April 02, 2022 - Fooled by snow.

Melting snow mixed with rain almost the whole day yesterday made my hope for some climbing today as good as vanish completely. When I woke up this morning though the sky had cleared, the sun was shining and there seemed to be a good wind. It made my hope rise again and when I looked out of the window I was delighted to see that the whole garden had as good dried up. There definitely was possibility to climb, with maybe even good conditions depending on where I would go. Knowing that "La Croix (gauche)" would be in the sun and catching a lot of wind, it seemed like the way to go. I had tried "La Croix (gauche)" in Summer once, but it was too hot and I realized that I would need it to be colder.
Walking through the area of Rocher du Potala, the boulders were dry, it was mildly clouded, cold and there was a  strong wind from the North. It was so cold that I actually needed quite some time to warm up, especially my hands. Nevertheless, I immediately started with "La Croix (gauche)" working out the moves again before giving it real attempts. Some of the moves are quite morpho though, and I couldn't do them all every time, I was counting on some luck to be able to make a successful ascent. About an hour later, luck was on my side and I topped out, quite exhausted, but satisfied.

Fontainebleau - Rocher du Potala - La Croix (gauche) 7B(7B+)

My next plan was to go and try the new "Eau de Vie", opened by Laurent Darlot, in Grande Montagne. It's only a small additional walk from the end of Rocher du Potala. The indication to find the boulder was that it was about 50m North-West of "Roncevaux", so I dropped the crashpad at that boulder while I looked around for "Eau de Vie". Having found it quickly, I decided to try "Roncevaux (assis)" first as the crashpad was still there and "Eau de Vie" being down the hill.
It was only when I was back home, that it apparently starts with a sitstart on the left, according to the line drawn on a picture of the boulder. I started more right on the arete, but the grade is about the same. 

Fontainebleau - Grande Montagne - Roncevaux (assis droite) 7A

I spent about two hours trying "Eau de Vie", can do all the quite hard moves, but the skin on my hands and fingers got wrecked during the process of finding a method. Despite falling off the last move many times, I had to throw in the towel as my last attempts started to get worse. It's a boulder that I will gladly return for, so added it to my wantlist.