet - Altération 7B(7A+)

February 08, 2020 - Extra time.

The rain for this weekend was predicted to start only late afternoon, so Pieter took the chance and drove over from Belgium to take advantage from the current good conditions.
We decided to go for open options and went to Rocher du Potala as soon as we were both up and ready to go.
Starting with "Pierre Ponce", of which I was able to work out all the moves now, but the skin on the back of my hand two fingers was so worn and bloody that I had to let go for the day. Pieter also made some really nice attempts and worked it until after the first crux move, but his hands were suffering too much too.

Moving over to the impressive boulder of "Le Surplomb de la Mée", we started working in "La Putain du Diable", which wasn't in as good conditions as the other boulders, but after some tries, and an cold breeze, the holds dried out more. It was at least enough for me to make my way to the top of this magnificent boulder.
No matter what problem, it just felt great to finally top something on that boulder.
Pieter got close, and is definitely able to finish this beauty too, but needs higher energy levels.

Fontainebleau - Rocher du Potala - La Putain du Diable 7C(7B+)

In the meantime, it was already late afternoon, but as there was still no rain in sight, we enjoyed the extra time on that boulder.
I flashed "La Diagonale de la Mémée", but had to admit that it used up the last of my energy.

Fontainebleau - Rocher du Potala - La Diagonale de la Mémée 7A

It has rained this evening and everything is wet as I write, but there is hard wind forecasted for tomorrow, so I hope we can still add some to the extra time.

February 07, 2020 - 100% Pur Jus.

The weather forecast for yesterday and today looked like the conditions were going to be very good. Predicting rain for the weekend though, I didn't want to miss out again and was able to take this afternoon off work.

First thing on my mind to try, was "100% Pur Jus" in Apremont Bizons. With a sloper that needs good conditions, especially being on the North side of the boulder, and that's exactly what was missing when I tried it for the first time two weeks ago. I was able to do the crux moves then and felt quite confident that with good conditions, a send would be feasible.
Still knowing the moves and with that sloper in excellent condition, I made it on my first attempt of the day.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Bizons - 100% Pur Jus 7C

I should have gotten more out of this afternoon, but I guess I chose the wrong problems afterwards. At least I had a good training.