September 12, 2017 - Proof of concept.

I had a short but nice evening session in Apremont Ouest.
The temperature's dropping, the wind made the air dry and I was all alone in the area.
It was a good moment to try "Sitting Bull". The one other time that I wanted to try it, I couldn't even get my ass off the ground.

Somehow, this time I didn't have much problems with it, but I soon realised that the actual crux for the original direct exit, is the mantle up.
I had seen more videos, however, of climbers topping out more to the right, and apparently on bleau.info the description mentions that the topout on the right is 7B, so I decided to go for that one instead. I didn't want to loose too much time figuring out the direct mantle up.

I haven't registered my ascent on bleau.info yet, but I have asked to create a separate page for the right exit version.
Registering my ascent on the original page and grading it 7B would do injustice to the direct 7C(7B+) version and grading it 7B+(7C) would do injustice to myself, so I think a separate page would be more logical.
Anyway, the exit on the right feels more like a 7B to me.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Ouest - Sitting Bull 7C(7B+)

With the time I had left, I wanted to try "Concept" again lower down the hill.
I had tried "Concept" quite a few times already, but always gave up fast because I couldn't find a way to move in it.
Also this time I really had some trouble finding the good body position and only made it just barely at the end.

The video can be played by the way. Youtube did something wrong when processing the thumbnail selection.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Ouest - Concept 7A

September 10, 2017 - An unexpected finish.

Due to other priorities in the morning, it was already 13h when I parked at Franchard Isatis, and the conditions still looked pretty bad.
The weather wasn't as good as predicted and the skies stayed grey almost all day long, with some occasional drops of rain here and there.
Despite that, it was quite crowded, so I walked straight to the back of the area where I was all alone.

I tried some problems here and there, mostly had to give up due to too awful conditions, but ended up flashing "La Grisaille (direct)", which I can't give more than 6C(6C+). It went way too easy for 7A in my opionion.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Isatis - La Grisaille (direct) 7A

Being fed up with the bad conditions up there, I decided to make my way back to Franchard Hautes Plaines to check out the state of "Jambe de Bois", in which I have already spent at least three good sessions.
On my way, a Belgian from Liège who lives in Paris, asked me the way to "Cannonball".
As I was going to pass by that boulder anyway, I offered to bring him there.
Zachariah (I hope I spell this correctly) is his name, but "Zac" is easier.

We both started trying the original version, "Cannonball", at first, but when I noticed that I wasn't coming close enough, I switched to its easier version "Cannonball (droite)".
I had done it already several times, but this is just a fun dyno and always nice to try.
Still, it took me quite some tries before an attempt was successful again.
I still watched Zac for a while, saw him coming really close to sticking the dyno, but greeted him friendly again and continued my way to "Jambe de Bois".

Fontainebleau - Franchard Isatis - Cannonball (droite) 7A+(7A) (repeat)

To my pleasant surprise, the conditions on "Jambe de Bois" were not bad at all and when I gave it a first try, the surprise was even more pleasant when I noticed that the far dynamic move to the right was going much better than ever, and I started to hope for success.
From all the sessions that I already worked in it, I had never been able to stick that move yet and I knew that if I would do that one, my chances were high for finishing it.

After a few tries, I suddenly stuck the move and I got nervous.
I tried to focus, but when I was preparing for the last move, I had to think of a video from Ivan (Moreels), in which he fell off the last move and I hoped it wasn't going to happen to me.
My focus was so far gone though, that it did.

Luckily, after a short break, I was able to do the move again and work my way to the top, even though just barely.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Hautes Plaines - Jambe de Bois 7B+(7B)

On my way back I passed by "Cannonball" again, but Zac had already left.

I truly hope that he was able to finish it!

September 09, 2017 - Weird grading.

Very unstable weather today.
My day was fully planned and I was glad that one of the things I had to do was cancelled.
At least it gave me a chance to profit from a dry period early afternoon to go for a vey quick climb in Gorge aux Châts.
I chose that area, because with the chance of rain any moment, I didn't want to go far.
In the area itself I didn't even bother going up the hill, but stayed at the bottom of it for a quick win and walked straight to number 9 of the blue circuit. I had read that the sitstart of it was graded 6C+(7A) and it had drawn my curiosity.

I wonder where they get the grade from, because this felt at most like a 6C(6C+).
Went down easily on my second attempt.

Fontainebleau - Gorge aux Châts - n°9 bleu (assis) 6C+(7A)

Right next to it, in the same nice overhang is red n°7, named "Multichnopps", and the sitstart of that one was supposed to be 6C+(6C). Even though the only registered repeater gave it 7A+.
It does indeed look much harder than the official proposed grade and I definitely wanted to try it.

This only took me three tries, but it felt much harder than the previous one and comes, to my opinion, closer to 7A.
Very cool problem despite its apparent unpopularity.
Deserves an upgrade to 7A, and if it does, it will get more attention for sure.

***EDIT*** In the meantime, "Multichopps (assis) has been correctly upgraded to 6C+(7A) ***EDIT***

Fontainebleau - Gorge aux Châts - Multichopps (assis) 6C+(7A)

September 08, 2017 - Horse on speed.

I had to be home at 18h this evening after work and as they announce rain for this evening and tomorrow, I definitely wanted to climb something on the way and thought of something that was on my trajectory. Close to the parking and most likely doable in a short amount of time.

Even though I had done "Crazy Horse" in Apremont Ouest already in 2011, it was one of the first boulders that came into my mind that fulfilled the above listed criteria and I didn't have it on video yet.
I felt quite convinced that I would be able to repeat it relatively fast, as long as it didn't start to rain.
The sky looked grey and I had seen some wet streets here and there on my way.
Luckily there was quite some wind too.

Like a horse on speed, I walked as fast as I could up the hill, didn't take the time to catch my breath and immediately started trying "Crazy Horse".
I didn't take any breaks in between the few tries I needed to repeat the problem, which is not one of the harder 7B's in the forest.
Straight away, I packed and again like a horse on speed I walked as fast as I could back to the car.
All in all, I had spent exactly nine minutes at the boulder.
If someone would have been watching me that whole time, he or she must have thought that I'm crazy.
But after all, a horse on speed must be a crazy horse!

Fontainebleau - Apremont Ouest - Crazy Horse 7B

September 07, 2017 - The last line.

This evening I decided to try the last line that I still had to do on the boulder of "Misfits" in Roche au Four.
I had deliberately only tried one line per visit at the boulder so I would have plenty of reasons to come back to it.
After all, it's a beautiful and perfectly isolated boulder in a not much frequented part of Les Trois Pignons and at barely ten minutes walking from the parking of Le Croix Saint Jérôme.

The last line left for me to do was "Pleine Mesure". I wrote 'was', because it didn't take me very long to finish. Half an hour at most.
Not that it's soft or anything, but "Pleine Mesure" is basically a combination of "Misfits (direct)" and "Demi-Mesure", which I had already done in the past. The first one even very recently, so I still had the moves in me.
It was eventually the move into the slab of "Demi-Mesure" that took the most of the time, but not that it worried me.
I wouldn't have mind to come back for it on this beautiful spot.

A very nice (last) line!

Fontainebleau - Roche au Four - Pleine Mesure 7A+(7B)

September 06, 2017 - B-movie.

My oldest son Anthony was hit by a car when driving his bike in Le Vaudoué yesterday evening.
He apparently flew over the hood onto the ground, but luckily, besides some bruises and scratches and a hurting knee, he was fine.
Of course, he and his friend Sascha who was driving behind him, were shocked at first and despite the lady driver offering all kinds of help and giving our home phone number to her, he didn't note down the license plate, nor the contact details from the driver who promised to call the number he gave her later in the evening.
As nobody called yet by this morning, we had to go the Gendarmerie to file a complaint.
As it turned out at the Gendarmerie, the lady driver had reported to them already about what happened, because due to a miscommunication, she hadn't been able to reach me and had done everything possible to try to get news about Anthony.
I had a long and nice phone call with her and all things are settled out.
Of course, the most important thing is that everybody is alright. Anthony is walking around almost as normal.

Luckily I did find some little time for a quick climb, which I did in Franchard Hautes Plaines.
"Les Araignées de Mars" (The Spiders from Mars) sounds like it could be the title of some old Science Fiction Horror B-movie, but it's a much nicer line than I expected.
I wonder why I never tried it before.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Hautes Plaines - Les Araignées de Mars 7A+

September 04, 2017 - A round of applause.

Due to having to spend the weekend in Belgium, I wasn't able to climb, but it was a good opportunity to let my back recover a bit.

One of my sisters, Manon, and her boyfriend, Elias, are visiting on their way back from vacation, and I took them to "Bloc.fr" after dinner.
I had tried "Bloc.fr" once about a year and a half ago, but couldn't even do the first move on it and had somewhat forgotten about it.
Recently though, I saw a video of Thierry (Hardy) climbing it and it had drawn my interest again.

Manon and Elias don't climb (yet), but they wanted to see me climbing.
I warned them that probably I won't even top out anything during this mere half an hour of climbing and that chances even are that I won't even be able to do the first move.
Big was my surprise though when I suddenly stood on top of the boulder on my third or fourth try.

Great line! Quite physical moves at the start.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Hautes Plaines - Bloc.fr 7B