When I saw a video of Carina (Lotta) climbing "Sac à Rose" a few weeks ago, I was amazed by how nice it looked. The boulder looked very familiar and it turned out to be on the same boulder as "EOS" in the very nearby Justice de Chambergeot. As I am expecting visitors today, my time was limited so I went to Justice de Chambergeot, knowing what to try. Even though I had done "EOS" several times already, somehow I nevered bothered trying "Sac à Rose", probably being deceived by the description mentioning that it's a traverse. Carina's video didn't look like she was doing a traverse though. I really enjoyed the moves of "Sac à Rose" and was able to finish quite quickly.
Fontainebleau - Justice de Chambergeot - Sac à Rose 7B
Immediately after, I also bagged the easier "L'Acte Possible 1", also catalogued as a traverse, but not feeling like one. I flashed this one with relative ease.
Fontainebleau - Justice de Chambergeot - L'Acte Possible 1 7A(6C+)
I finished the session by doing "L'Acte Osé 2" on my second attempt. Going quite a way sideways, this started to feel like a traverse, but the moves are really nice and it was well worth it.
Fontainebleau - Justice de Chambergeot - L'Acte Osé 2 7B+
As I wrote already a few years ago on this blog, the area of Rocher des Demoiselles was originally named Rocher des Putains because it was the area where Louis XIV used to hide and meet his mistresses for some 'fun'. To make it more attractive for tourism, they later changed the name to the less vulgar Rocher des Demoiselles. What remains a reminder of the old times, are the names of the paths nearby and around the area. Route des Filles, Route de Cupidon, Route de l'Amour, Route de Vénus, Route de la Beauté, Route de la Tendresse, ... all still refer to the purpose of the area back in the days. Now it's especially known for walking and the bouldering area, and I was there for a date with "Chaman", not a person of any kind, but a very popular problem, if not one of the most popular of the sector, especially for its grade. The first time that I tried it, was about ten years ago and I remember coming very close to sending it. The couple of times after, I either didn't have the motivation, strength, technique, or, as the boulder needs some time dry, simply bad conditions. Moreover, I had never went to the area while it making a main goal, it was mostly after having done or tried other goals, near the end of a session. Today however, it was my main goal of the day and thanks to a long period of dry weather, I had no excuse for the holds to be in bad condition. The first ten minutes, I could barely place the left heel and even less take the crimp under the roof left hand and I was wondering how on Earth that I got so close almost ten years ago. Thinking about what I possibly did different, I had a vague memory of using a left toehook instead of a heel and when I tried it as such, I immediately made it to the knob after which I jumped off and setup the camera. After making a mistake at the end, I needed another attempt to finally finish off this classic. The date was over.
Fontainebleau - Rocher des Demoiselles - Chaman 7C(7B+)
On the way back, I realized that I hadn't done "L'Eveil du Sphinx" yet for some reason, but was able to tick it off fairly quick now. I worked out the moves to do the sitstart as well, but had to admit to myself that I was running out of energy and will have to come back for it some other day. It will be with great pleasure.
Fontainebleau - Rocher des Demoiselles - L'Eveil du Shpinx 7A+
After doing some work in the garden and around the pool this morning, I went to Rocher du Guetteur for a short but fruitful climb. Starting with "Les Anges Dansent (gauche)", the only remaining variant that I didn't do yet on this boulder, I had a motivation boost when I finished it in barely twenty minutes. I really liked this boulder, so it's a bit of a pity that I finished it. Of course, I can still come back for repetitions when climbing with someone who hasn't tried the boulder yet.
Fontainebleau - Rocher du Guetteur - Les Anges Dansent (gauche) 7B(7B+)
Being so close to the technical "Croûte que Coûte", and with plenty of time left, I decided to give it another try. I tried this briefly only once back in 2018, but being on the North face of the boulder, the conditions were not in favor and I gave up on it quickly. I had forgotten about for a long time until Jan (Gorrebeeck) recommended it to me a few months ago. It was quite hot in the sun, but the conditions of the slopers and crimps were pretty good. This time, after a few tries, I was able to finish this technical beauty. The moves on this one are quite technical and very subtle, especially near the end. So beautiful that I actually gave it five stars.
Fontainebleau - Rocher du Guetteur - Croûte que Coûte (assis) 7A
According to Greek mythology, Calypso, daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, was a natural deity who lived on the island of Ogygia. She kept Odysseus on her island for seven years and tried to marry him, even promising immortality if he did, but Odysseus preferred to leave the island and go back home. She did give birth to Odysseus' son and named him Latinus. So far for the history lesson. Nowadays, Calypso can be almost anything, from an ice cream to a dance and yes, even the name of a boulder problem in the Montignotte area, a calm and isolated sector in Coquibus. I had only been once in Montignotte and it was on a rainy day, just for walking, but this morning, I went there especially to try "Calypso", located between the Guichet and Montignotte areas, but closer to the latter. This isolated sector features several boulders, but all spread apart and quite hard to locate in the sometimes dense and chaotic forest. It took me quite a long time before I finally found "Calypso", almost stumbling upon it by accident rather than a calculated guess. "Calypso" is a very nice slightly overhanging prow and seems to be closer to 7A+ than 7A. It was well worth spending the time and effort to look for it. I will have to go back one day to finish the very hard sitstart, but at least my next visit will be a more calculated and almost straight forward walk.
I was enjoying the sunny walk towards Rocher du Mont Morillon so much that I walked well past where I wanted to be, so I had to walk a good distance back to the boulder of "Le Mètre à Droite" of which I wanted to try the sitstart. By the time I got there, it had started to heat up pretty well, but luckily not enough to make it unbearable. It was only a matter of time though, so I warmed up repeating "Le Mètre à Droite" before giving the sitstart a try. It soon became clear though, that the immensely morpho move to the edge was way too far for me to reach, at least being in the pretty tired shape that I felt at that moment. Trying out the other moves, I was able to do a low start skipping the morpho move and finish in "Le Mètre à Droite". It being a fun start as well, I decided to upload a video of it, estimating the grade from that start to be about 7B. It will not and probably should not be published on bleau.info, as it was just for the sake of the game, there for everyone to have some fun, which is what bouldering is all about.
Fontainebleau - Rocher du Mont Morillon - Le Mètre à Droite (bas) 7B
We arrived back home yesterday after having spent a week of vacation in the South of France. With temperatures around 40°C every day, the 30°C heat in the forest felt much fresher. It was an exhausting drive yesterday, and I was quite tired today, so I didn't aim for anything out of my league. Having spent some time in Buthiers Piscine before the vacation, I remembered that I still had to do "Le Glaude (assis)". I hadn't tried it last time, but did spend a brief moment on it a few years ago, so I kind of knew what to expect. I took my time and enjoyed spending it on "Le Glaude (assis)", despite the tiny sharp crimp that was cutting through my right fingertips. It just felt good to be back home.
Fontainebleau - Buthiers Piscine - Le Glaude (assis) 7A+
Even though I had done Magic Bus several times, I had never done the left version despite having tried it several times. Every time though that I tried "Magic Bus (gauche)", was with friends and after repeating "Magic Bus", leaving me somehow without enough energy to do the left version as well. This morning, I went back to Buthiers Piscine with only that one as a goal. The skin on my right middle finger hurt a lot because of sliding off the bad sloper of "MacGuffin" yesterday, making it painful to hang on to the small and pretty sharp crimp after the first move of "Magic Bus (gauche)". Knowing that this would become better after warming up the skin, I worked out the other moves first. Not even half an hour later, I finally topped "Magic Bus (gauche)", glad to have finished this classic.
Fontainebleau - Buthiers Piscine - Magic Bus (gauche) 7B+
It's Bastille Day, the French National Day, also known as 'Le 14 Juillet', 'The 14th of July'. It was the day that the Bastille was stormed in 1789, an important major event during the French Revolution. It's also the day that celebrates the unity of the French people. Today, it's especially known as a mere public holiday, of which many don't know the reason. Being a very hot public holiday, the open air swimming pool in Buthiers was already crowded at 10h30 this morning, but I wasn't there for swimming, I was there to climb for as long as I could cope with the heat. "Bernardo", at about 50m from the swimming pool, was the main reason why I had come to the Buthiers Piscine area. The boulder being quite high and with a sketchy landing, it was no unnecessary luxury to bring two crashpads. "Bernardo" is a high pillar that climbs on compression and seemed to fit my style. Due to its height and scary landing, it was not without a shout of relief that I pulled myself on the boulder after about half an hour of trying, each time from the ground up. Standing on top of the boulder, I could see the swimming pool, which tempted for only a second, seeing the crowd packed together was an almost immediate tearing down of the temptation.
Fontainebleau - Buthiers Piscine - Bernardo 7C
"MacGuffin" was next on my list and was a nice bonus for the session. A not so easy start followed by a hard move to a very bad sloper, but all in all not too hard when it finally sticks. It was hard enough to make me sweat like crazy, so I went home afterwards and dived into the swimming pool in the garden. It's a self supporting one, but big enough to do a couple of strokes and have fun, all without any crowds in sight.
For a long time already, I wanted to try "La Ola" in Franchard Hauts Sablons, but somehow, it always scared me. The whole week though, I had set my mind on carrying two crashpads to "La Ola" and finally try it. I had set my alarm clock for this morning so I could be there before it became too hot. When I arrived at the boulder around 9h30, it was already very warm, but the air humidity was very low and the despite the rising heat, the conditions were surprisingly good. One crashpad would probably have been enough, but having both below me made me climb in relaxed manner and I was able to finish "La Ola" on my second attempt.
Fontainebleau - Franchard Hauts Sablons - La Ola 7B+
Immediately after, I also managed to do the sitstart on my first attempt.
Fontainebleau - Franchard Hauts Sablons - La Ola (assis) 7C(7C+)
As the first part of the problem went so good, I took a five minute break before trying "El Pato", which finishes all the way on the right of the boulder. This one too went down on my first attempt.
Fontainebleau - Franchard Hauts Sablons - El Pato 7B+
With a boost of motivation, I went for the sitstart as well and also made it on my first attempt, albeit with slightly pumped arms and I had to push on a bit harder than before for the last part.
Fontainebleau - Franchard Hauts Sablons - El Pato (assis) 7C
After another short break, I figured that using the start, it would be quite logic to do the same line, but finish with a mantle in between the topouts of "La Ola" and "El Pato", in the exit of "Tape Cul". I practiced the mantle one time and did the standing start of "La Ola" to finish in "Tape Cul" on my first attempt. I gave it the obvious name of "Ola Mon Cul".
Fontainebleau - Franchard Hauts Sablons - Ola Mon Cul 7B(7B+)
The next logical step, was obviously doing the sitstart of "Ola Mon Cul", which also went down on my first attempt. I really had a lot of fun on that beautiful boulder, and was wondering why I had waited so long to finally come and do this.
After more than an hour of trying to jump "Phobos Moon" in Coquibus Longs Vaux, and realizing that I came closer a few years ago, I concluded that big dyno's don't seem to be my thing anymore. I wisely decided to leave it and move to the well isolated and shady boulder of "Compression". I had done this beautiful overhang almost exactly five years ago, but still had to do the slightly easier left version. "Compression (gauche)" is supposedly a full grade less hard than the original, but there's a reason why I didn't do it five years ago as well. Starting point and topout are the same, but the left version is with the arete, a very slopey arete! It took some time before I was able to figure out how to get to the arete and hold on to it, and even when I finished it, I felt that I had to go deep. In my humble opinion, this is only very slightly less hard and might as well be a good 7B. Well worth the effort though.
It was a morning session in Cuvier Est with a lot of trying and ending up with only an easy 7A that I did on my second attempt after missing the flash due to a wrong foot placement. Some harder boulders like "Le Bivouac (assis)", "Echoes (assis)" and "Snak" were tried, but given up on quickly. It was only in "Snak" that I found some motivation, came close, but when the trees didn't provide the much needed shade anymore, I had to throw in the towel. To keep up the morale, I quickly did "Free the Nipple" before spending the rest of my time and energy in "Lune de Miel", on which I fell off the last move several times. It ended up being added to my 'want-list'.
