Bouldering is my hobby, and that's exactly what I went to do in Apremont Brûlis where I wanted to try "Hobby (assis)", or rather "Hobby (accroupi)", the crouching start. After I had done the standing start in March 2018, I did briefly try the sitstart, but as it is physically impossible for me or my arm span to start the way as was described, I gave up after at most ten minutes, realizing that it was just too morpho. Obviously I am not the only one with that problem and it was after I saw a video of Manuel (Marquès) doing a semi-sit/crouching start, that I decided to go back for it. I warmed up by repeating the standing start, which didn't go as quick as I thought, but at least it served as a good warmup and it gave me back the muscle memory for in case I would come from the crouching start. The crouching start is still only just within my reach, so I can imagine that for smaller climbers, unfortunately even that one will be nearly impossible. I love my hobby and I really liked this problem a lot.
Sometimes it's difficult to choose where to go for a climb, so I browsed bleau.info and stumbled upon "Caresseur de Pierre" in Apremont Butte aux Peintres, a problem that I never tried, because I didn't understand it. This time, I decided to give it some time and try to figure it out. When I arrived at the area though, the boulders still felt damp-ish and I feared that I had made the wrong choice. As "Caresseur de Pierre" is located on the other side of the hill, I still had hope for it to be in better conditions. To my luck, it was, but the very bad slopers slopers at the end had to be cleaned again. When I was done cleaning, I soon discovered that the move to slopers was morpho and I didn't seem to get even close to best part of it, so I focused on starting with the sloper and worked out the topout, which was way harder than I had imagined and it took quite a while before I had it figured out and done it separately. It gave me confidence for doing the actual problem when I would miraculously get the sloper when coming from below. I did make progress and finetuned my body position until it suddenly stuck and I was able to top out, albeit not without a struggle on the mantle. This felt more like 7B+ to me in these mediocre conditions.
Fontainebleau - Apremont Butte aux Peintres - Caresseur de Pierre 7B(7B+)
Next up, even though my right elbow was hurting pretty bad due to last week's injury, I moved to the "Psykokwak" boulder, where I wanted to try "Hervé Gourdel".
Hervé Gourdel apparently was a 55 year old French mountain guide when he was kidnapped on September 21, 2014 by the Jund al-Khilafa group in Algeria, which had pledged allegiance to IS. His death was made public by a video three days later, he was beheaded.
The problem "Hervé Gourdel" sitstarts all the way on the right and traverses on very bad slopers to the left to finish in "Psykokwak". While working out the moves, I did a logical standing start with bad slopers, a couple of moves in from the original sitstart, and topped out. As it is a logical standing start, 7B-ish on itself, I decided to keep the video.
Coming from the sitstart adds a couple of moves, not very hard, but enough to already loose quite some chalk off my hands, making the next moves on the slopers much more difficult. After a few attempts, I climbed past the crux, and still fell off the very last move as I was too pumped. I took a longer break and finished it right after it.
Fontainebleau - Apremont Butte aux Peintres - Hervé Gourdel 7C(7B+)
I did "COP 21" back in 2015, just before it was made public and only went back for the right exit once soon after. Somehow I had forgotten about it for a few years and only recently thought about going back to this beautiful overhang. Despite it being almost eight years ago, I remembered the overhang sequence quickly and focused on practicing the hard morpho topout. Yesterday however, I injured my right elbow, presumably a tendon, while trying "Le Bon Sens" in Rocher Cailleau, but I decided to ignore the pain, which I was able to do while climbing, but paid for it between attempts and even more after having done "COP 21 (droite)". I should probably listen to my body now and hope for a quick elbow/tendon recovery.
Fontainebleau - Gorge aux Châts Sud - COP 21 (droite) 7B+(7C)
Trying to stay ahead of the upcoming heat again today, I left quite early to Apremont Envers. It didn't cool down a lot during the night and it was clear that even in the morning it wasn't going to be a session trying too hard problems. Staying in the shade as much as possible, I warmed up in "Striés Guidés" which I did on my first attempt, but noticed that my camera's auto focus had decided to go out of focus and focus on the dust particles that were on the lens. Not knowing when exactly it got out of focus that much, I decided to do "Striés Guidés" again. I didn't mind it too much, because it's a fun problem and I was nicely in the shade for most part. Nevertheless, trying the much harder "C'est Chouette" wasn't an option in this heat.
Moving to another part of the area, I found "Paul's Boutique" to be shady enough and gave the conventional start, with both hands in the undercling, a go. It took me two attempts and I wasn't mad about it because it was starting to get way too hot again, even in the shade.
Despite the heat, I felt like climbing after dinner and while thinking about where to go nearby, "Ventri Lock" in Roche aux Sabots came to mind. I had briefly tried it in 2018 after doing the easier right exit, but couldn't figure out a working method and I had forgotten about it since. This evening, with nothing else in mind, I took my time to work out the second part and found a way. Doing the whole thing from the start was still a battle due to the intense heat and the absence of even the slightest breeze. It was hot and it felt hard when I managed to finish it, but "Ventri Lock" might as well be 7B with mild temperature and better conditions. Hard to say, but a very fun climb after all.
Fontainebleau - Roche aux Sabots - Ventri Lock 7B+
Yesterday, Pieter and I projected "La Main Bleue" in Rocher du Télégraphe and even though I had worked out the moves and even did the problem in two overlapping parts, by the time I wanted to give it some real send attempts, the sun was shining full on the side of the boulder where you have to use a couple of bad slopers and warmed up my hands way too much to the point that they felt swollen and I fell two times off the last hard move. We had to leave it behind and keep it as an Autumn or Winter project when the temperature is much lower. This morning, we met up in Boissy aux Cailles with the intention to try "Mini Chelem", in the big roof of Boissy Le Plaid. We arrived early and the temperature was nice and cool under that big roof. The holds were dry and we warmed up with the topout of "Mini Chelem" to avoid any surprises that might pop up when coming from the start. We took our time to work out the moves and as soon as I had done them separately, I was able to send it straight away. I didn't expect it to go down that soon, but had a nice time executing those beautiful moves. Pieter needed much more time to work out the moves, especially for the first one, but somwhat unlike him, he persisted and kept on trying until he stuck it and continued his way to the top. I think I was more happy for him than I was for me when I topped out. It was nice shared moment of joy.
Fontainebleau - Boissy Le Plaid - Mini Chelem 7B
We then briefly tried "Epuration Technique", but no longer being in the cool shade of the roof, the temperature was too high for us both to fully commit and we called it a day. When we then noticed "Balle Perdue" right next to it, we unpacked again and decided to go for a small bonus. I got the bonus quickly, but Pieter had trouble reaching the sloper and gave up after a few attempts. After all, we got what we came for with "Mini Chelem".
