I had briefly tried the standing start of "Philion", named after Theo's son, a week or two ago, but quickly threw in the towel due to very bad skin. The standing start starts with a fairly good crimp left hand, and a very, very bad tiny crimp for the right. Hence my decision to quit last time when I had bad and sweaty skin.
After my first attempt today, I thought it would be a quick deal and I would be able to work the sitstart soon, but it couldn't be farther from reality. After that first try, my right hand just kept on slipping off that tiny crimp at crucial moments and the times that I was able to jump, I was always too far off the better hold. It became a race against the upcoming darkness.
My skin started to sweat as if it already was in recovery mode, but I persisted until I finally had an attempt where it stuck.
I still tried the sitstart a few times, was able to get up into the standing start, but couldn't find enough on the crimp anymore to do the jump. In the meantime, darkness had caught up on me, and I was forced to quit. I will come back for this one quite soon though. The moves of the sitstart are beautiful.
Fontainebleau - 91.1 - Philion 7A
The move to the sloper from the small crimp almost gave me a cut as well. But I found it fascinating to discover that the move from the crimps is even possible. When a line hasn’t been climbed yet and many strong climbers have already passed by the bloc, you sometimes start to have doubts.
ReplyDeleteI’m glad that despite the skin cost you tried the boulder and sent it, and I’m looking forward to seeing you on the sit start. One of my favorite boulders.