November 30, 2024 - Thumbed up.

The morning started very promising with the sun already out early, but somehow, by the time I left for climbing at around 10h, a dense fog had formed and blocked out the sun completely. I was on my once again to hopefully try "Contrôle A", but once again, even though the top was dry this time, the part to the left of the arete was damp. With the fog, I didn't bother waiting and hoping for it potentially get better, so I reverted to plan B and drove to Buthiers Ouest to check out "Pouce Doudoud", another one of Manuel's (Marqués) new boulders in that small sector that I started trying after doing "Synchronicité" two weeks ago. To my pleasant surprise, it was completely dry and in noticeably good conditions too.  Two weeks ago, I could all moves, except for the last one, a huge dynamic move from a terrible sloper left hand and a weird pinch-like hold right hand, where placing the thumb correctly is key to holding on. 
After a short period of warming up in the moves, I got to the same point as last time, starting from two moves in, and always falling off the last one. I did start cruising through the first part, which allowed me to take slightly more time adjusting my body position for the last move and progressed steadily, coming closer to sticking it each time. Then finally, after again a very minor adjustment, I stuck it. Having started from two moves in, I jumped off and setup the camera for the real deal from the actual start.
Still being only 1°C at that moment, adding those two additional moves at the start made my fingers feel a little more numb by the time I arrived at the last one, which didn't make convenient to repeat it. I kept the focus though, and after a few attempts more, I finally made my way from the start to the top, with frozen toes and fingers, but I made it.
A really nice problem with great moves. Four stars for sure and a thumbs up!

Fontainebleau - Buthiers Ouest - Pouce Doudou 7B+

November 24, 2024 - Insta inspiration.

If you hadn't taken the time to clear the snow off of some boulders on Friday, then the chances were very big that they would be wet on Saturday. I didn't have that chance, so the boulders that I had hoped to try were of course wet. Instead of climbing, I decided to go for a short hike around J.A. Martin with Olaf (Deppe). We did find some dry boulders on our way though and were able to climb a little at least.
It looked lie Tony (Fouchereau) was able to climb and even find good conditions in Drei Zinnen, where he cleaned and opened another boulder behind blue n°6. According to his Instagram post, he thought "L'Arnaque Climatique" could possibly be 7C.
This morning, with the sudden much higher temperature, I really expected all boulders to be soaking wet due to condensation, but I took the chance and went to Drei Zinnen anyway. To my pleasant surprise, it was all dry and there was no sign of condensation, at least not yet.
Before trying "L'Arnaque Climatique", I wanted to try the original deep start of "Close Contact". The deep start adds quite some difficulty, but after some time, I did find a way to make it through and just past the more popular start on the right. It definitely had potential, but after a while, the roof started to become wet from condensation after all. Feeling around some other boulders, it felt similar.
The conditions were starting to become less good, so I hurried to try "L'Arnaque Climatique". Lifting up from the ground and doing the first move seemed to be the crux, but it only took a handful of attempt to get going. A few slip offs due to bad conditions later, I did manage to stick and climb on to the top. In my humble, it felt more like soft 7B+ at most, but nevertheless, a fun problem.

Fontainebleau - Drei Zinnen - L'Arnaque Climatique 7B+(7C)

November 17, 2024 - The one that got known.

When I checked my weather app yesterday evening, there was no rain forecasted for today, but this morning were very grey and looked kind of menacing. As if it could rain any moment. Thinking that it probably wasn't a good time to try harder projects, I decided instead to go to the boulder of "La Chevauchée" in 91.1.
I had done the standing start of "La Chevauchée" way back in 2016, and at that time it was still a very unknown boulder with only a few lines on it. It was so unknown that the now quite popular "La Chevauchée" was still published as "Le Surplomb Inconnu!", and that's how I still had it logged in my ticklist spreadsheet. As written, I had done the standing start back then, and it required quite an effort at that time, even needing the help of my good friend Maarten (Robays) who was there to point the best holds out to me.
Below, a video of that time doing the standing start.

Fontainebleau - 91.1 - La Chevauchée 6C+ (aka "Le Surplomb Inconnu!" back in 2016)

For some reason, even after doing some other lines on that boulder, I never bothered to do the sitstart of "La Chevauchée". A good reason to back for it this morning.
It clearly didn't give me as much trouble as eight years ago, because I did the sitstart on my first warmup attempt of the day.

Fontainebleau - 91.1 - La Chevauchée (assis) 7A(6C+)

Immediately after, I also did the version with an exit more to right, also on my first attempt.

Fontainebleau - 91.1 - La Chevauchée (droite assis) 7A

Being warmed up, I walked over to the main sector of 91.1 to try something harder, but unfortunately, by the time I got there, it had started drizzling. I immediately felt that this was the kind of drizzle that would make everything wet really fast and kept on walking, back the car, passing multiple groups of climbers on my way. By the time I arrived back at the car, I was soaking wet, and so were the surroundings.

November 16, 2024 - In sync.

Last Monday I went back to Buthiers Ouest to try "Synchronicité" again, and even though the conditions were slightly better than the day before, my skin was almost completely through and I again kept on falling on the last move. When I left, I thought that it really felt like a good 7B+ so far.
Determined to finish it, I went back this morning with even better conditions and more skin on my fingertips. My warmup attempt flowed and I felt in sync with the moves, until the last, where I fell off again. Searching for a more controlled way to do the end, I reverted back to using a right toehook when doing the last move, and surprisingly stuck it very controlled. I had tried this same method last week, but somehow there was no way for my toehook to stick and kept slipping out. Now it didn't seem like a problem.
I went for my second attempt of the day, used the toehook and quite easily stuck the last move and mantled up. Now it felt more like 7B.

Fontainebleau - Buthiers Ouest - Synchronicité 7B(7B+)

Afterwards, I was finally able to also try "Pouce Doudou", which was wet last week, but not today. It took some time, but after a while, I was able to do all the moves except for the last one. A huge and quite scary move to a bad sloper. Unfortunately, it's not possible to work out that move separately without a rope, but it did allow me to find a good comfortable sequence up to there. I came very close a few times, but the very bad sloper left hand on the North side of the boulder definitely could use some better conditions. For sure a problem that I will go back for some time soon.
"Appui Coude" on the same boulder, shares the same first move, but stays on the South-Western side of the boulder. I was able to do this with relative ease and was a good way to end today's session.

Fontainebleau - Buthiers Ouest - Appui Coude 6C+(7A)

November 10, 2024 - No milk.

Going to Buthiers Ouest didn't seem to be the smartest idea as not everything was dry enough to try. The boulder with "La Horde Sauvage" was good dry though, and I was able to make quick work of the standing start, doing it on my second attempt.

Fontainebleau - Buthiers Ouest - La Horde Sauvage 7A(7A+)

Immediately after, the sitstart followed too, also on my second attempt.

Fontainebleau - Buthiers Ouest - La Horde Sauvage (assis) 7A+

Then, I spent a lot of time trying "Synchronicité".
The separate moves were quickly worked out, even the last one, which I did several times separately, but I was battling against very bad conditions and fell off that last move almost every attempt.
If the conditions would have been better, I would have certainly made it, but then again, if our cat was a cow, then she would give milk. And we don't even have a cat.
Below, a few of many attempts trying "Synchronicité", which I only posted on Instagram.

Fontainebleau - Buthiers Ouest - Synchronicité 7B(7B+) - Attempts

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November 09, 2024 - Hang on.

There was still a thick dense fog when I left home for climbing, and I could only hope that the boulders on the top of the hill of Apremont Portes du Désert wouldn't be wet. My terrace at home was though, unlike last week, so the hope I had was quite high. I wanted to try "Accrocheur (assis)".
I had done the standing start a few times already, the first time being back in 2016, but I never understood how the sitstart actually started. That was until I saw a video of it a while back.
Arrived at the boulder, I was pleased to find it dry and the conditions even weren't bad at all. As a warmup I repeated the standing start on my first go, after which I started working out the lower moves. I took my time for it and worked them out one by one until I had all of them done separately. I quickly made a good linkup from two moves below the standing start and topped it out again. Feeling quite confident, I turned on the camera and started trying from the sitstart. Linking the lowest seemed to be the hardest, but even after I passed the lowest part and got into the standing start, I still off the very last move a few times, I couldn't hang on to that top sloper. The last move, one that I could do every time from the standing start, proved to be a small crux on its own when coming from way below.
Before I got too tired, I took a longer, fifteen minute break, and sent it on my first go after the break.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Portes du Désert - Accrocheur (assis) 7B+

November 03, 2024 - Good vibration.

There was much less to almost no fog yesterday morning, and I decided to go back to Montrouget Est. The conditions were somehow worse than the day before and on top of that, my body didn't seem like it wanted to work, so I didn't stay long and went back home do some work on a wood project that I had started on.
This morning, no fog at all, but I didn't leave very early. I was meeting up with Victor (Burger) around Larchant, but he could only come in the afternoon. Viktor's broken heel has completely healed, but unfortunately he tore the tendon of his pinky finger almost immediately after he was freed from the cast of his heel. He had an operation during which they reattached his tendon, so still recovering, we planned on doing only some easier blue and red problems as soon as he would join me.
It was almost noon when I arrived in Maunoury, and walked straight to "Pars Pro Toto". I had done the left version already back in 2017, but I was never able to really try the more direct version because the starting crack right hand was always wet. There was a climber from Lyon working in it who didn't mind that I joined him and told me that conditions were really good on it. Indeed, the starting crack was dry and the slopers felt sticky. I had a quick warmup attempt, using a bad method which made me come off, but was surprisingly able to finish it on my second attempt already.

Fontainebleau - Maunoury - Pars Pro Toto 7B

The area was quite busy, so I looked for and found some solitude at the "Baloo" boulder, but as the conditions weren't very good on it, I walked on to the big boulder of "Apophis" where I was alone as well. Being alone, I checked out one of the easier lines, "Good Vibrations (du fond)", and after inspecting the holds and imagining the movements, I was surprised to be able to do the whole long line on my first attempt.

Fontainebleau - Maunoury - Good Vibrations (du fond) 7A(6C+)

As it was almost time for Victor to arrive, I walked back to the main area where I was still able to make quick work of "Serendipity". 

Fontainebleau - Maunoury - Serendipity 7A+

November 01, 2024 - Gamble.

Being in full Autumn, the weather has been very grey with a lot of dense fog in the morning, lasting well through the day. It makes choosing where to climb a bit of a gamble. Leaving the house, not knowing if it will be dry in the area of choice is suspenseful, but it looks like last weekend and today, I have been quite lucky. 
Today's choice was Montrouget Est and even though there was still a lot of fog, no wind and a sky covered by grey clouds, I was lucky again. The boulders were dry, but I left the main area and continued up the hill towards "Figure de Style", which I had chosen as a main project for this session. I had tried this problem back in 2017, but couldn't even do the first move feeling very uncomfortable with the left heelhook for the start.
Even though the boulder was dry and I soon managed to do the first move, the conditions weren't ideal, and I slipped off the bad sloper right hand a lot of times. I persisted though and ended up with finishing the boulder. 

Fontainebleau - Montrouget Est - Figure de Style 7B