June 28, 2020 - Bancroche?

Some of the boulders that I recently opened in La Charbonnière and the small topo that I made, have been published on bleau.info now, and probably more to come (https://bleau.info/topos/topo1230.html).
This afternoon, I went back to the boulder that was cleaned by David Evrard, and on which he had opened quite some lines and variations, as can be seen in the video on his Vimeo channel (https://vimeo.com/326997026).

It's on boulder 15.

Last time I was there, I had been looking at what David seems to call "Bancroche" in his video, but it looked like it needed some additional cleaning and for some reason that day, I didn't feel like it.
It was obvious that the boulder has seen some climbers since then, because it looked all clean now.

The straight up version of "Bancroche" was pretty hard and required a good fight. One crux at the start and another at the very end.
Very nice problem!

Fontainebleau - La Charbonnière - Bancroche 7B

The right exit went on the first attempt after taking a small break, but that was merely because I did work out the far move to the right before going from the start again. Another great problem!

Fontainebleau - La Charbonnière - Bancroche (droite) 7A+

As far as I'm aware, David didn't grade the problems yet and I'm not even sure about the names, but looking at his video, it does seem like he named it as such. 

As for the grades, these are merely an estimate of what it felt like to me at that moment.

I have no way to reach out to David for confirmation, but just in case he, or someone who knows him personally can get his opinion or a reaction. All the credit goes to David and in the end, it is his call.

*** UPDATE June 29, 2020: "Bancroche" has been opened by Stéphan Denys. ***

June 21, 2020 - One of the best.

My body started to feel soar yesterday evening from the couple of hard falls that I made when trying "Flanelle" in Franchard Basses Plaines. This morning it felt even worse, but I knew that I had to get the stiffness out of my muscles to make it better, so I went for a short climb in Rocher Cailleau.
I wanted to avoid seeing people and not try anything too hard, so going to the new completely isolated boulder of "Ninjutsu" way East of the main sector was a perfect choice. Opened by David Evrard not long ago, and proposed as 7A, but knowing David's tight grading, it promised to be a hard one.
The boulder is very isolated and quite well hidden, but after closely studying the details of the map with the location of the boulder published on bleau.info and provided by David, it didn't take me long to find it.

The moves under the roof, involving a good toehook, suite me very well, but when looking at the slopers and the mantle, it almost looked impossible. Thanks to the good toehook though, I was able to move quite relaxed on the slopers and preserve all my energy for the very hard mantle. Maybe rather 7A+ ?
Very nice short problem.

Fontainebleau - Rocher Cailleau - Ninjutsu 7A

I thought of De Jerre from time and time and realized that with his gymnastics and free running background, bouldering would have been really something for him.

Just as with gymnastics, he would have gone all the way for it and I'm sure that he would have been one of the best. Because that's what he was, one of the best.

June 20, 2020 - So long Jerre.

Ten days ago, one of my cousins, Jeroen 'de Jerre', was taken away from us at the young age of 37 years; leaving behind two beautiful young daughters.De Jerre was going to be 38 in eight days from today.
He was cremated this morning in Belgium, but I watched the remembrance ceremony with my phone on a private live stream. I couldn't think of a better place than somewhere deep in the forest, a place where I could be completely alone.
There I was this morning, in Franchard Basses Plaines, sitting on top of a boulder partly in the sun, but mostly in the shade from the high pine trees. The scenery was beautiful, but tears were rolling down my my cheeks as I watched the stream.
When the ceremony was over, I looked up and for a couple of minutes, watched the clouds passing by slowly and knew that somewhere there, de Jerre is there too. My ascents from today are devoted to him.

Started with topping "Désolé, Oiseau" on my first attempt. A very nice line this one.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Basses Plaines - Désolé, Oiseau 7A

Followed by "Le Marquis" on my second attempt.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Basses Plaines - Le Marquis 7A+

Spent quite some time on the new and much harder "Flanelle", my fingers were getting sweaty and I made a couple of bad falls on the last move, after slipping off a marbled crimp. Definitely made it to my to-do list.
I finished with "Turtlebum", which would be more like a soft 7A+ if that move wouldn't be so reachy.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Basses Plaines - Turtlebum 7B

So long Jerre, so long. You will be remembered!

June 14, 2020 - Triptyque.

I'm not a very big fan of traverses, but there are some that I really find worth the effort, such as "Triptyque".
This big isolated boulder in Boissy aux Cailles, can be found just above and slightly left of the church that watches over the beautiful village.
From the first time that I saw a picture of it, I knew that I wanted to try that beautiful line.
It only took me three attempts, which wasn't a bad thing, because my arms were quite pumped after topping out.

Triptyque. Author picture: "Gars des Bois" (taken from https://bleau.info/cailles/303488.html).

What makes it even nicer, is that as it is an ascending traverse, it doesn't really feel like climbing one somehow.

Fontainebleau - Boissy aux Cailles - Triptyque 7B

June 10, 2020 - Just a minute.

Didn't have much time, but I had to get out to climb off today's workload.
Luckily, there was the still the sitstart of "Tao Pai Pai" in the nearby La Ségognole, that I didn't try yet and had forgotten about it for three years.
I only needed about a minute or fifteen, but it was enough to recharge, climb my way up and tick it off.

Fontainebleau - La Ségognole - Tao Pai Pai (assis) 7B

June 07, 2020 - Same, but not quite.

My fingers didn't feel strong enough when I was pulling the crimps of "Echec" in Boissy Le Plaid and the conditions for "Plat pour Fab" didn't seem good enough.
When my attempts on "Micromégas" in Boissy Vallée de l'Eglise were also worthless, I decided to try my chances on "Hannibal" in Boissy aux Cailles.
Thick grey clouds were blocking the sun from time to time, and it was almost dark in that dense part of the forest.

For some reason, I remembered "Hannibal" to have a bad landing, but it wasn't bad at all, and even "Centurion", that finishes more left, didn't look as scary as I remembered.
I finished "Hannibal" surprisingly on my second attempt.

Fontainebleau - Boissy aux Cailles - Hannibal 7B

This motivated me for trying "Centurion" and not very long after, I also managed to top this one out.
Graded the same, but "Hannibal" felt much easier.

Fontainebleau - Boissy aux Cailles - Centurion 7B

June 06, 2020 - To be confirmed. *updated*

It rained until deep in the night and this morning everything was still wet. By 11h am though it started to look like it would be possible to find some dry boulders. I didn't want to go far though and the conditions weren't in favor to try anything too hard, so I stayed close to home and went to new what has now become Justice de Noisy area. It used to be a remote part of Roche aux Sabots Sud with only a couple boulders, like the one with "Hallelujah", but Tony (Fouchereau) and Thierry (Vasseur) have opened many more boulders on that side of the hill now. Justice de Noisy features a total of 77 boulders now, each with several problems and variations.
There is already a topo published on bleau.info (https://bleau.info/topos/topo1228.html), but it only has 2 of the 77 boulders published at the moment; the one with "Fanny Chippie" and the one with "Hallelujah". I decided though to go and check out some of the others around "Hallelujah" already.

I started with problem '4e' on the topo, on the backside of the boulder of "Hallelujah" and did what seemed the most logical. However, it doesn't really fit with the description that I was given later today.
This is to be confirmed what it is that I did exactly. It seemed that I did the ending of a 7A traverse, but what I did, felt like at least 7A on itself, maybe even 7A+.
Opened by Tony and Thierry, so will ask confirmation from them.

*** UPDATE: apparently it is called "Envoyé Spatial" and proposed as 7C(7B+) ***

Fontainebleau - Justice de Noisy - Envoyé Spatial 7C(7B+)

In front of and below "Hallelujah", on boulder 5 on the topo, I easily did the standing start, "Armageddon Numérique (debout)", but couldn't get through its sitstart which is supposed to be 7A.
Opened by Eric Allayaud and rebrushed by Tony.

Fontainebleau - Justice de Noisy - Armageddon Numérique (debout) 6A

On boulder 6, I did a few problems, starting with the quite easy "Entre Deux Eau (direct)".
Opened by Tony and Thierry.

Fontainebleau - Justice de Noisy - Entre Deux Eau (direct) 6C+(7A)

The problem about one metre to the right of "Enntre Deux Eau", has a much harder start and requires some good pulling on the fingers.
"Entre Deux Os" is also opened by Tony and Thierry.

Fontainebleau - Justice de Noisy - Entre Deux Os 7A(7A+)

Finally, not sure if this has been done already or not, I did a variation that I called "De l'Os à l'Eau" for now, and gave it 7A+ as that's what it felt like on that moment.
Start in "Entre Deux Os", traverse low to the left and finish in "Entre Deux Eau".

Fontainebleau - Justice de Noisy - De l'Os à l'Eau 7A+

Basically, all to be confirmed, so subject to change.

June 05, 2020 - Autour des Fougères.

Not much happened.
It rained last night and this morning and the temperature dropped with at least 10°C compared with yesterday.
A good wind had blown everything quite dry during the day, but of course in the evening after work, just when I started climbing, it started raining again. Lightly, but still enough ruin a short climbing session..
Luckily the big leaves of the chestnut trees that surround "Autour des Fougères" in Rocher Guichot, gave just about enough cover to finish it off quickly without getting wet.

Fontainebleau - Rocher Guichot - Autour des Fougères 7B

June 01, 2020 - Whit Monday.

Whit Monday is a public holiday in France, so I had the time to take advantage of the beautiful weather and drove the nearby Boissy-aux-Cailles again. This time though, I parked at the cemetery, where I was not the only one.
I think it was Romain Pigeat who arrived just before me, with what I believe was his wife and twin babies. Just like me, they were heading to the relatively unknown sector of Boissy Le Plaid. But we kept our distance.
Maxime Baroud has opened quite some new problems during the quarantine, such as "Mat". Grade-wise, his easiest one I think.

Fontainebleau - Boissy Le Plaid - Mat 7A

Up next, was "Johnny Rotten". A crimpy overhanging arete which is humid most of the time, but now it was well dry. I think it must have been last Summer when I tried this for the first time, but just couldn't work myself good enough through the first part. I had forgotten about it since, so now was a perfect moment.
Hurt my index finger on one of the crimps when I did it the second time to capture the start, but it was all worth it and it doesn't feel too serious anyway.
Don't hesitate to try this one when you happen to find it all dry.

Fontainebleau - Boissy Le Plaid - Johnny Rotten 7B+