I had taken the afternoon off work for different reasons than just climbing, but as it gave me some time to do so, and the weather looked beautiful, I of course went to the forest. It had rained during the night and even though the sun was shining since early this morning, only the spots where she was able to shine long enough, were dry. Or less wet than its surroundings.
I had to stay close by, so wisely decided to go to Justice de Noisy. The parking was soaking wet everywhere and so was the forest, but on the South side of the hill, where the sun was shining in full glory, it was almost completely dry. I was somewhat surprised that I wasn't alone when I arrived at the boulder of "Stargate", at about 40m to the right of "Hallelujah". Another climber, Marius (not sure if I spell that correctly), seemingly from Spain, was looking for some dry boulders and got lucky.
Despite my many visits to the area, and the visually appealing boulder, I had never tried "Stargate" before. I guessed because the landing always looked so sketchy. A guess that didn't turn out very wrong.
The top had to be cleaned from a pile of pine needles that covered the boulder, so I had to wait for a while for the wet spots underneath to dry. The sun was shining straight on it, so the drying didn't take very long, but made it pretty hot too.
With the landing being so sketchy, I took my time to get familiar with the moves but couldn't avoid taking some falls that could have turned out worse then they were. Marius had been watching some of my attempts and the falls that came with them and offered his crashpads while he was taking a break from the boulder he was climbing on. Thanks again for that, Marius.
Knowing that a potential fall would be a soft landing, gave me the that extra bit of confidence that I needed and I was able to top not very long after.
A very nice problem on a visually stunning boulder.
(Boulder 7 on the topo from bleau.info: https://bleau.info/topos/topo1228.html)
Thursday, October 22, 2020
October 22, 2020 - Stargate.
Sunday, October 18, 2020
October 18, 2020 - Safety first.
When I parked to go back to the boulder of "Kong", there was a bunch of hunters walking through the fields and entering the forest in the direction of where I had to go. Fearing that they might shoot in my direction, I doubted a bit between going or leaving, but as there were no warning signs posted, I decided to go to the boulder anyway. I took my precautions though and took my fluorescent vest out of the car and attached it to my brush stick.
Safely arrived at the boulder, I could still hear their dogs with their bells attached to them and occasionally there was a distant shot from one of the hunter's rifles. Thinking about safety first, I used to my brush stick and created an improvised flag with the fluo vest on top of the boulder to help indicate my presence.
Being a small bunch, we found a dozen of methods for "Kong", some other for "King", but only Bart was able to use one of them to finish "Kong". I decided to use part of his original method rather than the one that I had worked out at first and found that this suited me much better when executed well. I came very close, but the energy levels had were in red, so I had to throw in the towel. This will go down in one of the next sessions.
Saturday, October 17, 2020
October 17, 2020 - Some kind of secrecy.
After I saw Maxime Baroud's latest video right after the end of the quarantine featuring quite some new boulders, I immediately was drawn to the magnificent boulder of "Kong" and "King", opened by him. A roof with huge compression moves that really looked beautiful.
For some time, I had been looking for information, and tried several channels, but found nothing that even remotely gave me a hint of where it could be. The only thing that I knew was that it's somewhere in the huge forests around Boissy aux Cailles.
Finally, today, I managed to get the location of the boulder. Thanks again to the person providing me the information. This is hugely appreciated.
Thanks to the detailed indications, Bram (Honorez) and I quickly found the boulder where we both stood in awe, silently agreeing that this is a true hidden gem. On our way there, I noticed a broken sign that clearly said "Propriété Privé", private property, at one certain point in time. Hence maybe the some kind of secrecy that seemed to hang around the boulder's location. It is also the reason why I will not disclose its location publicly until it is actually published.
Coincidently, some other climber(s) had left 4 or 5 crashpads stacked under the boulder, and even though it was possible to work out the moves with only mine, I did make use of them as they were blocking the start of all the lines on the boulder. If those climbers happen to read this, I did put them back as they were after my session and I thank you for the understanding of me having used them.
The main reason I was there, was to try "Kong", of which I was able to work out all the moves and do the boulder in two part. Even though the start offers good holds, the wide compression sucks a lot of energy out of the body and there wasn't enough left to try and link it all together. Also, I could feel the leftovers from "Prouesse (assis)" that I had done the evening before. It took more out of me than it felt yesterday.
In the meantime, I was made aware of some other less hard problems on that beautiful boulder, such as "30ème Rugissant (gacuhe)", opened by Alain Dupas. Some really nice moves that unexpectedly worked out.
This definitely looked easier than it is. That left shoulder move took a lot of power. Much more than one would think. Nevertheless, a truly nice line!
Friday, October 16, 2020
October 16, 2020 - Prouesse (assis).
Just over a year and a half ago, I tried "Prouesse (assis)" for the first time with Pieter. We both couldn't bare the pain on our fingers and we deemed it way too hard after many attempts.
Last weekend, I tried it again for a while, together with Jan (Gorrebeeck), but it was after having worked for several hours together in "Le Proueptologue" in Cuvier Sorcières, so my energy levels were pretty low and the skin already wrecked. Thanks to some useful tips from Jan though, I did make some progress and actually believed that it was possible. Just not that day anymore.
Jan had been working for several sessions in "Prouesse (assis)" already and just before I had to leave he caught the swing, made a small mistake and fell off at two moves from the top. Later that day, he sent me a message that he fell off the very last move during the attempt right after I left. The boulder had sucked him dry and a long lasting headache forced him to let it go again and come back for it. Watching a video of that attempt that he sent me few days later, I realized that anything can happen until it's really over.
This evening, I had just enough time after work to go for a climb and decided to go to the nearby Rocher des Souris and try "Prouesse (assis)" again. The conditions didn't seem as good as last week, but I was filled with energy and motivation to climb off the work week. I had no high expectations though.
Surprisingly, my first attempt of the day went much better than I expected and now I really started to have the feeling that it might go.
I started to feel the so called sending-stress and felt nervous about falling off the very last moves. But then suddenly, some attempts later, somehow I managed to let go of the right foot and stay perfectly balanced. It gave me the time to place my feet on the tiny holds and prepare for going towards the top. The image of Jan falling off that last move was racing through my head, but I kept it together and shouted from relief when I hung on the last hold, big enough to not let go anymore.
Wednesday, October 7, 2020
October 07, 2020 - Comprecious.
Wednesday evening, so some free time for a quick climb. It had been raining a lot, but luckily, just for today and tomorrow, it was forecasted to be dry. The clouds had made space for the sun to peak from time to time and there was a good breeze. A perfect moment to go try some of the new boulders in Justice de Noisy right next door.
Last weekend I did climb, but the conditions were far from good and occasional local rain showers made it even worse. On Sunday morning, I came close to finishing "Un Autre Monde" but the bad sloper right hand felt humid with slippery tiny grains of sand that didn't want to come off.
This evening, the conditions were much better though and after a short warmup in the form of two failed attempts in "Un Autre Monde", I found the friction and struggled my way to the top. Quite morpho, but great compression that fits my style.
Opened by Tony Fouchereau and noted as 7C, but subject to downgrade depending on one's arm span.
(Boulder 73 on the topo: https://bleau.info/topos/topo1228.html)
Another boulder with some great compression, just the way I like it. Not convenient, but I had fun, despite the swearing, which is part of the fun anyway.
(Boulder 53 on the topo: https://bleau.info/topos/topo1228.html)