April 24, 2021 - No blah.

Don't feel like writing much and have no inspiration anyway.
A beautiful day today with a morning well spent in Boissy Vallée de l'Eglise and the afternoon working in the garden again.

Warmed up this morning with doing "Cajou-Line" on my first attempt.

Fontainebleau - Boissy Vallée de l'Eglise - Cajou-Line 7A

The new "Cliff Hangar" on the boulder next to it, took quite some more tries, but still went down quicker than expected. It does fit my dynamic style, but I'm not convinced about the grade. Dyno's like these are always hard to grade, but it didn't feel more than soft 7C to me.

Fontainebleau - Boissy Vallée de l'Eglise - Cliff Hangar 7C+

There was always much confusion about the original version of "Waterloo" due to its quite illogical convention, which is the reason why I never tried it before. Now that there is a separate page for the more logical line of "Waterloo (sans convention)", I decided to give it a go.
Went down quite quick, but as I dabbed the pad and had the impression that it could have helped, I took a short break and repeated without dab and without much struggle.

Fontainebleau - Boissy Vallée de l'Eglise - Waterloo (sans convention) 7B+

It was nice to meet Jan (Gorrebeeck), Jan (de Smit), Nat and Jeremy again a little after my session. They were parked next to my car and I went around looking for them as there weren't many places they could have gone to.
Strange to think that they are allowed to come on holiday for a weekend or longer, but that we are still confined to maximum 10km from home.

April 18, 2021 - Cart-man.

It's almost impossible to not notice the big boulder next to the path that leads to "Coup de Tonnerre" in Rocher du Télégraphe. It definitely didn't go unnoticed back in 2015, when I went climbing there for the first time. Besides a 6A, "Vague à l'Âme, nothing was opened on it yet though, or at least not published, but that big overhang with beautiful typical Bleau slopers really attracted me. It wasn't very long after, that Guillaume Joubert opened the beautiful "Télex" and "Télex (gauche)" on it, 7C+ and 7B+ respectively.
During the past five years, I have been trying it briefly several times, but gave up quickly as I could never do more than two moves. That starting hold for the right hand is a really bad sloper and you have to keep using it from the start until catching the high slopers left hand. Yesterday morning, I decided to give "Télex" another chance and took both the Mondo and the Drop Zone pads to cover for me. I took the time to clean the rarely repeated boulder from pollen and some moss before checking how far I would get.
It was quite a long session, but as there was a continuous slow but steady progress, I kept trying until was too tired. It took a lot of trying, but I had finally found a method to make my way to the high slopers on the edge of the overhang on nearly every attempt. I was determined to come back tomorrow, being today.

I was eager to go back "Télex" this morning, but decided to focus completely on the easier left exit, "Télex (gauche)" first. There were a few attempts yesterday that could have been successful, but doubt about which exit to try at that moment, even only for a second, was enough to distract me and make mistakes.
Having constant lower back problems, carrying both crashpads there and back yesterday made it substantially worse, so I decided to give it a try using a small pliable cart. As long as the path is wide and flat, as is the case when coming from La Feuillardière, it was even easier than I expected. Smaller paths going up and down in all directions are impossible though, but as I didn't have to take a lot of those, I simply walked them twice and took my time, saving my back.
I stretched, warmed up, and topped "Télex (gacuhe)" alreay on my second attempt. The method was still in my body and as I had decided beforehand which exit to go for, I didn't hesitate and finished it.

"Télex" itself, will have to wait for when I'm there with a spotter. Even though I can get my left heel up real high, I always chickened out and didn't even dare to start with the mantle up.

Fontainebleau - Rocher du Télégraphe - Télex (gauche) 7B+

April 06, 2021 - Once a boy.

My oldest son, Anthony, he who was once a boy, has turned 18 today and is officially no longer a minor. It's amazing how fast what was once a helpless little creature, has grown teeth, shaves every few days and has developed such a great personality! Yet, it's also funny how when I look at my youngest son, Noah, who is 10 years younger, I think about so much he still will go through, but when looking at Anthony, thinking how fast it all passed by.

Had taken the day off today and of course spent some time in the forest. Weird to imagine that apparently while it was snowing in Belgium, I was climbing in the sun in Justice de Noisy, struggling myself up, the,not hard looking, "Dugong Lamentin". Felt like 7B, but will probably be more like a 7A+ when using technique.

Fontainebleau - Justice de Noisy - Dugong Lamentin 7A+(7B)

April 05, 2021 - Crystal clear.

Usually, the days after climbing, I tend to have sweaty fingers because of lost skin. Today was no different, but standing in front of the boulder of "La Voie Active" in Mont Pivot this morning, I was about to put the Crystal Cream from Chalk Rebels to the test. If it weren't for Christophe Laumone, who opened another very hard problem on that boulder, "Le Retour de l'Imparfait" would have been the last problem for me to do on it.
"Le Retour de l'Imparfait" follows the same line as "La Voie Active (gauche)", but makes an easier exit above the start of "L'Imparfait du Subversif". As I had spent so many sessions on "La Voie Active (gauche)", falling off the last move countless times, I had the majority of the problem still in body and to warm up I quickly practiced the second part of the problem. I knew it was just a matter of keeping enough friction until the end when coming from the start. Something which always is a problem with sweaty fingertips.
Two attempts later, it was crystal clear to me that Chalk Rebels' Crystal Cream does make a difference. After having applied and rubbed some in my fingertips and letting it dry for a minute or two, my fingers were not sweaty at all and the friction felt like climbing in almost perfect conditions. I'm curious what effect it will have during hot Summer days or evenings.

Fontainebleau - Mont Pivot - Le Retour de l'Imparfait 7B+

Crystal clear!

April 04, 2021 - Freedom, question mark.

After I finally did "Lamia-San" a few weeks ago, I knew that the sitstart would follow pretty soon. I tried it a first time on Friday evening, just before the curfew, and was quickly able to do the sequence from the sitstart into the standing start, and even fell off the last move a couple of times due to bad foot placement.
If it wouldn't have been for the curfew, I possibly would have done it then, but as the virus has a watch, it knows to become more dangerous and contagious from 19h on. It doesn't matter if one is completely alone out there or not. Anyway, at least there are no armed guards patrolling the streets like in the war. Or are there ?
This morning, after the usual Easter egg tradition, I went back to La Ségognole and was able to finish quite quickly what I started last Friday.
Some very nice additional moves from the sitstart into the stand, but not very much harder. A technical beauty.

Fontainebleau - La Ségognole - Lamia-San (assis) 7C+

It was a quiet Easter in the forest, but not as quiet as last year. I wasn't even allowed to go to La Ségognole back then, because that was more than 1 km away from home. 1 km and 830 m to be exact. Almost 2 km, I would have been committing a crime.
Now at least I can go up to Franchard Isatis, and would technically be committing a crime as soon as I would walk over to Cuisinière.

April 03, 2021 - Plant a tree.

A little more than a week ago, I spent some time trying the beautiful "La Neuvième Forme" from Olivier Lebreton. I came pretty close, but the conditions of my skin and thus the friction, didn't feel good enough to really push through. When I arrived back home that day, by coincidence a package arrived from Belgium. It came from Chalk Rebels and contained their improved chalk and skin repair cream. I remember thinking that if it would have arrived earlier, or I had left for climbing later, my chances on "La Neuvième Forme" would have been different, especially with the Crystal cream, ideal for people who quickly have sweaty hands and fingers, like me.
The whole week I couldn't stop thinking about going back to "La Neuvième Forme" and of course it was one of the first things that I did this morning. Armed with two crashpads and my supply of Crystal and Chalk cream, I felt ready. On top of that, there was a nice breeze coming from the North that kept everything nice and cool.

The friction felt much better than last week, especially using the Crystal cream as soon as my fingers started feeling sweaty after loosing some of its skin. I must say that I was very pleasantly surprised with how good that Crystal cream works. I know my fingers, of course, and I could really notice a big difference.
For me this is a true five star problem. The moves are superbe and the topout makes it just scary enough to hang on for your dear life and don't miss that very last move on the mantle. I didn't take two crashpads just for pleasure.

Fontainebleau - Buthiers Canard - La Neuvième Forme 7B(7B+)

Chalk Rebels has only just launched their products and are already starting to become an established brand within the Belgian climbing community. Unfortunately, like in many other countries currently, the climbing halls are closed and even though it's not much, I'm trying to help them out. Not just because they are friends, but also because I like their stance towards the environment and nature. They only use natural and environment friendly ingredients for their products plant a tree for every sold product. On top of that, they contribute 1% of revenue to environmental charities through the "1% For The Planet" program.
Have a look on their website, read all about their products and philosophy on their website by clicking on the Chalk Rebels banner on the right. Why not order one of their products and build up some stock. Go ahead, plant a tree!