We are allowed to stay outside for sports for 3 hours a day since yesterday, and up to 20 km from home. Even though I was desperately looking forward to finally leave the previous 1 km (!) radius, I only went exactly 2.1 km from home yesterday and today. "La Voie Active" in Mont Pivot had been an open tab on my web browser for some weeks already, to remind of going there as soon as I could.
Pieter and I had done "L'Imparfait du Subversif" on that same boulder a week before the first lockdown started here in March and we also worked out some of the moves of "La Voie Active" that same day and I had forgotten about it until a few weeks ago.
Yesterday I used up my 3 hours, although I have to admit that I was almost half an hour late. The weather was beautiful and perfect for climbing. Cold, but the sun was shining, it was dry and the conditions were way better than average.
Even though I still remembered the first moves pretty well, it took a while before I was able to make everything fit perfectly to flow through the first part and have enough left for the last part. It was not very long after I had worked out the last part and taken a break that the sequence was carried out perfectly and despite an little unaesthetically executed struggle at the end, I worked myself through to the end.
Unfortunately my good old camera, or more specifically its battery, is starting to have it difficult when it's so cold. Especially after having been doing nothing in my backpack for almost a week without being kept on a charger. It definitely can't keep up for 3 hours in this cold; that's for sure now.
Anyway, the battery was completely empty and the camera was turned off when I wanted to pack up to leave. I didn't know when it had stopped though, but after checking the footage it must have been at most 10 minutes before I made the ascent. I did however, put together the footage I had and made composed a video in such a way that it features the topout of when I had worked out that part.
I didn't put online yesterday, because I was determined to go back today to make a better video. Knowing the sequence by heart and still having it in muscle memory, I was confident to repeat it again quick enough to leave me some time to try something else nearby.
The weather was not the same as yesterday though. It started out sunny when I woke up, giving me extra confidence, but even before the dawn was dry, the sky had turned grey and the air felt humid. It was colder than yesterday without that nice sun and even though the boulder felt dry at first, it quickly turned damp. The skin of my fingers wasn't the same as yesterday neither and I must admit that I could feel yesterday's session in the form of much lower energy levels. There were a few attempts that I came really close, one even fell off the last move, but I had to throw in the towel after just under two hours of trying to repeat it. The motivation was still there, but the conditions weren't those that were needed for doing it and I was getting tired. I'm quite sure to come back again one day with Pieter. It's a beautiful line that he definitely should try again and I would be happy to join.
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