October 07, 2017 - Loosening up.

After all that stress from work lately, I was really glad to finally have a complete day available for climbing again and on top that, the weather was going to be beautiful!
I knew that Pieter was around and just when I arrived at the isolated boulder of "Mickey Mousse" in Les Béorlots he sent me a message that he just woke up and would join me there soon.

While waiting, I took my time as I was on a perfect isolated spot in a beautiful part of the forest, and was able to do "Jour de Pluie", which felt more like 7B to me.
I had tried it on previous visits, but never found enough courage to really go for it as the landing is quite scary and the boulder is relatively high.
Somehow, now I felt more confident and worked my way through.

Fontainebleau - Les Béorlots - Jour de Pluie 7A+(7B)

Pieter arrived too and together we started trying "Mickey Mousse" of which the first moves are easy, but as soon a you need to pass over the big bowl it becomes really hard until the end.
It took us a while before we figured out a working method, but even when I was able to top it out, it had felt like I could have fallen off with each move.
Really glad having done "Mickey Mousse", which took me several sessions and feels really hard for the grade.

Fontainebleau - Les Béorlots - Mickey Mousse 7B

It didn't really work out well for Pieter, who hurt his foot with a bad fall while warming in "Don't take the Bonsaï", but before moving on to another boulder, we still tried "Little People" next to "Jour de Pluie".
It was a hard struggle, but in the end I made it to the top. Not an easy one!

Fontainebleau - Les Béorlots - Little People 7A+

Arriving in the main area, I wanted to try "Dunk!" while Pieter took a small break and ate some bread with ham.
"Dunk!" doesn't look that hard and the dynamic move is not very far, but the compressing position just before makes it a sketchy hard move.
I was glad to finish it on time, because that compression took a lot of energy.

Fontainebleau - Les Béorlots - Dunk! 7B

We still had some desperate tries in the 7B "Dérivation (assis)", afterwards Pieter beautifully flashed "74% de Cacao", which I was also able to repeat on my first attempt, and we ended with having some fun in "Purée de Noisettes" which I was almost able to repeat again, but had to give up due to lack of energy.

I was down and out, but felt all loosened up and there was no stress anymore.

Exactly what I needed!

October 16, 2017 - Terror alert!

Almost two weeks have gone by since my last post. Not that I didn't climb at all, but due to travel, a hectic and very stressful period at work, less and less daylight, I had only been able to climb a few quick but good sessions in mainly "Rubis sur l'Ongle" in Gorge aux Châts and one short session in "Global Terrorist" last Friday.
Also the weather hasn't always been very cooperative the last weeks which made the chances of climbing even more scarce.

I felt exhausted and a bit shaky due to stress when I parked at Cuvier after work today, but as soon as I started walking with crashpad on my back, smelling the forest in the last hours of sunlight, I started to disconnect from work and began to relax slowly.

It's a bit strange to see that "Global Terrorist" only has 13 registered ascents on bleau.info, given that it's located in the heart of Cuvier on the very popular boulder with "Le Biceps Mou".
It is on a very shady part of the boulder though and the line dries slowly, so that's probably one of the reasons.

It took me two short sessions to finish it even though today it didn't feel that hard. It must have been the stress that got canalised to find it's way out.
Only 15 minutes of climbing today, but I felt relaxed again.

Fontainebleau - Cuvier - Global Terrorist 7B

September 24, 2017 - Lady of the Lake.

I had planned to do some work at home, but also to profit from the cooler temperature in the morning to try "Lady of the Lake" in Cuisinière Crête Sud again.
It was the last problem that I had tried yesterday afternoon, but the big undercling to start with under the roof was very humid and each time I arrived right hand on a very bad sloper with humid fingertips, making it greasy after some time until it became impossible to pull on it for the far move left hand.

This morning, the boulder still felt cold from the night before and the friction on the key sloper was nearly perfect.
I had been able to do all the moves yesterday, and being fresh and ready for it, I felt confident.
Besides, as the undercling under the roof was big enough, I decided to use my towel between my hands and the still wet hold. Bummer that I didn't think of that yesterday.
At least now I could arrive with dry fingers on the crux sloper.
My only concern was camera placement.

En route to Cuisinière in the morning.

Due to the still quite low sun and the tight spot, I couldn't find a decent place to put the camera where it could capture the whole boulder without being blinded by the low sunlight.
I don't like to use my phone as a second camera, because it's always a fuss getting it onto my computer and the quality is different, but here I had no other option.
It's not the kind of problem that I would be able to do twice in a row. It felt too physical for that.
But hey, that was a problem for later, which is now actually already done, and it wasn't that bad after all.

"Lady of the Lake" was originally opened as a 7C, but has been downgraded to 7B in the meantime.
I do agree that it's not 7C, but it definitely felt like 7B+.
I'm surprised though that it only has 10 registered repeats, including mine.
It lies at only 3m from the oh so popular "Excalibur" and "Beatle Juice", that have 203 and 309 repeats respectively.
Maybe it's because of the starting hold being mostly wet? I don't know.
It definitely deserves more than the mere two stars it received on bleau.info. I really liked doing "Lady of the Lake"!

Fontainebleau - Cuisinière Crête Sud - Lady of the Lake 7B

September 23, 2017 - Out of focus.

I felt a little tired after yesterday and I didn't feel like trying a particular project, so I went for a stroll in Cuisinière Crête Sud.
There was no pressure, but I definitely wanted to see "Hale Bopp".
When I was still living in Belgium, a big poster of someone doing "Hale Bopp", hung in the entrance of my regular bouldering gym 'Bleau' in Gent.
Every time that I looked at it, I just stood in awe.
What was once such a mythical dyno has now almost been forgotten, being in the shadow of the more popular and not so far away "Rainbow Rocket".

I was too tired to jump too much, so quickly I turned my attention to "Orion", on the arete just right of "Hale Bopp".
It barely seemed possible at first, but soon I figured it out and sent it.
Always nice to climb such an unknown barely repeated beauty!

Fontainebleau - Cuisinière Crête Sud - Orion 7B

On my way to "Lady of the Lake", I still was able to send "La Récréation" and "La Débonnaire" on my second and first attempt respectively.
I have no idea what happened with the focus, but for some reason, the camera decided to go out of it.

Fontainebleau - Cuisinière Crête Sud - La Récréation 7A

No 'out of focus' when flashing "La Débonnaire".

Fontainebleau - Cuisinière Crête Sud - La Débonnaire 7A(7A+)

I still had some really good attempts in "Lady of the Lake", next to "Excalibur" at the start of the area, but the sweating fingertips said 'no'.
I will go back for that one soon!

September 22, 2017 - Who's dick ?

It was around the start of Spring this year that I wanted to try "Moby Dick" for the first time, but besides doing the first move, I couldn't do anything because it was too wet.
I was, however, able to take a good look at it and I definitely wanted to come back for it one day.
Finally, today when driving home from work, I stopped at Cuvier Bellevue to try "Moby Dick" for real.

Apart from the starting hold that felt damp, the boulder was completely dry.
Somehow, I felt quite confident, but got stuck at the far move to the left. As long as my right foot was stuck in the starting pocket, I just couldn't reach that far big crimp.
The only option was to let go of my right foothook while doing the dynamic move to the left.

I only had to stick the dynamic move once to be able to finish it off. Barely twenty minutes after my first try.
"Moby Dick" felt quite soft for the grade, but on the other hand, it fits quite my style.
Beautiful line!

Fontainebleau - Cuvier Bellevue - Moby Dick 7C(7B+)

September 20, 2017 - In between.

Yesterday and the day before, I spent some good short evening sessions trying "Rubis sur l'Ongle" in Gorge aux Châts, but a couple of times I fell off the last move.
The many tries had made my arms and fingers tired, but I had some time for climbing this evening and went to Franchard Isatis to stroll around and try something easier in between.

I spent most of the time trying "Panzer", which I can do now in two overlapping parts, but the power lacked to do it completely from the start.
It feels really hard for its grade since a hold broke off one day.

My attention turned to "L'Entre-Toit (direct)" on the backside of the boulder of "El Poussah".
It wasn't until recently that I learned about it, even though having passed that boulder so many times already.
The slow drying roof looked and felt a bit damp, but dry enough and "L'Entre-Toit (direct)" looked so nice and tempting that I couldn't resist.
Not that, but a very nice climb! Quite special.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Isatis - L'Entre-Toit (direct) 7A

September 15, 2017 - Join the Dark Side.

It was together with Igor (Depoorter) and Klaas (Willems) back in April 2013 that I tried "Dark Side" for the first time.
Back then, the boulder was surrounded by trees and dense vegetation that did make it a darker spot of J.A. Martin.
It was the kind of boulder that dried very slowly due to its surroundings and orientation, and maybe that's why up to yesterday, it only had eleven registered ascents on bleau.info, out of which only three publicly and the last one being Ivan (Moreels) way back in 2009.

Ever since the big fire in the Summer of 2013, the boulder now lies mostly in the open on the of the hill, catching a lot of wind and thus drying quickly.
Despite that, it still barely had any known repetitions, most likely for it being so unknown.
But I'm guessing that that is about to change, because I'm quite sure that with a new video of "Dark Side" being published, it will draw some attention to it.

I can only recommend "Dark Side".
It does have a bad landing and I must admit that I was a little bit shaky when doing the last move, but it's simply a beautiful line. One waiting to be climbed.
Everybody come to the Dark Side!

Fontainebleau - J.A. Martin - Dark Side 7B(7A+)