November 25, 2021 - Little piece of paradise.

With freezing temperatures during the night and a very low air humidity earlier this week, the climbing conditions seemed optimal. After noticing that they predict rain from Friday on, I took a day off work today, I wanted to have my piece of the pie and profit from the good conditions before they would turn bad again.
I could have gone back to "Gengis Khan", but I feared for the split in my right middle finger, which wasn't fully healed yet, and I didn't want to spend most of my time at the same boulder again, so I chose to go to Gorges du Houx Petit Paradis. Not necessarily to try some of the new boulders that have been published earlier this week, but it was thanks to the new publications that I was reminded about what other boulders that I still had on my to-do list.
It was still -2°C when I left home, but I could sense that the air was less dry than earlier this week. I figured that I had missed the best part of the week, but nevertheless, it wasn't going to be bad, rather on the contrary. While walking through the forest though, the treetops that caught some of the morning sun were dripping mildly from the dew. It wasn't very much, but enough for me to hope that the boulders that I wanted to try were not getting wet from it. Walking through the forest early in the morning on a regular working day always has some kind of magic feel to it. The forest is still waking up and there is nobody around. It has some kind of serene touch to it, a paradise for those who are fond of it.

I wanted to start with "Cambrure Divine", and when I arrived, I remembered why I never dared to try this one on my own. The landing is quite exposed with big stones right under the roof. I didn't take two crashpads, but I did think of taking the big Mondo pad, so I tried to make the landing as safe as possible in case I would fall out of the roof.
Being confident in what I am capable of and with conditions that were very good, it didn't take long to work my way up. A boulder that really fits my style, or at least, that's how I climbed it. If I can use toehooks instead of heelhooks, than my choice is quickly made.

Fontainebleau - Gorges du Houx Petit Paradis - Cambrure Divine 7B

The sitstart followed on my first attempt after a short rest. Maybe a bit morpho to reach the right hand crimp under the roof, but just doable for me.

Fontainebleau - Gorges du Houx Petit Paradis - Cambrure Divine (assis) 7B(7B+)

I wanted to try some other problems than "Poisson d'Avril" on that huge boulder, but as the underclings under the small roof were humid, or even wet, I didn't have much choice but to go for "Poisson d'Avril" after all. Something that I didn't regret, because that problem is beautiful.

Fontainebleau - Gorges du Houx Petit Paradis - Poisson d'Avril 7A(7A+)

Also that sitstart went on my first attempt following a short break after the standing start. Not much harder than the stand, but the sitstart is a logical one.

Fontainebleau - Gorges du Houx Petit Paradis - Poisson d'Avril (assis) 7A+(7B)

I ended with the newly published "Sous la Cambrure", which I found easily by following my own intuition. The location description on bleau.info mentioned that it's 100m opposite and below "Cambrure Divine", but in fact it is about 50m behind and below the latter. Basically, North of "Cambrure Divine". I used the same starting for the hands as Guillaume Joubert did when doing the first ascent, but I was able to find other foot placement, making it probably on the soft side for the proposed grade.

Fontainebleau - Gorges du Houx Petit Paradis - Sous la Cambrure 7A+