April 02, 2017 - Sloper eats skin!

I had to be in Belgium this weekend, but I was able leave back home early in the morning today, so around noon I was already having a coffee at home, trying to make up my mind where to go climbing.
After a four hour drive I didn't feel like going too far, so I decided to keep it simple and went to 95.2 which was barely three minutes of driving.
As expected on a day like today, the parking of the Croix Saint-Jérôme was overcrowded and cars were already parked far into the streets of Noisy-sur-École.
Somehow I really didn't care and didn't mind walking the extra couple of hundred meters, straight towards "Pierre Précieuse / Le Yaniro", the name of which depends on the method used.

For "Le Yaniro" you have to make a special so called 'yaniro' move.
Basically it consists of putting your right leg over your supporting left arm and then pushing yourself up, allowing you to reach the high sloper statically.
The 'yaniro' move is really peculiar and after some tries I determined that it just felt way too strange for me to move in the right direction, ... up.

"Pierre Précieuse" starts and ends exactly like "Le Yaniro", but instead of doing the 'yaniro' move, you dynamically go straight to the bad sloper near the top.
I had tried this one already many times, but I was never able to stick the dyno to the sloper.
The sloper is really bad and sliding off of it while trying to hang on for dear life, took a lot of skin of my fingertips.
It was even so bad that after I had finally done "Pierre Précieuse", small drops of blood found their way to the surface.

Fontainebleau - 95.2 - Pierre Précieuse 7A+

The sloper that ate my skin.

It took me over an hour of trying before I sent "Pierre Précieuse" and it had made me quite tired.

The thin to almost non existent layer of skin wasn't really motivating either to start looking for something else, so I decided to call it a day.

After all, I started redecorating my oldest son's bedroom and there was still a lot of work to do so I could use the time.

On my way back however, I noticed that surprisingly the boulder with "Vis-à-Vis" was completely free, which is very exceptional on a crowded day like this.

I took my chances and stopped to try "Extraction Terrestre".

The start was easier than I expected. I easily got to the jug in the roof, but fell off the next far move.

My skin was hurting and had cooled down already.

After a two minute break, it went down on my second attempt.

Fontainebleau - Rocher des Souris - Extraction Terrestre 7A+

March 31, 2017 - Unnoticed.

Recently one of the Duval twins posted a video of "L'Envie des Bêtes (assis)", a 7A in the (mostly crowded) first part of Isatis.
It looked really nice and when I saw that the first registered repeat was from April 2002, I wondered why that it had always gone unnoticed.

Even though I still felt tired from the trip to Germany, I stopped at Isatis on my way home and walked straigh to "L'Envie des Bêtes (assis)", the sitstart of 19 white.

It turned out to be not an easy one, but the tries felt like a lot of fun.
The sitstart actually adds some very nice moves into the stand which is 6C.
The attempt in which I finally sent the problem, still was a battle from beginning to end. With every move, it felt like I could come off any moment.
Very cool unnoticed climb!

Fontainebleau - Franchard Isatis - L'Envie des Bêtes (assis) 7A

March 29, 2017 - Disconnected!

Yesterday I arrived in Kerpen, near Cologne in Germany, to work on a small project with my colleague and friend Harco (De Man).
The last two days here have been very busy and this evening, when it finally time to call it a day, instead of hanging around in the hotel, restaurant and bar, we decided to do something else.
Harco is a boulderer too, so we went bouldering in the Eifel and profited as much as we could from the last available daylight.
Thanks to the time change last weekend and the days that are getting longer each day, we were able to climb enough to disconnect from the hard working day.
Okay, it's wasn't Bleau, but being in a forest and hearing the sounds of animals and birds felt great.

I don't know much about the Eifel, but there is an area that I visited with my wife Sandra over five years ago.
It was near the village of Burgbrohl, next to Glees, in a small sector called Kruzifix. Marked by a white cross on one of the bigger boulders.
As it turned out to be only a half an hour drive from the office in Kerpen, we decided to go for it.

The GPS took us straight to the parking of where we had to be.
I remembered more or less where we had to be, but needed a bit more time to find the Kruzifix than the five minutes as described in one of the topos we found on the internet.

We warmed up with a nice small problem to get used the rock, which feels way different than in Bleau, and I noticed that I didn't feel as comfortable on the rock than I am at home.
Still, the 6B(6C) "Scheinheiligen" next to classic "Eisheiligen" went down on my second attempt, and for Harco too.

Immediately after, I wanted to try the beautiful classic of the area, "Esiheiligen".
After a short try to "get the feel", I went for it and easily sent it on my second attempt. Albeit with shaky knees.
I still had to get used to the different rock.
Harco made some really nice attempts and got to one move from the end, but had to let it go.

Eifel - Kruzifix - Eisheiligen 6C+

We then moved to one of the few 7's in the area, one that I did on my first visit here long ago and I wanted to have a video of it.
"Schattenkabinett" would probably be graded about 6C in Bleau. I topped it with much ease on my second attempt.
Harco did the 5C "Crunchy Nuts" next to it a couple of times. One that I can recommend as it does have some nice in for such a small boulder.

Eifel - Kruzifix - Schattenkabinett 7A+

I had read in the topo about a nice little dyno and it turned out to be right behind us.
"Kleene Bombe" was the only boulder (dyno) that came close the grade as compared to Bleau.
The jump is not high, but hanging on to the sharp edge definitely makes it worth the grade.
Fun little dyno!

Eifel - Kruzifix - Kleene Bombe 6A

We still played around a bit on that small boulder, both did the 5C "Clever und Smart", that has a beautiful shoulder move in it.

Harco even did a possible first ascent of a variation on it.

There is much more to do in the area, and you can spend half a day of climbing there, but we didn't have that much time.

The few boulders that we climbed were nice, the area was nice and at least we felt relieved and completely disconnected from work when we walked back to the car and drove to the hotel.

March 26, 2017 - Shooting with stars.

I had agreed with Jan (Gorrebeeck) and Gina to back to Rocher de Milly today to avoid the big crowds.
Looking at the number of cars already present on the various parkings that I passed on my way, they surely were present.
Jan and I wanted to try "Le Dolmen du Divin", but we kept on walking further to the end of Rocher de Milly Est to warm up in some easier boulders.

It's at least a half an hour walk on a long flat straight path that doesn't seem to end.
The nice views and the beauty of the area, however, all make it totally worth it. Especially the very nice boulders that we found in the end.
After walking for such a long time and crawling over and between boulders, trees and bushes, we finally found a nice a spot to lay our crashpads down.

The small roof of "Et Talon Nez" has positive holds and seemed liked an ideal warmup.
Jan almost sent it on his flash attempt, but just fell of the last move due to bad foot placement.
He did on his second attempt after a short rest.
The many moves did turn out to be quite physical after all.
I needed some more attempts to link all the moves together but found my way up after all.

This beautiful small roof with a nearly perfect line received five stars from me on bleau.info.

EDIT - apparently it was "Et Talon Nez (gauche)" that we did. I stand by the stars given and also the grade, because this felt like a good 7A to me!

Fontainebleau - Rocher de Milly Est - Et Talon Nez (gauche) 6C+

Before we found "Et Talon Nez", we had passed by the prow of "Geka", which looked beautiful too, but too hard to warm up with.
Now that our fingers, skin and mind were ready, it was a good moment to move our gear 30m further to "Geka".

After closer inspection, and some curious tries, we had to conclude that it was at least as hard as we had expected, maybe even harder.
Every move is a hard compression move and really physical!
Jan has a thing with brushing and keeping holds in good condition though, and after a while some of the moves that were deemed too hard at first, started to work out.
This got us motivated but in the end it must have taken us at least two hours figuring out the best method until I was able to top out.

Jan had some trouble with the far toehook on the right, but when using my right shoe it started to work out too.
We were running out of time and Jan started to feel worn out, but encouraged by Gina and I, he also topped out on his promised last attempt of the day.

"Geka" felt like a masterpiece and also received the full five stars from me on bleau.info.

Fontainebleau - Rocher de Milly Est - Geka 7B(7A+)

Then came the long walk back to the car again ...

March 25, 2017 - It's about time.

Jan (Gorrebeeck) and his wife Gina were here for a BBQ last week and we decided to do some together this weekend.
They are the owners of the well known Belgian bouldering "City Lizard" and took some weeks off from their busy jobs, managing a bouldering hall.
What better place is there to spend those weeks off work in bouldering mecca Fontainebleau!?

After a couple of rainy days during the week, we were treated with beautiful weather so far this weekend.
It felt like Summer.
That reminds me of it, this night we're switching back to Summer time.
From one day to the other we will suddenly be spoiled with an extra hour of daylight in the evening.
It's about time!

Of course, a beautiful Spring weekend means many, many climbers, hikers, bikers, horseback riders, etc ...
It was a good idea from Jan to meet at the parking of Rocher de Milly as there was no one around.
On our way to Rocher de Milly, we stopped at Rocher de Corne-Biche to warm up a bit in the sector with "Éclats".

Jan climbed "Pavlova de Pont Loup" with a totally different method than I used some time ago, but had to admit that it felt hard for 7A and probably was more like 7A+.
I remember that I needed a second session for that boulder back then.
Gina felt ok working in some blue problems while Jan and I checked out "L'Os à Moelle" on the boulder just behind "Éclats".
It looked nice and after cleaning the top from all the needles from the pine trees that had gathered on the boulder, we gave it a go.

There are two possible exits for "L'Os à Moelle".
One on the prow to the right of the tree, which went down on my second attempt.
Jan needed some more tries but after using a different method, also made it to the top.

Fontainebleau - Rocher de Corne-Biche - L'Os à Moelle 7B(7B+)

The other exit of "L'Os à Moelle" is with slopers on the left of the tree and is my eyes a completely different line, apart from the first two moves.
We both did it straight away, but not without a struggle on the sketchy green topout.

Fontainebleau - Rocher de Corne-Biche - L'Os à Moelle (gauche) 7B(7B+)

After Gina finished another scary blue problem, we continued the long walk to Rocher de Milly to try "Le Kraken (droite)".
But first I wanted to warm up my skin again in "Léviathan", a 7A on the left side of the "Kraken" roof.
On my second attempt I was too excited and fell off the last move to match the jug.
The attempt after that, I heard Ivan (Moreels) in my head telling me to keep calm and Jan reminding me of where to put my heel, and topped out.
Very nice problem!

Fontainebleau - Rocher de Milly - Léviathan 7A

We still spent some good efforts and made some nice attempts in "Le Kraken (droite)" but had to let it go for now.

I was out of time.

March 20, 2017 - No doubt.

It was grey and it looked like it could rain any minute, but I stopped at Cuvier Sorcières on my way home from work.
I wanted to try "Le Gymnécologue (debout)". If it was dry.
On my previous visits I was never able to try it, because every time it was too humid. Those bad slopers at the start require good conditions.

After having done "Le Gymnécologue (debout)", I was checking out the sitstart, but the pockets in the overhang felt  too damp and there was no way to climb on to the end with damp hands.
While re-reading the description of the standstart, I had my doubts about where I started, so I did the problem again, this time starting more to the right.

Fontainebleau - Cuvier Sorcières - Le Gymnécologue (debout) 7A

When I was thinking about both versions, I came to conclusion that for myself liked the direct start more than the original.
I doubted at first, but decided to publish the video anyway and named it "Le Gymnécologue (debout direct)" for now.

Basically it starts with the arete right hand and a mono for the left. Exit is the same as the original.
This felt slightly more difficult though.

Fontainebleau - Cuvier Sorcières - Le Gymnécologue (debout direct) 7A

If you're ever in the area, try both versions and decide for yourself which one you like most.

March 17, 2017 - Two for the road.

I had to leave to Belgium this afternoon, but before that I took a moment to climb a couple of boulders for the road.

I had been only a few times in Franchard Sablons and even though I had always been attracted by "Brulaap", due to its strange name, but never got to look for it.
After all, it is located in a very small remote sector of the area, and with the high ferns in Summer it's not easy to locate it.
This time I took my chance while the ferns are still dead and walked straight to it.

Only two problems in the seventh grade there, out of which "Brulaap", but I started with the slightly easier "Infinite Down" right across of it.
Some not to too difficult climbing with a very slopey edge on top.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Sablons - Infinite Down 7A

Next up was "Brulaap", which turned out to be smaller than I had imagined.
Also needed only a couple of tries here. Thanks to my big reach, I was able to skip at least one move.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Sablons - Brulaap 7A+