January 11, 2025 - Moving on.

Those who read my previous post, know that I had started working on the ultra classic "Fourmis Rouges" during my Christmas vacation, but even after three sessions still hadn't gotten away with it. Then I had to go to Belgium for a few days to visit family and friends, after which I had to start working again last Monday. It had given me more than a week to rest and the weather forecast for today looked promising.
This morning, I met Olaf (Deppe) at "Fourmis Rouges", and the conditions looked very good. I tried to not make myself any illusions and just see how it would go, and had already decided that if it didn't go down today, I would give it a long break. I am not very keen on long projecting and mentally it was starting to weigh on me. Especially as the boulder is in an area that isn't my favorite due to its popularity and more than often being quite crowded. Also, I was starting to miss exploring other parts of the forest and trying different problems.
I started climbing today without pressure and needed a few attempts to get the muscle memory really going again. With Olaf being there and also giving it attempts, it allowed me to take it easy and take short breaks in between, enjoying the company.
It was very cold, barely above 0°C, but it was quite sunny and dry. The conditions seemed to get better with every attempt. When I then finally got the high sloper again, but fell off after a second or so, I felt that the game was on again and turned on the camera. Unwillingly, the feeling of 'sending stress' tried to get a hold of me, but Olaf succeeded well in his way, to keep me relaxed. On my second attempt after turning on the camera, I suddenly made my way to the top. The sense of relief was amazing. Not especially because I had just done "Fourmis Rouges", even though it played a big part of it, but mostly because I could let go of it, knowing that I don't have to come back to Cuvier Rempart any time soon. I had seen enough of the area and its crowds during my vacation.
Interestingly though, it was very crowded when the conditions were very bad during the vacation, today the conditions were great, but there was no-one around. And this on a Saturday.

Fontainebleau - Cuvier Rempart - Fourmis Rouges 7C

Olaf had another few attempts in "Fourmis Rouges", making very good progress with minor details and reached a new highpoint. He decided to end his "Fourmis Rouges" session on that positive note, and proposed to go up to "Immodium".
I had done the standing start of "Immodium" back in 2011, and the sitstart in 2017, but I gladly went with him, just to see if I'm still able to dyno after all these years. Surprisingly, I repeated it on my second attempt, and then again immediately after just to have another video.
Olaf only started trying a few dynos since not very long, but despite that, I saw him making very good progress on a very short time, being only at a few centimeters from the good hold. My time was up though and I wished him luck for the rest of his session, knowing that I will hear how it went on, when we will meet again to go to the far end of "Rocher de Bouligny Est". I'm so glad to visit another area than Cuvier Rempart tomorrow. It's time to move on.

Fontainebleau - Cuvier Rempart - Immodium 7A (repeat)