November 18, 2017 - Patience.

"Il faut être patient!" (you have to be patient).
I will never forget the moment when Jean-Hervé (Baudot) told me that.
It was on a similar grey and humid Autumn day, like today, when I was looking for dry boulders in the morning.
I was patient today and only left around 11h towards the area of Maunoury, hoping to find some dry boulders there.
The dense fog had fallen down during the nigh and had made everything wet, but my plan was to walk all around the Maunoury area and try everything interesting and dry enough.

The first dry boulder on my path was the one with "Movement Activated", which was in surprisingly good condition as opposed the other boulders nearby.
Here, I wanted to try "Movement Activated (droite assis)".
What I thought would be not worth it, the sitstart added some interesting moves to the original standing one.
In my humble opinion, however, it just doesn't add enough difficulty to make it a spot on 7B though.
But then again, it does quite fit my style.

Fontainebleau - Maunoury - Movement Activated (droite assis) 7B

Here too, the high fog started to fall and I had the impression that conditions were starting to get worse.
The only thing that I still managed to finish, was "Jet Set biscuit".
On some previous visits, I could never stick the first move long enough to start the dynamic move.
Today however, for some reason, even though the 'biscuited' jug was wet, it went down on my first attempt.

Fontainebleau - Maunoury - Jet Set biscuit 7A

I still went all around Maunoury but couldn't find anything anymore that was dry enough.

While walking to the car, the sun came out shortly and I decided to stop at Mont Simonet and walk to the Mont Blanc area.

It was almost 14h30 and I hoped that by now the new boulder, opened by Laurent Darlot, would be climbable.

I walked all the way for nothing, because everything was too humid.

Even patience didn't help today.

November 15, 2017 - United Colors of Bleau.

Last weekend Pieter and Alberto came to the forest, but we never got to put on our climbing shoes.
It rained the whole weekend, so we didn't get further than walking, exploring the forest and locating new and old boulders in remote areas, such as Franchard Sablons Ouest.
The weather turned better on Monday, but I had to wait until today to be able to take a few hours off work for climbing.

I went back to Franchard Sablons Ouest where a couple of new boulders have been opened on the top of the hill by Jason (Kester) and his wife Helen (Dudley). They live in Arbonne-la-Forêt, so basically it's in their backyard.
I enjoyed the fifteen minute walk through the forest and the smell of it gave me energy.
My eyes were treated with the beautiful mix of colours that Autumn and the trees can offer. I loved it!

United Colors of Bleau in Autumn.

I started with "Into the Void", which looks (and is) the most interesting.
The conditions weren't in favour, but still I finished it on my second attempt.
It climbed very nice, but felt quite soft for the grade. Maybe more 7A+?
In any case, a really nice problem!

Fontainebleau - Franchard Sablons Ouest - Into the Void 7B

Up next was "Mr Grumpy Pants" just below "Into the Void".
This one I flashed with ease and felt more like a very soft 7A at most, but maybe I was lucky.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Sablons Ouest - Mr Grumpy Pants 7A+

From the start of "Into the Void", Jason also opened "Metu Oblivionis" which doesn't exit over the prow, but in the wall with crimps.
This one I also flashed quite easily and couldn't understand how this could be 7A+.
After watching Jason's method, I noticed that he did the first couple of moves of "Into the Void" to the right and came back into the wall on the left afterwards.

Anyway, here's what I call "Metu Oblivionis (direct)", for which I think it will be about 6C+(7A).

Fontainebleau - Franchard Sablons Ouest - Metu Oblivionis (direct) 6C+(7A)

Using Jason's method makes it a slight bit harder, but still didn't feel harder than 7A.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Sablons Ouest - Metu Oblivionis 7A+

Even though the grades might be on the soft side, still some nice new openings by Jason and Helen!

As the more interesting and harder problems required better conditions, I walked on the sector where "Matagot" is.
I was hoping that "Pince-Mi et Pince-Moi" would be in good enough conditions to try.

They turned out to be not too bad, but this took me more attempts than all the previous problems together that I did this afternoon.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Sablons Ouest - Pince-Mi et Pince-Moi 7B

There was no time left anymore to still start trying something else, but I felt relieved to have climbed again after a week of not climbing at all.

Those were two hours very well spent!

November 08, 2017 - Use the occasion.

Back at work since Monday and with the Winter hour that was set a while ago, it is already too dark by the time get somewhere after work.

This afternoon, however, I was working from home so I could bring Anthony to music school at 17h, which gave me about twenty minutes to go somewhere close and at least touch some rock.
The new boulders opened at Roche aux Sabots Sud, right next to the parking, are ideal for that.
One of those boulders, is the one with "La Libido" in the centre of the small area.

The sitstart has been opened by Tony (Fouchereau) and Thierry (Vasseur) and proposed as 7A+(7A).
They are both tall men and I guess the start must be harder for the tall, because it didn't give me any problems whatsoever and I flashed it with relative ease.

Fontainebleau - Roche aux Sabots Sud - La Libido (assis) 7A+(7A)

The exit to the left, proposed as 7B, looks interesting but the slopey top was too humid and it was already starting to get dark.

Good option for the next occasion.

November 03, 2017 - Going in deep.

Yesterday was dominated by condense in the morning and grizzle and rain in the afternoon.
No climbing possible!
This morning started with a dense fog, but the sun broke through and the fog dissipated quickly.
Everything was still wet when I parked at the buvette of Apremont and the place still looked empty, waiting for the crowd to arrive.
The crowd may come, because I was going in deep, to Apremont Fond des Gorges.
It had been a long time ago since I went there last time, but I remembered that some boulders were drying quickly.

The roof with "Strate Eau Sphère" was indeed lying mostly in the sun and was already as good as dry.
I started with trying "Féérite", but the big hold on the left was still too humid to hold the swing on, so I turned to "Strate Eau Sphère".

First I tried the easier direct version to see if the topout would be even possible i these still quite humid conditions.
That didn't turn out to be a problem, as I flashed it with relative ease.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Fond des Gorges - Strate Eau Sphère (direct) 7A

The longer original version however, required quite some more attempts.
Maybe, or probably, it was due to the unfavourable conditions, but this felt quite hard and closer to 7B+ to me.
I had to go deep for this one, but I say it again, the conditions play a big role.
Nevertheless, a very nice line that I enjoyed climbing!

Fontainebleau - Apremont Fond des Gorges - Strate Eau Sphère 7B(7B+)

I wanted more, but first something easier, which I found in "Chicken Noris (assis)" on the boulder just before the roof of "Strate Eau Sphère".
Even though it felt more like a short traverse, the movements were very nice to do.
Took me only a couple of tries to find a working sequence and top out.
This boulder dries very quickly!

Fontainebleau - Apremont Fond des Gorges - Chicken Noris (assis) 7A

On the way back to the car, I wanted to pass by Apremont Haut des Gorges to try "Aplats en Folie", knowing that it faces South and might be dry by now.

When I arrived, it looked only dry-ish, but the start and the first slopers felt good enough to go for it anyway.
I took my time to work out the start, perfected some movements and installed the camera when I felt that I could be able to reach the top crimpy slopers.
The first time I was able to reach the first crimpy sloper near the top, I could feel that it was wet there though and a couple of times I fell off the last move.
The only way that I was able to top out, was by taking the crimpy sloper only as a crimp, pull on my fingernails and hope that I wouldn't slip off.

It did feel hard and I had to go deep, but not it wasn't as hard as I would expect from a real 7C on slopers, especially in these conditions.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Haut des Gorges - Aplats en Folie 7C(7B+)

November 01, 2017 - Forgotten area?

It was sad to take Maarten and Milo to the train station in Maisse this evening, but we all enjoyed the time we spent together and that's what counts.

Maarten felt a bit soar this morning, so we spent the day mainly walking around and exploring the area behind Vallée Ronde near Vallée Chaude.
We did find quite a long cluster of medium sized and some taller boulders at about 500m behind the already known small area of Vallée Ronde.
The strange thing is that most of them have definitely been cleaned in the past, but looked unclimbed for a long time.
I haven't found any information about this small sector, located somewhere in the middle between Gros Sablons and Vallée Ronde, which surprises me a bit, because I did see some beauties that made me want to go back there with my pad and climbing shoes some time soon.

Besides walking and exploring, I was able to pick up two quick ascents of some easier problems.

First one was "L'Abribus", on the more or less only interesting boulder of the classical sector of Vallée Ronde.
Went down on my second attempt.

Fontainebleau - Vallée Ronde - L'Abribus 6C+

The other one was "Le Terrier" in the classical sector of the Bois du Rocher area across the road.
I flashed this with ease and think that 6C at most would fit more here.

Fontainebleau - Bois du Rocher - Le Terrier 7A(6C+)

October 31, 2017 - Keeping busy.

Maarten and I wanted to take the teenagers outside to the forest to keep them away from laptops and so on.
We went to 91.1, where they could keep themselves busy climbing for a while, and in the meantime I used to occasion to capture "Le Flipper (assis droite)" on video.
That prow just asks to be climbed.

Fontainebleau - 91.1 - Le Flipper (assis droite) 7A(6C+)

We kept the kids occupied outside for about five hours, after which we dropped them off at home and continued on to Coquibus Longs Vaux where I wanted to spend some time in "Boumfer" again.

"Boumfer" is located in the same small isolated sector where also "Compression" can be found, so calmness is assured.
It looks easy when you stand in front of it, but those crimps are so small and sharp that it requires a lot of motivation to pull on them with full power.
I spent already two short sessions on it, but each time I had to leave empty handed because my fingertips couldn't take the pain anymore.

Finally, today, I was able to ignore the pain just enough to pull on through and make the final move.
Bouldering is masochism sometimes.

Fontainebleau - Coquibus Longs Vaux - Boumfer 7A+

October 30, 2017 - Sticky rock.

Maarten (Robays) and his nephew Milo (Robays) are visiting for a couple of days.
Milo sat in the same elementary classes as my oldest son Anthony, and it was a good occasion for both of them to meet up and share early childhood memories. And of course do what 14 year olds do at that age.

Me and Maarten went climbing and started at Mont Blanc where I wanted to finally finish off "Le Homard / Bouddha Assis" now that the wind and better conditions had returned.
The wind had blown all the holds dry now and the friction felt good.
It's a very nice line of which I'm very glad to tick this off!

Fontainebleau - Mont Blanc - Le Homard / Bouddha Assis 7B

Maarten wanted to climb something easier and making a detour via Mont Simonet, we arrived back at Éléphant where we did some fun and easy climbing in the sun.

On the way back home, I drove to Bois du Rocher to see if "Thunderbolt" would be dry.
Yesterday I had a look too, but it was still too humid to even try.
Luckily, now, it was dry and in surprisingly good condition for a problem facing North.
In fact, the conditions were so good that I came really close to flashing it, but couldn't because of bad beta and a foot slip.
After a short break, it went down, but I was out of breath when I got there.

It felt soft for the grade, but still it is a beautiful line with great moves!

Fontainebleau - Bois du Rocher - Thunderbolt 7C