March 02, 2025 - Unexpected change of plans.

My plan this morning was to go and try "Contrôle A" in Buthiers Piscine, so I had taken a third crashpad in the car, but I couldn't believe my eyes when I arrived in Buthiers. The whole place was packed with cars and campers. People running around with dogs everywhere. It turned out that there was some kind of a race for runners with dogs, and it seemed to be extremely popular. There was no way for me to find a free parking spot anywhere near where I had to be, so I unexpectedly had to change my plans and come up with an alternative.
For some reason, thinking quickly and completely out of the blue, I chose to drive on to Larchant, thinking to instead go and try some of the quite new problems in La Fontaine Saint-Bernard.
Arriving at the parking there, I had a feeling that Easter fell early today. The parking of the auberge at Dame Jouanne was very crowded, but luckily I did manage to find a free spot. It didn't seem like the big amount of cars and vans that arrived just after me would be able to, but they all drove on the parking, with many having to reverse back, creating a small chaos. Apparently, all those folks went to Dame Jouanne or Maunoury, because I was all alone in La Fontaine Saint-Bernard, and besides an occasional walker, I didn't see anyone else the whole time I was there.
As a warmup, I chose "Tria Brachium", and with small crimps to start, it definitely warmed up my fingers. I was able to do the low, harder start on my second attempt. Hard start and an easy second part.

Fontainebleau - La Fontaine Saint-Bernard - Tria Brachium 7A+(6C+)

"Le Bicepsceptique" didn't look very attractive and maybe a bot easy, but it was right next to a sunny spot, so I decided to give it a shot anyway. This turned out to be much harder than I expected, but also much nicer than it looks.
It took a short while, but I had fun with it and ended up finishing it, albeit with painful fingers.

Fontainebleau - La Fontaine Saint-Bernard - Le Bicepsceptique 7A+(7B)

Finally, "Le Platiste (assis)", 7A or 7B depending on how high you start with the right hand, seemed to have a broken hold for the left hand. I only did the high right hand start, but had to use a painful two finger crimp for the left hand due the other broken hold. Even though I did it on my second attempt, I did have the impression that it was hard enough for 7A+. Maybe I will come back one day for the low right hand start. My fingers felt too painful by then. I had a good time, nevertheless.

Fontainebleau - La Fontaine Saint-Bernard - Le Platiste (assis) 7A(7B)

March 01, 2025 - The method.

About five months ago, I started doing the so-called Wim Hof Method, which in my personal case, consists of taking either an ice cold shower or an ice bath every day, and I haven't missed a single day since I started. I only take a warm shower on days that I took a five minute ice bath. I let my body warm up itself when coming out of the ice bath, and on those I days, I take a warm shower about half an hour after. On rainy days, or on days where I have less time, I take a five minute ice cold shower and don't even switch to warm before or after, just cold.
Even though I'm absolutely not into meditating, I also do some breathing exercises and I'm enjoying those a lot.
I have noticed that since I've been following this method, I am and feel more relaxed and approach negative situations in a different way. A more relaxed way, just dealing with them, without letting them get to me. It's something that I have also noticed during my climbing sessions. In case of any failures, I don't let negativity take over, but just go with it, go with the flow, without any pressure. In that way, even bad sessions end with a positive feeling somehow.

I also take a different approach in the way I work out boulder problems. I take more my time looking at a line, imagining the moves and wherever possible, work out moves separately. Again, also without a sense of pressure at all.
That's also how approached the "Le Crunch Stat'" boulder today in Coquibus Auvergne. Given the high exposure factor and a bad landing, this one always scared me. Enough to not having tried any problem on it in the past. Now it looks different though, despite the boulder, exposure factor and landing not having changed. I changed.

I carried two crashpads to the boulder early this morning, the sun was out but a wind coming from the North made it feel very cold. After strategically placing the crashpads, I looked at the holds of "Le Crunch Stat'", imagined the moves and didn't have any sense of fear. Not even nervous. I was actually feeling very relaxed, followed the moves like I had imagined them and somewhat unexpectedly flashed "Le Crunch Stat'".

Fontainebleau - Coquibus Auvergne - Le Crunch Stat' 7A+

Now I felt ready for "Autonomie", the problem that I had set as my main goal for today.
The first couple of moves almost felt impossible and very morpho, but I took my time to work them out and ended up after a while getting where I wanted to be. I turned on the camera, executed every move perfectly and topped it out.

Fontainebleau - Coquibus Auvergne - Autonomie 7B+(7B)

I hadn't planned on trying it, but it seemed logical to also try the sitstart, "Autonomie (assis)". I felt quite confident that if I would get into the standing start, that I would top out this one too.
The few moves from the sitstart into the standing start are beautiful, and even better than I had imagined, but also harder. They require quite some power and tension, but soon I had it all figured out. Due to freezing toes though, it had become difficult to feel the best foot placement, which made me fall off the problem a couple of times. But then suddenly, it all clicked, I kept it all together and also finished the sitstart. Thanks to those few additional beautiful moves of the sitstart, I feel that it deserves the five stars that I gave it on bleau.info.

Fontainebleau - Coquibus Auvergne - Autonomie (assis) 7C(7B+)