April 15, 2017 - It's a shame!

Just out of curiosity, I drove by the bivouac of the Hippodrome at 10h30 this morning.
The place didn't look as crowded as I expected, but at this time, a lot of people probably already left for climbing. There was rain announced for early afternoon.
It was a shame to see however that there were still a lot of tents pitched up in the forest next to the bivouac site and the meadow across.
I realize that there probably was no space left on the bivouac site itself, and people didn't have any other option, but the least they can do is to get up early and tidy up the tents.

By the time I parked on the small parking next to Cuvier Rempart, small rain drops had started falling out of the grey sky but not enough to make everything wet just yet.
My plan was to try some of the new problems in Cuvier Bellevue.

The first problem that I wanted to try was "Hard Jump (assis)" near the start of the small area.
On bleau.info it states that the sitstart starts with a crimp far left and a high sloper right hand. It also says that it's morpho.
It can't get more morpho than this. When sitting on the ground there was no way that I could any of the starting holds and even when sitting on the crashpad, I could just reach the left crimp but still lacked about 10cm to reach the sloper right hand.
Therefor I started more with a crouching start, keeping my body as low as possible.

The jump itself is not hard, but taking the swing is, and mantling up even harder when you don't expect it.
It was a shame to though to arrive at the boulder and find two big empty cans of Heineken right at the base of it.
I took them with me in the small plastic bag that I always have with me to keep my trash in. It's not that difficult folks!

Fontainebleau - Cuvier Bellevue - Hard Jump (assis) 7A+

Now and then the drops of rain became bigger, and fearing that it might really rain soon, I went straight to the boulder of "Isatix".
It's a beautiful high menhir shaped boulder with a couple of problems on it, "Isatix", "Isatix (droite)" and their respective sitstarts.
The boulder is quite high and there's a boulder right behind you when climbing up, but I went for it anyway, starting with the easiest, the 7A "Isatix (droite)".
The first two moves, reaching for te high crimp left hand and then reaching for the other small crimp right hand while keeping you balance, are the hardest.
As soon as your hands are on the right arete, it's only a matter of keeping calm and steadily continue to the top.

Fontainebleau - Cuvier Bellevue - Isatix (droite) 7A

Immediately after the right variation, I tried "Isatix", which has the same first two moves, but instead of going from the crimps to the right arete, you have to make a sort of dyno to the jug up left and continue to the top.
Knowing the first two moves already, it was only a matter of daring to dyno. It went down on my first attempt.
Not sure if this version deserves the extra '+' to the grade.

Fontainebleau - Cuvier Bellevue - Isatix 7A+

It was half past noon now, and I drove on to the parking of Bas Cuvier itself, knowing that the parking is todays spot where Black Diamond is having its yearly cleanup day.

I thought I'ld lend a hand, got myself equiped with a trash bag and a grabbing stick and set off to Cuvier Ouest.

From there I walked over the ridge towards the North, crossed the small valley behind Cuvier Nord and arrived back at the Black Diamond van an hour and a half later, and a 30 litres trash bag completely filled with trash.

Like I wrote last year, the Black Diamond cleanup days are a good initiative, but in the end it's a shame that these need to happen.

April 14, 2017 - The job is done.

Exactly two weeks ago, I started renovating my oldest son, Anthony, his bedroom for his 14th birthday.
It were a very busy two weeks, working during the day, renovating the bedroom every evening until late and trying to do a short climb in between here and there.

This morning, I left early to buy more paint for the walls, applied a second layer and left for some climbing in Apremont Butte aux Peintres.
With the crowded Easter weekend, the relatively unknown area seemed like a good choice and I still wanted try "Psykokwak", a problem that I never found in good conditions before, but after the long dry period we had, I might make a chance.

The area was deserted, but of course only on the boulder of "Psykokwak" there were some people climbing.
It turned out be Cyrille and Christophe Duval, sometimes referred to as the "Duval twins" in earlier posts.
I watched Cyrille (or was it Christophe?) finish off "Hervé Gourdel" (a 7C(7B+) traverse that ends into "Psykokwak") after which they had to leave.
Thanks to the tip about foot placement for the jump, I was able to do "Psykokwak" after a handful of tries.
Loved that dynamic move to a sloper!

Fontainebleau - Apremont Butte aux Peintres - Psykokwak 7B+

Two boulders further, I decided to try "Gecko Tokay" again, a nice 7B that I was too hard on my previous visit.
For some reason, I was able to move much more smoothly through the problem, and also here after merely a couple of tries it was done.
This one needs full concentration until the end!

Fontainebleau - Apremont Butte aux Peintres - Gecko Tokay 7B

Finally, I wanted to end with a small 7A dyno that I saw the Duval twins do on one of their latest videos.
I had never seen "Saint Croc Game" before, but thanks to the directions given by Christophe (or was it Cyrille?) Duval, I found it easily.

For "Saint Croc Game" you have to jump both hands from a slab to an overhanging prow and immediately take it into compression.
That is of course only if you know where to jump to.
On my first attempt I grabbed far next to the holds, but after pointing them out, I did it without problems on my second attempt.
It's a nice dyno, but very soft for the proposed 7A.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Butte aux Peintres - Saint Croc Game 7A

The paint was surely going to be dry by now, so I returned home, went to the shop again, started tidying and cleaning up, moved Anthony stuff back into his "new" room, helped him decorating and saw that it was all good at 22h30.

The job is done.

April 11, 2017 - Sending train.

After work, I had agreed to meet up with Tim (Collier), his brother Niels and his girlfriend Saren.
I didn't have that much time so the the "Rudeboy" boulder was the place we were going to meet.
Tim could try "Rudeboy" and I had planned to try the last and hardest problem that I still had to do on that boulder,  the 7B+(7B) "Sens Dessus Dessous".

Of course I had already inspected the problem, but I deemed it to be too hard and never took the time to try it. Besides, there were still other problems to finish off on that boulder so my choice was always quickly made.
However, now that it was the last one, I didn't really have a choice, but that didn't bother me. At least I didn't have an excuse not to try it.

After Tim finished off the 7A "Rudeboy" on his second attempt and the 6C "Duel dans la Lune" on his first, the mood for sending was set.
I was surprised that I could all the moves quite fast and even do the problem in two overlapping parts.
The 'sending train' was on its way, I felt it.

A handful of tries with some minutes of rest in between, I fought hard, had a slight struggle, almost fell off the crux move, but managed to push through and make my way to the top.
My heart was pounding in my throat and I had to catch my breath. It was physically hard, but the relief was big.
The 'sending train' had come our way and I was allowed to jump on it too.

Great physical compression problem!!

Fontainebleau - 95.2 - Sens Dessus Dessous 7B+(7B)

April 08, 2017 - Blue path n°8.

It was 9h30 when I parked at La Faisanderie. I arrived early because I had to leave to Belgium at noon.
This left me with only two and half hours of time and Long Boyau is quite a walk, but I wanted to avoid the crowds.
I had never climbed in Long Boyau before, but the boulders are located along the blue path n°8 and as I have walked that path already a couple of times, I knew where the scattered boulders more or less were.
When I started my drive towards Belgium it was 12h10 but I had made a beautiful walk and climbed some nice problems along the way.

The first problem I tried was "Circulez, y'a Rien à Boire", which was a very short warmup because without any trouble I was able to flash it.
This felt more like a 6C. To be sure I didn't make any error, I checked a video online but had to conclude that it was correct.
** EDIT ** It turned out to be "Circulez, y'a Rien à Boire (direct)" which is indeed 6C. ** EDIT **

Fontainebleau - Long Boyau - Circulez, y'a Rien à Boire (direct) 6C

At barely 30m from there, I started trying "Le Trou de Balle", which is an obvious name for the problem. The small pocket looks exactly like a bullet hole.
I needed some more time for it but once the first move was executed correctly, I topped it.

Fontainebleau - Long Boyau - Le Trou de Balle 7A

Having done "Le Trou de Balle", I continued my way towards the blue path up on the hill and took a minute to enjoy the view.

The beautiful view on the top of Long Boyau.

I definitely wanted to try "Le Mérou" which was a couple of hundred meters further along the blue path, but on my way I was able to quickly pick up an ascent of "Ric et Rac".

Fontainebleau - Long Boyau - Ric et Rac 6C+(7A)

"Le Mérou" looks beautiful and climbs beautiful. It simply IS beautiful!!
As soon as you have the arete right hand, every move becomes sketchy until the end.
The left heelhook feels like it can let go any second and the tiny vertical crimp high up left requires very subtle movement.
I almost came out on the last move, but thanks to quick reflexes made it through.

Too bad that I was out of time to try the right version "Le Mérou (droite)".

Fontainebleau - Long Boyau - Le Mérou 7A+

April 07, 2017 - Sunblast indeed!

It was really warm and sunny when I left work this afternoon so on my way home, I stopped at Franchard Isatis.
I forgot however, that it's Easter holiday and the area was crowded.
After a desperate quick walk around I left again.

Going to 95.2 would seem foolish on such a crowded day, but Jan (Gorrebeeck) told me last Sunday about a new problem he opened the day before on the backside of the boulder of "Ex-Traction", a bit underneath "Tentation".
I had a look at the problem that day, but it was right after trying and doing "Pierre Précieuse", in which I had lost so much skin that I didn't feel like using the bad slopers on the arete of "Sunblast", the name under which it got published on bleau.info yesterday.
Even though it is located at a mere 30m from "Tentation", the boulder goes unnoticed and most people don't know it or bother to have a look.
I was confident confident that the spot would be quiet, even on a day like this.

When I arrived at "Sunblast", it was a sunblast indeed.
The worst slopers on the arete were full in the sun and felt warm.
My first tries were worthless and a moment I even thought I would have to give up on it due to the warmth.
The bad warm sloper after the first move felt impossible to hold.
Swinging my towel to cool the slopers down helped only a bit, but it was just enough to hang on long enough and do the next move.

Soon after I stood on top of the boulder.
Very nice find from Jan!

Fontainebleau - 95.2 - Sunblast 7B

April 05, 2017 - Underrated.

A couple of times I stood already before "Le Surplomb aux Fougères" in Rocher Guichot, but it was either not dry enough or simply too overgrown with vegetation, making it impossible to climb.
After all, the name does translate into "The Overhang of Ferns".
It was more by coincidence that I passed by it yesterday while walking around in the area, and noticed that apparently somebody had cleaned the boulder where the line goes.
A nice big bad sloper had revealed itself now and finally I was able to figure out how the problem more or less goes.
I decided to come back for it tomorrow (today) and give my skin a break for another night.

Already on my first attempt I knew that this was going to be much harder than I expected.
The first move wasn't an issue, but letting go of my right hand to match my left hand on the lip of the roof felt really hard.
It took a while before I had found the solution, but as soon as I knew what to do, I could do it every time. Still hard though.

Then came the next crux, the huge move from the crimp to the big sloper near the top.
The first time I tried it, I thought I was never going to be able to reach that far, but after building it up, it became possible.
I can't imagine someone with 5cm less reach to actually stick that move.

For me, "Le Surplomb aux Fougères" is underrated in three ways.
Firstly by the number of registered repeaters, which is only 20, me included. That's really not much for a 7A in the middle of Rocher Guichot.
Secondly by the grade, which is now 7A and really felt like a (hard) 7A+.
Thirdly by the number of stars given on bleau.info, which was an average of only 3, and now is 3,1 because I gave it 4.
Too bad about the small boulder right under it. I hit my leg against it several times and am walking around with a big black spot on it now.

Go try it out, it's well worth it and right next to the parking.

Fontainebleau - Rocher Guichot - Le Surplomb aux Fougères 7A

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+