November 22, 2017 - Immortal.

When you think about it, we are all becoming immortal in some way and all that thanks to the internet.
Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc..., even this blog all contribute to our immortal presence throughout the world.
Traces of all of the above will be kept and cached somewhere as long as the internet exists.
But, anyway, I'm only mentioning that because I finally did "L'Immortel" today and thought the subject of immortality would fit with it.

Having a holiday, and as there's no school vacation, I thought it would be a good idea to go to Cuvier today.
The weather was announced to be sunny all day, so already at 9h in the morning, I started my warmup to profit from probably the best conditions of the day. I wanted to try "La Bérézina", so I needed them.

I warmed up having fun with the good old tree in front of "Le Carnage"...

And in "Coton Tige"...

Fontainebleau - Cuvier - Coton Tige 7A(6C+)

I spent over an hour trying "La Bérézina", and even though the conditions were looking good, the friction wasn't that good, it wasn't sticky enough.
I could easily reach the first sloper, but as soon as I applied pressure on it, I started slipping. It was quite frustrating.

Stef (Jacobs) suddenly turned up and I showed him where to find "La Gaule", of which I gave the sitstart some good tries.
I could get passed the start of the standing start, but the shady left side of the boulder didn't stick enough to do some valuable tries.

Looking for better conditions, I walked to Cuvier Ouest on the top of the hill, where the boulders catch more wind.
The conditions were indeed much better there and once again, I definitely wanted to try "L'Immortel".
Probably my tenth session on that very difficult dyno.
Finally, after what might be over 100 tries in total of all sessions spent on it, I was able to finish it off.
This felt really hard for me, despite being it totally my style.
Once opened as a 7A+, upgraded to 7B, to me it felt like a good 7B+!

Fontainebleau - Cuvier Ouest - L'Immortel 7B

Back down in Bas Cuvier, noticed that the starting pocket of "Pain against Gravity" was dry for once and I put on my climbing shoes.
I felt like I still had something in me and those short explosive problems seem to suit me well mostly.
After a couple of tries I realised where the name came from and had to tape in my whole right ring finger to help me withstand the pain when pulling up hard on the small two finger pocket.

What I thought would have been only one extremely hard move, turned out to be two of them in a row.
In a way, I kind of liked this problem, but on the other hand, I can understand that isn't (and never will be) a popular one.
Before my repetition, this had only 3 registered repetitions, out of which the last public one in 2011, and that for a boulder right at the entrance of Cuvier.

Fontainebleau - Cuvier - Pain against Gravity 7B+(7B)

As soon as I will click on "Publish" now, another piece of me will be immortal.

November 19, 2017 - Puzzled.

When I'm forced to stay at home due to it being wet outside, I can never sit still.
I can't sit or stand and do nothing. I always have to have something to work on, fiddle on, etc... to keep me busy.
What many people probably don't know is that, on dark evenings, I can spend hours of puzzling.
1000, 1500 and up to 2000 pieces. More than that and it wouldn't even fit on the table anymore.
It keeps me busy and at the same time calms me down and brings me into deep relaxation.

Yesterday, I questioned if patience if sometimes worth it.
Today, I must answer 'yes' to that question.
Because of the rain last night and the grey skies in the morning, I had no choice but to wait for it to dry.
To keep busy, I spent a couple of hours cleaning out and tidying up the washing room.
Having done that, it was already 14h30 when I arrived in 95.2.
For once, I didn't care about the crowd (which was definitely present). I just wanted to be sure to be able to climb something without having to look around too much and walked straight to "Captain Hook" on the top of the hill.
It's the most popular and thus most crowded part of 95.2, but I knew that "Captain Hook" isn't a popular problem, so most likely it would be free. And dry!

I had already worked out the sequence of "Captain Hook" before, but had to wait for better conditions to make some real attempts.
Surprisingly, the conditions on the boulder were quite good, much better than one would expect after such a wet morning, and after about fifteen minutes of work it was done.

It's a very short problem on a small boulder, but I can appreciate every move on hold on it.

Fontainebleau - 95.2 - Captain Hook 7B(7B+)

I still made some good attempts in "Futurs Barbares (direct)" and finished off the afternoon with a flash video repeat of "Triplette", which was also in surprisingly good condition.

Fontainebleau - 95.2 - Triplette 7A

Walking back to the car, I wondered what would be the best. Patience or no patience.

Sometimes you can be too early, but also too late.

I was puzzled.

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+)