Sunday, February 9, 2020

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+)


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