August 29, 2021 - Fire in the hole.

I was in Belgium this weekend to celebrate the birthday of one of my family members, but left for home immediately after breakfast. This gave me still some to climb this afternoon after a long four hour drive. I felt a bit tired from the drive, but the motivation was there.
Having driven enough for the day, I didn't go far and revisited the nearby Rocher du Guetteur where I wanted to try "Backdraft" again. I had already tried this several times, but never found a method that worked for me to reach the lip of the roof.
This time though, I paid attention to every detail and took my time to work out the move to the lip. As soon as I got the hang of that move, I knew that it was possible, setup the camera and topped it right away.

Fontainebleau - Rocher du Guetteur - Backdraft 7B(7A+)

Next, I took my time to work out the moves of the right exit, which didn't take very long, but wasn't all too convenient. Nevertheless, I managed to top "Backdraft (droite)" immediately after pressing record again on the camera. I felt on fire.

Fontainebleau - Rocher du Guetteur - Backdraft (droite) 7B+

August 27, 2021 - Game on.

There are so many possibilities on the boulder of "Boite à Lettres", so the game was on this evening.
Same start, but exiting slightly right and without using the good holds on the left, "Est-ce une Voie?" is graded 7A, but definitely felt more like a 7A+.

Fontainebleau - Coquibus Auvergne - Est-ce une Voie? 7A

Managed to also finish what I logically call "Est-ce une Voie? (rallongé)", with an exit further to the right. Maybe even closer to 7B ? It was hard to tell as I had first couple of moves well worked out, but only today was able to work out the last moves.
Whatever it may be, I definitely had another dose of fun, topped up with another dose by meeting Belgian friend Tim (Collier) again after maybe two years since last time, and who was in the neighborhood and came to say hi.

Fontainebleau - Coquibus Auvergne - Est-ce une Voie? (rallongé) 7A+(7B)

August 25, 2021 - Just playing.

As I didn't have much time, I decided to just have some fun and play around. Also a bit because "Liaison Dangereuse" was too hard and I was already stuck at the start.
I started trying something that I didn't know what it was and ended up doing some variant or different method of "Boite à Lettres". Very conventional with a dyno to the crimp right hand. As I have short legs, my feet always cut loose when catching the crimp, making it quite hard to stick.
Not sure about the grade, but at that moment it felt like 7A+, but is probably easier for someone with long legs, or simply taller climbers. Hard to say really, it was a feeling of that specific moment. 
The most important thing was that I had fun while playing.

Fontainebleau - Coquibus Auvergne - Boite à Lettres (droite par convention) 7A+(7A)

August 22, 2021 - Chillin' repeated.

I showed Pieter some of the new boulders in Justice de Noisy today, and even though they were all new to him, for me they definitely weren't. So I ended repeating quite some problems, but did get away with one that I hadn't tried before.
"La Remontada" is not that difficult, but can be quite reachy, depending on the method. Did two methods and got them both on video, one being less elegant than the other, but fun nevertheless.

Fontainebleau - Justice de Noisy - La Remontada 7A(6C)

August 21, 2021 - Chillin'.

I always enjoy climbing with Pieter, even if it means climbing on a less high level after he has been abroad for a year and needs to loose some belly. The climbing days with him are always fun and chill.
He had never been to Rocher du Télégraphe, so as all the boulders were new to him, I didn't mind at all climbing a handful of problems that I had done before, even quite some years ago.
On the "Burpees" boulder, I did do "Cross-Fit", the only problem that I topped today and hadn't done before.
It was a hot day, and we didn't care a lot about the two short unexpected rain showers, they were rather refreshing. The session ended with joy when Pieter managed to climb the standing start and the sitstart of "Coup de Tonnerre". Even I repeated them very quick and easily today, I remember that I had a harder time topping those out than he had today for his first time.

Fontainebleau - Rocher du Télégraphe - Cross-Fit 7A+

August 15, 2021 - Be like a bat.

I went to Buthiers Canard with the intention to try "Maison de Presse", but due to some circumstances, it was already 11h when I arrived and it already close to 30°C. The sun was shining full on the right side of the prow and even though I was able to work out the first part of the problem, it soon became way too hot.
I moved my stuff over to the small cave with "L'Esprit du Knee Bar", but there too, the heat soon became almost unbearable to try anything hard, especially when coming out of the cave. 
I did get away with the bat-like style "L'Esprit Aveugle", a very nice and fun problem.

Fontainebleau - Buthiers Canard - L'Esprit Aveugle 7A

August 14, 2021 - Cas Contact.

I hadn't planned on going to Mont Aigu, but as I had to bring my oldest son to Fontainebleau this morning, I decided to go there.
There wasn't much that I wanted to try, but "Cas Contact (direct)" was definitely on the list. Seeming to fit my style, it was potentially a quick deal, but looking at how many times the opener, Manuel (Marquès), fell on the last, dynamic, move it promised to be hard.
I wasn't wrong about the hard part. The bad sloper for the left hand was worse than it looked and the right hand was in a very bad position to go from there to the top dynamically. It didn't look like it, but it is a huge move. After trying for almost half an hour, I even started to think that it was too hard and I wasn't going to make it.
Nevertheless, after a short break, I somehow found a position out of which I could start the dynamic move and I started to believe in it again. Not much later, I finally made it.
I then briefly tried the sitstart, and even though I could quite easily get into the standing start and up into position to do the dynamic move again, but it was really hot by then and I didn't have the same motivation as before, so I decided to call it a day. But determined to go back for that sitstart on a cooler day.
Very nice problem.

Fontainebleau - Mont Aigu - Cas Contact (direct) 7A+

August 08, 2021 - Keeping it dry.

I had done the right exit version of "La Coccinelle" in Buthiers Tennis almost two years ago, but apparently I had the moves of the first part still in me. 
There were some rain showers this morning, so I waited for a dry window, which finally arrived early afternoon. It didn't bother me that much as I had some things planned for today anyway. At least I got most of these done before being able to leave. On my way though, there was yet another rain shower when I was driving towards Buthier. Short, but long enough to make the boulder wet. There was some wind though and the sun that was out now and then, dried the boulder pretty quickly. It was then that I noticed that I still had the moves in me. My hope for doing "La Coccinelle (raccourci)" faded for a moment when another shower made the boulder wet again. Luckily, I was able to keep the key holds of the start dry.
After rain comes sunshine and now it was also the case. The boulder dried fast, but after only another attempt or two, the next rain shower came over and everything except for the key holds got wet again. I was persistent though and waited it out until a seemingly longer dry period had made its way to Buthiers.
This time, I was able to finish it, even though the top was still very humid and very slippery. The last move was uncertain, but despite being slippery, I managed to hold it and climb on.
It was still too wet and slippery to safely climb down, so for once, I didn't mind the small audience that was watching and used the occasion to ask one of the watchers to move the crashpad to a spot where I could jump off the boulder onto the pad. Thanks again to the unknown mister.

Fontainebleau - Buthiers Tennis - La Coccinelle (raccourci) 7C

August 01, 2021 - Return of the rain.

The rain that they predicted for today didn't look to be near when I left for Franchard Sablons Carriers this morning, but I somehow had a feeling that it would have to hurry a little bit.
I made a first stop at "Idle Hands", which looked flashable, but took me some tries to work out the crux move. Quite hard for the proposed 7A. I would even put it at 7A+.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Sablons Carriers - Idle Hands 7A(7A+)

Not far from there, I made a quick flash of "Whale Party". Classified as traverse, but basically the most logical line on that boulder when starting on the left side of the overhang.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Sablons Carriers - Whale Party 7A

I repeated "Party Whale" also on my first attempt, but had actually already flashed this almost a year ago, wearing my normal skate shoes after I had done "Devil's Plaything" and only had a look at the other boulders that were opened in that sector.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Sablons Carriers - Party Whale 7A(6C+)

On the boulder almost next to it, I made a fairly quick ascent of "Point of View". Good that it went quite quick, because barely a few minutes after, a rain shower made the top of the boulder wet.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Sablons Carriers - Point of View 7B