One of my best friends from Belgium, Bart, was staying over for almost a week, but the weather was wet the whole time and there was barely any chance for some serious climbing. Of course the sky cleared up yesterday night, just after Bart had left back to Belgium. I was motivated for climbing, but the harder boulders that I wanted to try were either still wet, or just not in good enough conditions. Strolling around Apremont, I ended up in Apremont Haut des Gorges, where I was able to finish "Éphé-Miné" on my first attempt.
Fontainebleau - Apremont Haut des Gorges - Éphé-Miné 7A(7A+)
Looking for some other nearby boulders that I hadn't done yet, I found "Dédoublement" to be dry enough. Far from being in good conditions, I did manage to flash this one as well.
Fontainebleau - Apremont Haut des Gorges - Dédoublement 7A
Having the day off work today, I had been keeping on eye on the weather forecast for several days and it looked perfect. Temperature well below freezing during the night and at most 3°C during the day. On top of that, there was a light wind from the East and the air humidity was pretty low. Perfect ingredients for pristine conditions and sticky slopers. I was psyched to see that the forecast didn't change by today. The only difference being that the temperature didn't come above 1°C, but that was only beneficial. Given the conditions, I looked for a hard boulder with bad slopers and my attention was drawn to "Des Claques" in Les Béorlots. I had tried it very briefly a long while ago, but didn't put much effort into it as the very bad slopers required better conditions. This morning, it was all good, at least as good as I had hoped for, but the slopers of "Des Claques" looked much harder than I remembered. When I started trying the separate moves, it was as if I got slapped, and it felt like I was most likely going back home empty handed, but the more my the skin of my hands was warming up and the more my whole body woke up, the better the friction was and the moves started to feel possible. It didn't take very long until I had found a method for each move and as soon as I had done all of them except one, separately, I turned on the camera. I knew that this was an exhausting problem, and didn't want to risk interrupting any possible good attempts just because the camera wasn't rolling yet. Even though I didn't feel completely comfortable on every move, my first attempt after I started recording was almost perfect. Good enough to make my way to the top of this beauty.
Fontainebleau - Les Béorlots - Des Claques 7C(7C+)
I moved to the boulder of "Mickey Mouse" in Les Béorlots Ouest, I would have liked to try "The Others", but unfortunately, the exit needs some thorough rebrushing. Being one of the few spots in the area where I have internet reception, I quickly browsed bleau.info for an alternative and decided to go try "Misty" instead. It's a slow drying boulder, but in the current conditions it was pretty good. Good enough for being able to tick this one off too. Not as beautiful as what I had done moments before, but very nice indeed.
It was only 1°C with a nice blue sky when I left home this morning, but with the temperature predicted to rise during the day, I feared for condensed boulders later in the day. I was early though and the boulders on the South facing hill of Apremont Sanglier were in much better conditions than last Wednesday. I was finally able to work in "Spidercochon (droite)". It took a while though to find back the method for the exhausting first part, but as soon as I found it again, I took a short break before making real attempts to the end. I came really close and fell off the last move at least five times, but the tiny sharp right hand had cut deep into the tips of my index, middle and ring finger, and I had to let go of it when it started bleeding. Taping them would have made it too hard for the bad slopers of the first part, so that wasn't an option. A little frustrated, I moved over to the boulder of "Tics Tocs" where I started trying the longer version, "Tic et Tic et Toc". The holds of the first part were wet last Wednesday, just like most of the boulder, so I didn't try that version then. This time, the boulder was completely dry and a handful of attempts later, I was at least able to tick off "Tic et Tic et Toc".
Fontainebleau - Apremont Sanglier - Tic et Tic et Toc 7B
Despite quite good conditions last Saturday, it rained that night and with the temperature rising slightly, the boulders were all condensed on Sunday. More rain and a high air humidity the days after that, didn't make it much better, especially given the fact that there barely any wind anymore. I again had the day off today, but the conditions were nowhere near those last Wednesday. The boulders were still condensed and I had to let go of my idea to try "Spidercochon (droite)" in Apremont Sanglier. I was already in the area though and as it didn't look it would be better anywhere else, I continued on to the boulder of "Soundgarden" higher up the hill. The top of the boulder was soaking wet, but the lower part of "Tics Tocs" was only damp. Those slopers can't break, so I decided to work out the lower part. In the worst case, the slippery slopers only would make it a bit harder. It was a long battle, but as I managed to find a possible method, I dried the soaking wet top slopers with a towel as good as I could. There was no way to dry the crimp on the right, so I decided to go for an exit slightly more to the left and avoid using the crimp. Many times, I slipped off the slopers just before the last move, and I almost decided to give up, but wanted it give it one last good attempt before leaving. It was a big surprise to finally stick the last move but the actual topout being still soaking wet made it quite hazardous to continue on. Nevertheless I was able to work my way on to the top of the boulder. Given the very bad conditions, I didn't expect to climb anything today, let alone topping something out, so I was quite relieved and happy to be able to tick off "Tics Tocs".
The weather forecast turned to the positive side just before the weekend, and instead of rain, it turned out to be a beautiful day after all. It was difficult to decide where to go, but when stumbled upon "Mowgli" while browsing bleau.info yesterday evening, I was eager to go to Maunoury. It was crisp cold when I arrived at the boulder and it reminded me of a few years ago, the day that I did "Bagheera". "Mowgli" has a slightly easier sitstart than "Bagheera", but shares the same exit, so I was pretty confident. I worked out the moves and was able to top "Mowgli" on my second attempt after turning on the camera.
Fontainebleau - Maunoury - Mowgli 7B+
Later, I ended up at the very end of the area, where the conditions were unfortunately far from as good as on "Mowgli", but I decided to try "Envole-toi Éric" anyway. A very nice prow with a cool kneebar and great compression moves. The very topout was a bit more scary than expected, so it was a relief to stand on the top of the boulder.
I doubted about coming back for the sitstart some other time with Pieter, but ended up trying it anyway. The sistart adds a few very nice moves to get into the stand. Never mind the swearing though.
After a wet rainy weekend and a weather forecast that predicted only rain for this week, I was delighted to see that Wednesday was going to be dry and had the chance to take the day off. It looked like it was going to be the only, and thus the best, chance of the week for some possibility to climb. This morning, the sun was shining and there was a lot of wind during the night, so it was promising. The streets were still quite wet though and while walking towards the Rocher Saint-Germain area, a lot of boulders looked quite dark, which is a plausible sign of humidity. Some parts of the area take a lot of wind though, and fortunately so is the sector where "Y'a pas de P qui Compte", my main goal for the day, is located. I could see it already from far when I was approaching the boulder, it looked dry and even in quite good conditions.
I warmed up with "Affirmatif", that I was able to do on my second attempt. The friction on the boulder was very good and I looked forward to try "Y'a pas de P qui Compte", on the same boulder.
Even though I stood already many times before the line where "Y'a pas de P qui Compte" was supposed to be going, but the information about the boulder was scarce at that time and I never got to the point of trying it, not even knowing where and how to start. That seemed to have changed since a number of climbers have repeated the problem now and there are even several videos showing different methods and exits. I decided to go for the original direct exit and started working out the moves. It wasn't without a fight, but in the end I did manage to work up my way on my main goal of the day.
Fontainebleau - Rocher Saint-Germain - Y'a pas de P qui Compte 7B+
I tried a few other problems, but only got away with the relatively new "Metafort". The front side of this line was in pristine conditions, but the top of the backside that I needed to top out was humid and slippery, probably making it slightly harder than I had imagined.
