January 24, 2021 - Staying busy without moving.

It has been very wet the past couple of weeks, and I missed out on some of the few moments when it was dry with seemingly good looking conditions. Yesterday, everything was wet again and so was the forecast for today, but to my pleasant surprise, I woke up in the morning with a rising sun and an almost clear blue sky. It was still freezing and everything outside looked crispy.
The weather that was forecasted yesterday evening had moved, and it looked like I had good opportunity for a couple of hours climbing. To get the most out of it, I didn't want to go far and decided to go the boulder of "La Voie Active" in Mont Pivot. Manuel Marquès has opened a few interesting looking variation recently, which gave me another valid reason, on top of the usual motivation, to go back to that boulder.
It was still freezing just below 0°C when I arrived and even though the conditions looked good at first, I quickly realized that I didn't have to expect too much after having a closer look at the key crimp under the roof. The left part of the crimp, the part that absolutely need when coming from the sitstart, looked dark. It felt dry at first, but it was obvious that it was frosted. I briefly tried to work through the move that requires that part of the crimp, but with the energy in my hands slowly warming it up, the frost started melting, making the it feel humid and slippery. Coming from the sitstart was not an option for today, and I could have moved to another nearby boulder, but I decided to stay where I was and only work the second part of the new variations that Manual opened, just to familiarize myself already with the new sequence that only started after the first part anyway. The first part, coming from the sitstart, is exactly the same as "La Voie Active", that I did very long ago, so being able to do the second would be a good preparation for when I come with better conditions to do the whole line.
I didn't have the intention to make a video of it at first, but as the moves of the second part alone are so nice to do, I did it anyway and gave it a grade of what I estimate that part of the line to be.

"La Voie Active (gauche)" normally starts sitting on the right, as for "La Voie Active" and exits between the aretes in "L'Imparfait du Subversif (direct)". The last move involved a bit of luck in the conditions that there were.

Fontainebleau - Mont Pivot - La Voie Active (gauche accroupi) 7A+(7B)

"Le Retour de l'Imparfait" normally starts the same as "La Voie Active", but exits above the start of "L'Imparfait du Subversif". Very nice swing to catch.
I hope to have better conditions soon, so I can try the whole problems.

Fontainebleau - Mont Pivot - Le Retour de l'Imparfait (accroupi) 7A

I am giving some attention to a new brand named "Chalk Rebels", created by some of my friends in Belgium. They make and sell skin care products especially for climbers, as well as their own all natural made liquid chalk, chalk balls and more, all with philosophy behind it that I really support. Of course it's your own choice if you want to click on the link to their website, or not: Chalk Rebels: Use LESS Chalk

January 09, 2021 - Coming prepared.

As I wrote in my previous post, I still tried "Stargate (direct)" after having done "Manolo" last week, but despite finding a suitable method, I wasn't able to finish it then. With freezing temperatures and dry weather this morning, the conditions looked looked promising and I headed back to Justice de Noisy, looking forward to the sunny spot where "Stargate" always bathes in to.
With the moves and method that I worked out last week still in my head and seemingly still present in my muscle memory, I came very close to sending "Stargate (direct)" on my first attempt today, until part of the tiny crimp for the last move decided to break. I fell hard, but luckily I came prepared. Remembering the falls I made when I tried "Stargate" before the second lockdown, I carried two crashpads. Both of them served their purpose very well.
It was only a very small piece of the crimp that broke off, but I did use that tiny piece with the thumb of my right hand a lot to be able to reach high enough left hand and grab the jug near the top left hand. I definitely used it enough for it to break under the pressure. It turned out even, that I depended on that thumb crimp enough that I wasn't able to do it anymore. All that was left of the crimp right hand, was a tiny sharp edge that barely fit the tip of my index finger and half of my middle. I had to change my method and find another way to get into position for the last move.
It wasn't easy to find another method, and even though there was only a slight change, it still felt uncertain. Thanks to the many tries, I was able to cruise through the first part enough times to find a lucky moment where I could pull off the second until the jug and on to the top of the boulder.
Another very nice problem with great moves, opened by Tony Fouchereau and Thierry Vasseur!

Boulder 7 on the topo on bleau.info: Justice de Noisy - Justice de Noisy (bleau.info)

Fontainebleau - Justice de Noisy - Stargate (direct) 7B+

January 02, 2021 - Last goes first.

I had tried "Manolo", in Cuvier Rempart, a few times over the past couple of years, but as I don't go very often to that area, I had never made it a real project until three days ago, back in 2020. I was already able to do most of the moves and make some good link-ups, but never found a way to do the crux comfortably enough to do this short powerful problem in one piece. 
It was only three days ago, back in 2020, that I found a new method that suited me more, but the process of working out and trying the whole line over and over took a few hours and I was completely out of  power at the somewhat humid top slopers. I knew that I could send this if I had more power left and in dry conditions. The last attempt of 2020 (which can be seen in the video), I fell off the top slopers again and had to throw in the towel.

Due to bad conditions, I didn't climb the two following days, but today looked promising according to my weather app. I left home in Noisy-sur-Ecole with a sunny blue sky, but just passed the Franchard areas, it started to get foggy. A fog that got denser the further I drove toward Cuvier. To my big but pleasant surprise though, I could see hillside of Cuvier Rempart bathing in the sun while driving down the hill on the N7 towards Barbizon. Almost miraculously the Rempart area was the only area where the sun was able to reach. Even the classical area of Cuvier 100m further was covered with a light fog.

The conditions on "Manolo" were perfect. I couldn't have wished for any better than they were this morning when I arrived. It was very promising, which made me a bit nervous. I feared that my fingers might sweat too much after loosing skin due to many attempts. I still had the sequence in my head though, so I quickly tried the topout from a standing start to warm up. I did it without hesitation from my first try, which confirmed the good conditions. There was friction, and a lot of it. 
My first attempt from the start,,which wasn't a too bad attempt, followed immediately after the extremely short warm up, but failed due to bad heel placement. The attempt after that, I made it through to the end, and could tick off "Manaolo" as my first boulder of 2021.

Fontainebleau - Cuvier Rempart - Manolo 7C

It seemed that it was a good thing to have done "Manolo" so quickly this morning, because barely half an hour later when I was playing around in "Noir Désir", the fog sort of slid down the hill, blocking the sun and making the air and conditions more humid again. I decided to leave and stop at Justice de Noisy close to home on my way back.
The fog had become so dense that I had to turn on my car's fog lights by the time I reached Barbizon. Back home in Justice de Noisy, the sun was shining so hard that I was able to try "Stargate (direct)" in a T-shirt. Didn't finish it yet though.

Cold, but a nice blue and sunny sky in Justice de Noisy.