The temperature dropped significantly the past week, and we even had the first bit of snow but it melted quickly, making everything wet. Yesterday morning it was very foggy, but it looked dry and I met with Olaf to go for a climb. It was freezing cold, but the air was humid and without any sun, the cold just felt harsh. We had agreed to go the boulder of "Ecaille de Lune" in Gorges du Houx, but it was so cold that the rubber of our climbing shoes felt hard and didn't stick at all and our toes going numb in no time certainly didn't help, despite the conditions of the rock being quite okay. We quickly gave up on "Ecaille de Lune" and turned our attention to "La Boîte Cachée" on the same boulder. We both had never tried it before and even though it doesn't look very attractive at first, it turned out to be a fun problem with some nice moves. The first part seemed quite difficult at first, trying to avoid touching the boulder in the back, but I quite quickly found a good working method, requiring constant body tension during the whole first half of the problem. I was glad to finish it, albeit with completely numbed out fingers by the time I got to the second, but easier part. Olaf was able to do all the moves, but will have to come back for it.
Fontainebleau - Gorges du Houx - La Boîte Cachée 7A+
It was extremely foggy this morning, but somehow there were some small sections without fog at all when I driving towards Nemours to meet Olaf for hopefully some climbing in Les Mammouths. The forest was wet, but the conditions of the boulders were very good. It's strange sometimes how good the conditions can be when you would think that it's a day without any potential for climbing. We apparently made a good choice for today. Olaf had decided to not climb a lot because he wanted to keep his skin and energy for the next two upcoming days. Monday and Tuesday look like days with good weather, cold and a high potential for very good conditions. He has been waiting for good conditions to go try his current big project, "Le Dolmen du Divin" in Rocher de Milly. After almost cutting through my skin while trying "Gloire", we decided to move to the other side of the area to try a new very nice looking boulder, "La Prouhistoire", close to the Museum of the Prehistoric Time. The conditions on that side of the area were a bit less good, but still very climbable. The standing start gave some trouble for Olaf, mostly because of his mindset being fixed on the next days, but I got away with it on my second attempt. It could have been my first attempt, but I bumped into Olaf while taking the swing after the dynamic move.
Fontainebleau - Les Mammouths - La Prouhistoire 7A
The sitstart felt way harder than I thought it would, going off by the grade, but after slightly changing my method, I could move better and felt quite comfortable. Not long after, I also managed to top out from the sitstart. All nice moves that seemed to fit me quite well. Olaf unfortunately didn't finish neither, but I appreciate how he was mainly there to keep me company. Much appreciated, as always.
Fontainebleau - Les Mammouths - La Prouhistoire (assis) 7A+
Nobody goes to Bleau to climb on limestone and even less when it's in a dirty cave with only drop offs. When you're already there though and everything is wet with even more rain to come during the day but eager to climb outside, the limestone cave of Grotte de Seine-Port offers a fun alternative to staying home or climbing inside. Olaf joined me and it was our first time there. In a way, it reminded of when I still lived in Belgium and I would drive around the Belgian Ardennes, looking to climb anything or anywhere that resembled bouldering. Often in small caves or small patches of rock, all mostly limestone, a rock type that isn't very suitable for bouldering. The already opened lines in Grotte de Seine-Port all have drop offs, meaning that you have starting point, follow an imaginary line up to a jug that is considered as the final hold and then you drop off. No topping out onto the rock.
We wanted to start warming up with the easiest published line, "Jour de Pluie", but besides a few pictures that didn't tell a lot about the line, no video, and only a vague description, it was difficult to determine where it exactly started, how it went and even harder to determine where it ended. Based on this, we climbed what seemed logical and close to the proposed grade, but afterwards found out that what we did was not exactly "Jour de Pluie". We started like "Lendemain de Grêle", followed that line up to an obvious big hold and then sort of came back a bit more to the right, to end at a jug. Soft 7A, and for the time I named it "Jour de Pluie (droite)". Not claiming any first ascent, because the line is so logical that it's hard to imagine that it hasn't been done before.
Fontainebleau - Grotte de Seine-Port - Jour de Pluie (droite) 7A(6C+)
"Lendemain de Grêle" does have a picture with a drawn line on bleau.info, so it wasn't very hard to follow what we could see on the picture. After I did it on my first attempt, Olaf followed in my footsteps.
Fontainebleau - Grotte de Seine-Port - Lendemain de Grêle 7A+
The most obvious line, and probably also the nicest one that we tried, was "Le Plafond de Nandy". After I tried some of the moves separately, I quickly found a sequence, but remembering it was difficult with holds that are hard to see on this type of rock. We barely put any tickmarks, because with so many white spots in the limestone, we could hardly make out the difference between a tickmark and a white spot on the limestone. Nevertheless, I was able to climb it on my first attempt from the start, albeit with a bit of improvising near the end as I had already forgotten the sequence. Very fun to climb that line.
Fontainebleau - Grotte de Seine-Port - Le Plafond de Nandy 7B
Finally, we think we found out how "Jour de Pluie" was supposed to go, but if this is indeed the line, it definitely didn't feel easier than "Lendemain de Grêle".
Fontainebleau - Grotte de Seine-Port - Jour de Pluie 7A(7A+)
Grotte de Seine-Port is not great for climbing, but it was definitely worth the visit on a rainy day like today. It wasn't raining yet when we arrived, but by the time we finished our session, it was pouring hard. All the time the whole cave stayed completely dry. So, when you happen to be in Bleau during a rainy period and you're still eager to climb outside, I can recommend it as a fun alternative. With so many possibilities that one can imagine, it's a nice little limestone playground. Olaf and I will surely go back one day during a rainy period.
After yesterday's humidity, it seemed like a good choice to go to the 91.1 area today, which Olaf and I both agreed upon. My goal was to try "Philion (assis)", while Olaf's interest went to "Le Krill", which I had already done way back in 2016. After I had done the standing start of "Philion" two months ago, it was only logical to try the sitstart. I had briefly tried the moves of the sitstart a few weeks earlier, in Theo's company, and I immediately agreed with his suggestion that it was of his nicest first ascents. The moves of the first part are beautiful and great to execute. It's almost unbelievable that this very nice and logical was never done before. When I tried the sitstart two months ago, I had to stop quite quickly because of having lost so much skin on the standing start. I felt that it was possible with better skin though, and hopefully today would be the day. The conditions were not great today, and after a few attempts, the nice left hand crimp started to feel a bit slippery and on one attempt I even completely dry fired out of it, being protected by Olaf spotting. As you have to hold that left hand crimp for quite a long time, doing several other moves in between, I wanted to figure out a way to do the problem quicker and tried the dyno from the low sidepull right hand instead of doing a couple of additional moves to be able to get into the standing start. The dyno felt possible that way, but did feel slightly harder and it was more difficult to aim for the right on the edge of the boulder. Luckily I'm not very bad in learning such kind of moves, and I managed to do the dyno that way not long after I first tried it as such. A couple of attempts from the start later, I managed to keep it all together and finished "Philion (assis)". Truly one of Theo's best lines indeed.
Olaf was struggling a bit in "Le Krill", and while he took a short break, I managed to repeat it on my first attempt. Almost ten years after I did it for the first time. Could that have been a so-called 'retro-flash' ? Honestly I don't care, but I just wanted to use that word. Olaf had to put a big fight in "Le Krill", and I watched in awe and suspense when he was about to top it out, paying special attention to his left that looked like it slip any moment for over half of the climb. He stuck it though and I shared his contentment when he came back down. Always nice to see such a big fight come to a good end.
To finish off the session, we briefly tried "La Porte de Grange" and the direct version respectively, but it didn't take long before the rain chased us away. Despite the rain, we had both achieved our personal goals for today and walked back the parking, relieved.
It's Autumn, and despite the still sometimes quite high temperature, the season is well represented by rain, humidity, and fog. Not good ingredients for good climbing days at all, but I try to get the short climbing windows where I see them. Yesterday, I was going to meet Olaf, Jan and Tom for another session on "Bleau's Heart", but the rain came earlier than expected and we ended up walking around Petit Rempart instead, after which Jan and Tom decided to drive back home as the forecast didn't look good for the next day neither.
This morning there was very dense fog and everything looked wet outside. I still met with Olaf, but with the idea to do the blue walk around Rocher d'Avon, following the Sentier Denecourt n°10, from start to end. Even though it there was still a dense fog and the forest looking soaking wet, it wasn't raining, so I decided to take my climbing shoes, chalk bag and my thin Black Diamond Gapstopper pad that I could carry by hand. Out of experience with this kind of weather, I know that chances are low, but still existent to find a dry boulder here and there. Already quite soon, we could see some dry boulders, in even quite good conditions, while others almost next to them were soaking wet. We couldn't see any pattern as to why that would be, but hey, at least we knew that there was some potential. As we were there to walk the whole blue path, I waited long , but as Olaf insisted, I decided to go for it on "Mekkera", near the end of the walk. I had tried "Mekkera" the first time around 2013, but wasn't able to do it. It never became a real project, but over the years, I did try it again briefly maybe two times or so while being in the area for other reasons. I didn't have any expectations, but I thought it was worth another shot.
The dyno of "Mekkera" is not very far, but the position to push off from is very awkward and requires to move your body in a strange way in order to reach the top of the boulder. The hardest part though, is holding the big swing after catching the edge. Somehow, this time, I could immediately feel that there was potential for doing it, and I got closer with each attempt. Then, suddenly, I managed to hang on while catching the swing and topped out. It was a nice little bonus to a wonderful walk through the forest with good friend Olaf and his dog Iva.
Last weekend me and Jan got really close to doing "Bleau's Heart (direct)", and I even slipped off the very last move, at a point where I usually don't feel anymore. Below, two of my best attempts of that day.
After having spent six weeks in her house in the South of France, my mom decided to come for a short visit on her way back to Belgium and she arrived on Friday, intended to stay until Sunday after breakfast. It meant no climbing on Saturday, but rather going for a long walk, enjoying the beautiful autumn colors that the forest offers now. Climbing-wise, I didn't miss anything, because it rained until the afternoon, after which it stayed wet for the rest of the day. The long walk in the forest was marvelous, despite the rain.
This morning, after breakfast, Olaf and I agreed to meet later in the day at Rocher des Potets when the sky would clear up a bit. It definitely wasn't worth to go back to "Bleau's Heart" with the potentially very bad conditions. Our intention was rather to have a look at and maybe try a few of Theo's new problems. By the time we arrived at the area, the wind was blowing hard and some boulders were climbable, way more than expected. We started with trying "Le Sens Joue", which turns out to be very morpho. I was making quite good progress, but when some stupid movement hurt my back, I was forced to stop trying, so we headed to "La Jetéité". This one, I was able to flash, followed by Olaf doing it soon after.
Fontainebleau - Rocher des Potets - La Jetéité 7A
On our way back, we stopped another one from Theo, "Le Pilier de Soutien" in Jean des Vignes. Featuring a nice toehook and a weird dyno, I was able to finish it second go. Olaf was slightly out of his comfort zone, but right when he was making good progress, a rain shower made everything wet again, forcing us to end the session. Had a good and fun afternoon, though, with a good buddy!
Fontainebleau - Jean des Vignes - Le Pilier de Soutien 7A+
