April 27, 2025 - Mental game.

I had proposed Jan and Sam to go to Rocher de la Salamandre today, where I finally wanted to try "Menumental", and I was glad they accepted. I had been wanting to try this beautiful boulder for such a long time, but it's not one that I would have ever dared to try it alone. 
We warmed up a little on the boulder of "Petit Tome", where I was impressed by Sam's quick adaptation to the Fontainebleau sandstone. It was only his second time here in the forest and on top of that, he's more of a route climber. Not the same style as you would find here in the forest.
After having warmed up, we went to "Menumental", where three other Belgian climbers were trying it as well. I'm sorry that I can't remember their names. I politely asked to join and tried to prepare mentally for my first attempt. With theirs and our crashpads stacked under the boulder, there was a pretty safe landing, as long as you didn't fall too far, because then you would suddenly three meters deeper.
After sticking the first move, the jump to a pinch, I was thinking about not having turned on the camera, but their cheers motivated me to keep going. I was in a flow and kept on going until I suddenly found myself on the top of the boulder. I flashed "Menumental". Luckily, one of the other Belgians had filmed the ascent and he will send it to me soon. 
Eager to have a video myself, I installed and turned on my own camera, and went for it again. Again, I didn't come off and climbed it the whole way again. The mental game was over.
The video posted here is the second time I climbed "Menumental". 
Two of the other Belgians had climbed it as well, almost making it a sending train.

Fontainebleau - Rocher de la Salamandre - Menumental 7B+

Jan didn't feel motivated and physically fit enough, so we all moved to the boulder of "Dune", where we wanted to try "Dune (sans convention)".
This problem seemed to have suited very well, because I did it on my second attempt. It must have suited me very well, because despite that I thought that the others would do it quickly too, nobody else had been able to do it more than an hour later.
It was unfortunately time for to go, and after watching Jan unexpectedly fall off the very top, I said goodbye and left. I felt a bit annoyed by it, but it was already much later than I intentionally had planned to stay.
Having seen Jan being so close and falling off where he shouldn't have anymore, I truly hope he was still able to finish it.

Fontainebleau - Rocher de la Salamandre - Dune (sans convention) 7B

April 26, 2025 - Few days, one post.

I was expecting visitors from Belgium last Thursday, so I had taken the day off work. Before they arrived, I had some time to go for a climb, but not too much, so I looked something up close by, with a not too far walk. The choice had become "Fermeture Éclair" in Canche aux Merciers, opened by Theo Konstantakopoulos in 2017. I had tried it once before a long time ago, and remembered that I couldn't get past the last part somehow. While driving, I was thinking that I actually like most of Theo's first ascents and kind of admired how a lot of times, he can see sitstarts to easy problems, creating a hard problem in the end. This also most of the time in popular areas, yet nobody seemed to have come up with his ideas.
I parked next to couple that was unloading their car, and to my pleasant surprise, it turned out to be Theo himself, with his wife and young kid. It was a very pleasant coincidence.
Trying "Fermeture Éclair", this time, I quickly figured out a method for the last part, but now I had more difficulties with the first move. Sticking with it, looking for alternative methods, I managed to top it out after all. It was nice to tell Theo afterwards in person that I did his problem. I didn't have time left after that, but we will meet up next time and climb together for sure.

Fontainebleau - Canche aux Merciers - Fermeture Éclair 7A+

Yesterday, I took my visitor, good old friend Koen, to the forest for an initiation in bouldering. We had a good time trying very easy problems in a pretty crowded Roche aux Sabots.
This morning, I received a message from Jan (Gorebeeck). He was in the neighborhood with his friend Sam, and they joined me for a climb in Cuvier Merveille. After a long warmup doing some easier problems, we moved over to the isolated boulder of "Bleautiful", of which I had done the standing start back in 2020, right after it was published. My goal for today was to do the sitstart.
I had it figured out quite quickly and was able to execute it soon after. Jan needed some more time and attempts, but ended up taking the ascent as well in the end. This one is a true beauty!
Thanks to Sam for filming.

Fontainebleau - Cuvier Merveille - Bleautiful (assis) 7B

April 19, 2025 - Struggle to succeed.

To escape the Easter weekend crowds, I had decided to go to the quite unpopular area of La Reconnaissance. There were a few boulders that I had put on my list to try and the first was going to be "Nicolaï Popovsky". With only three registered repeats on bleau.info, and the last known one being all the way back in 2009, it seemed to be a very unpopular boulder despite it looking pretty nice in my opinion.
I arrived at the small boulder, which was completely taken over by and covered under moss, and I almost left it for what it was, but when I noticed that the moss was coming quite easily with a stick, I stayed and started cleaning it again. Almost an hour later, it was finally ready to be climbed again.
I started working out the topout, which looked the hardest of the whole problem. Bad slopers, a strange body position and a quite desperate last move to a small crimp. It took me quite some time to manage to do it separately. Thinking I was ready, I started from the sitstart, which proved to be much harder than I anticipated. It turned out that I had work quite a bit on figuring out and doing the first move as well. When I was finally able to do it, I though it would be a quick deal linking it all together, but nothing could be more far from reality. I was struggling and had to put on a big fight. I gave it countless attempts, and almost every time fell on the topout. Taking a swing on the first move every time was sucking the power out of me and I had to take longer breaks to recover, all while loosing more and more skin from my fingertips.
I almost came to the point of giving up, but thinking I had spent all this time rebrushing the boulder and didn't feel like coming back here soon, I kept on trying, until finally after almost three hours at the boulder, managed to top it out. I was exhausted, but relieved that I did it.
definitely very hard for the grade, in my opinion and I would rather say that it's 7C. Many attempts are shown in the video, but it's not even all of them.

Fontainebleau - La Reconnaissance - Nicolaï Popovsky 7C(7B+)

April 16, 2025 - Manyata (droite).

After a very stressful day, I needed to clear my head and wanted to go for a climb after dinner. My idea was to go try "Manyata" again, without expecting too much of it. After all, it was going to be fourth session and I had been falling at the same point over and over again.
Having carefully inspected the key hold of "Manyata" many times, I am almost 100% sure that this broke at some point. Both bleau.info and 8a.nu show the last repeat of "Manyata" in 2016, so it must have broken s around that time.
I had many different thoughts about it over the past years, going from 'that's impossible', 'how does it go?' and 'something must have broken' many years ago, to 'there must be another way', 'hmmm, maybe it's possible this way' and 'I think I can do it' a few weeks ago.
This evening, with the intention to just be there and try the moves, just me and the boulder, away from all other thoughts, I felt good on it. So good even, that I finally managed to climb beyond the point where I always fell.
A sense of sending stress came over me, but I felt relaxed at the same time. There wasn't any real pressure, but then again there kind of was. It was a strange feeling, but it seemed to drive me somehow.
Getting past my high point again and not wanting to fall off, I decided at that moment to top out on the right. The least difficult topout.
I named it "Manyata (droite)", and graded it 7B+.
The direct exit remains a project. Perfect to go back for on an evening after work when my head needs to be cleared again.

Fontainebleau - Rocher Guichot - Manyata (droite) 7B+

April 13, 2025 - New wave.

After a rainy evening and night, it looked like there would no climbing possible this morning, but while strolling around in La Fontaine Saint-Bernard, I laid my eyes on a wave-shaped boulder and imagined a possible logical, but yet unopened line. I went back to the car to get some harder brushes to get the moss off, and the more I brushed, the better the line started to look. There was a mild wind, and the boulder dried quite quickly in the few places where it was still humid. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I would even be able to try it and went back again to the car to get the crashpad and my climbing stuff. 
The movement that I had imagined felt weird at first, and maybe even a bit too morpho for my size. After some finetuning and some more brushing for the feet, I finally managed to stick the far move to the sloper on the edge of the wave. Some more brushing of the top part later, I also managed to do the topout, and I knew I was ready for the actual sitstart.

I turned on the camera, and was able to send it right away. The new wave that I named "Vague de la Fontaine", was born.
Sitstart with both hands on a relatively good hold and both feet on a big ledge. Take a diagonal crimp left hand and then make a big move to a sloper on the edge of the wave right hand. Finish with a mantle slightly right.

The boulder is located right next to the blue path, to the right of it, 30m after "Le Travail d'Hercule", when coming from the parking of the Châlet Jaubert, aka the parking of Dame Jouanne.
I estimate the grade to be around 7B, but very likely slightly easier for taller climbers.

UPDATE: this is apparently "La Lordose", opened by Olivier Joanon years ago. This definitely felt much harder than the proposed 6C+, and I'm sticking with a personal grade of rather 7B.

Fontainebleau - La Fontaine Saint-Bernard - La Lordose 6C+(7B)

April 12, 2025 - From low to high.

There was rain forecasted to start today, and I expected it to be raining already this morning, but when I checked my weather app again, it was delayed to start raining near the evening. The sun was out, it was already quite warm, but good enough to go and try the a new right exit variation on the low boulder of "Voûte Étoilée" in Rocher Cailleau. I had one the original already three years, and I remembered that it didn't take me very long to do that one. The right exit almost seemed like a formality.
Upon arrival, I did have to admit that it the right exit part felt quite hard and morpho, but after some fine tuning, I soon had found the method and felt ready for attempting from the start. 
It only took me two attempts from the start. It definitely is harder than the original direct version, but still felt rather like a soft 7C at most in my humble opinion.

Fontainebleau - Rocher Cailleau -Voûte Étoilée (droite) 7C+(7C)

Not feeling like going to the "Vandale" boulder, I scrolled through bleau.info, looking for some easier seventh grade problems that I hadn't done yet for some reason. "Entre Deux Guides (assis)" was apparently one of them and so was "Malus Écologique (assis)" on the high boulder right next to it. It was a good reason to walk over to that little sector.
It took a while before I had figured out a method for the standing start, but as soon as I did, I did it on my second attempt from the sitstart.

Fontainebleau - Rocher Cailleau - Entre Deux Guides (assis) 7A

For "Malus Écologique (assis)" I only needed one attempt, even though, despite having done the much harder "Malus Auto (direct)" three years ago, I must admit that I felt a bit scared that high up without really knowing what to do or what to expect.

Fontainebleau - Rocher Cailleau -Malus Écologique (assis) 7A

April 10, 2025 - Steering wheel crimp.

Even though Jan (Gorrebeeck) is one of the few who had done "L'Introuvable" in Cuvier Ouest already back in 2008, he needed a break from all his work in Belgium, and decided to join me anyway. There was a clean up day organized by Fanatic Climbing in and around Cuvier, and as I was early, I filled up a big bag with trash while waiting for Jan.
As I had finally found "L'Introuvable" about a month or two ago, we were able to walk straight to it. We had a long dry period, and the boulder was perfectly dry.
"L'Introuvable" turns out to be quite morpho, and when I first tried some moves, I was worried that I would be too small to be able to do it. However, Jan was able to give me some good beta for a slightly different method, and even though it felt harder than the other method at first, I did manage to do all the moves separately after some time. I had even done the whole problem in two overlapping parts, so it was only a matter of time. That time took too long, with too many atempts, and after having lost quite a lot of skin on "Furia" the day before, I had to let it go. My hands and fingers were burning too much. I knew though that I would be able to do it next time, being fresh.
I had planned for that next being this Saturday, but as there is a slight chance of rain starting that day, lasting until next week, I decided to go back for it today after work.

The method I use for "L'Introuvable" involves three small crimps, and to not lose any time, I warmed up my fingers on the road, crimping my car's steering wheel like crazy. It must have helped somehow, because when I held the crimps when I arrived back at the boulder, I felt that I could it give it some good attempts right away.
My skin felt perfect and I felt strong. I only needed three attempts to top it out, warmup attempt included.
"L'Introuvable" might not look like the most attractive boulder, but the moves make it a beautiful line. I really enjoyed trying and climbing it.

Fontainebleau - Cuvier Ouest - L'Introuvable 7B+

April 05, 2025 - Furia.

It promised to be a hot day, so I left quite early when it was still fresh. I went straight to Apremont Haut des Gorges, where I wanted to try "Furia". 
I had tried it once very briefly eight years ago, but as I couldn't even do the first move, I had quickly given up on it and forgotten about it since. I had set it back on my list a short time ago, and had made it my main goal for today. When I arrived at the boulder and had a look at it, I immediately remembered why I hadn't been able to do that first move and almost decided to leave again without even trying it. The slopers looked way too bad to even think about trying it, especially with these higher temperatures, even in the morning. It did get some shade from nearby trees though, so I ended up trying it anyway and soon realized that it might be possible after all.
I took my time, and stayed with it, feeling more and more confident with each attempt.
It felt great to top it out, and I was glad that I had decided to stay after all. I liked this problem a lot.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Haut des Gorges - Furia 7C