March 25, 2023 - Highly flammable.

A lot of rain until late yesterday evening, but also a lot of wind and when I saw that my sandstone terrace started to dry this morning, I took my chances and drove to Barbizon. I had spent a couple of hours trying "Combustion" in Apremont Envers last week, but by the time I had found a good method, I was out of energy and I didn't have much skin left. I went back to "Combustion" this morning with high hopes of doing it, but also with some fear about possibly bad conditions. I was glad to discover that my fear was unnecessary because the boulder was dry and the conditions even felt pretty good, even better than last week.
It was a good thing that I had taken two crashpads, because I made a few bad falls when slipping out of the crux move unexpectedly. Nevertheless, I also managed to fall right next to it and somehow lost a big piece of skin off my thumb, with a pretty deep cut in it. It was hard to understand how that could have happened during the fall, because I didn't use my thumb during the climb in such a way to make it loose so much skin and make that cut. I figured that it must have been due to a piece of glass, something that unfortunately can be found way too often in the forest. My thumb felt numb for a while and it wouldn't stop bleeding, but as I was close now, I was eager to continue my attempts. I fixed some tape tightly around my thumb to limit the bleeding as much as possible and was able to top out "Combustion" not very long after. Nowhere too soon, because the tape started to be drenched with blood.

Fontainebleau - Apremont Envers - Combustion 7C

March 12, 2023 - A walk to campus.

Even though I didn't feel it yesterday evening, this morning I could feel yesterday's effort. With the energy I still had in me today, My son drove me to Coquibus where we had a walk through the small spread-out area of Coquibus Roche Feuilletée. I wanted to see a few boulders and hopefully try the campus (no-foot) problem of "La Ballade des Pendus", a real conventional game that someone once graded as 7B+.
It's very wide spread area where the some of the boulders are hard to find and it took us more than an hour to walk over and find the boulder.
After a small break, I first did part of the problem with feet to find out where the holds are, had a good look and basically finished it on my second attempt. A long walk just for that, but it was a nice walk with a sense of Spring.

Fontainebleau - Coquibus Roche Feuilletée - La Ballade des Pendus 7B+

March 11, 2023 - Collective Energy.

There was a lot that I wanted to do at home and with no good weather predicted, I didn't expect much of climbing today. The weather turned out unexpectedly nice though and a lot had dried up by the afternoon. Jan (Gorrebeeck) and Gina are here for three weeks and when proposed to go have a look at "Energie Collective" in 95.2, I agreed to meet him there. Even though it was on my list, I had never taken the time to try it, also because it looked a bit out of my league. I was glad to meet Jan there though and without any expectations at all, we started working out the problem. I was surprised to do the first two moves quickly and continued working the crux separately. The boulder is very morpho though, but when Jan mentioned the possibility of doing a toehook on the right, I was totally up for it as toehooks are kind of my thing. To my big surprise, I was able to work through the crux quite quickly with that toehook and when I then also did the topout with relative ease, I started to believe in an ascent.
I didn't want to pressure myself too much, so started trying from the sitstart with my relaxed mindset of just trying from the start and we'll where I can get. Climbing with such mindset definitely helps to take the sending stress away and beyond all expectations, I suddenly climbed all the way to the top. It took me at least half an hour to realize what I had just done and felt sorry for Jan that it wasn't his top day and that he had to leave it behind for the day. I'm sure that when his body wants to follow, that he will get it too.

Fontainebleau - 95.2 - Energie Collective 8A(8A+)

March 04, 2023 - Almost forgotten.

It was still very early when I started with "La Ruine (assis)" in Les Pentes du Marchais, but I wanted to finish on time to be able to do some work at home.
While warming up, I had forgotten how I had done the sitstart into the standing start last time, so I needed to work out some of the moves again. It luckily came back quickly and much sooner than I expected, I was able to top out this beauty.

Fontainebleau - Les Pentes du Marchais - La Ruine (assis) 7B+

Being at walking distance from the other quiet area of La Fontaine Saint-Bernard, I decided to go try "Oubliette", a boulder that I had almost forgotten about because it's so slow drying. After this extensive period of drought, I thought I'ld take my chance. I was delighted to find it dry and finally being able to try it.
After rebrushing the problem, I was quickly able to the last part and started giving it some attempts from the start. I only needed a handful to work my way to the top.

Fontainebleau - La Fontaine Saint-Bernard - Oubliette 7B

Walking back to the car, I stopped at another very slow drying problem, "Nights in White Satin". It was a very short stop because despite the sandy rock surface, I flashed it with relative ease.

Fontainebleau - La Fontaine Saint-Bernard - Nights in White Satin 7A+

February 25, 2023 - Hip without hop.

There was a lot that I had and wanted to do at home, and as I knew that it would take a lot of time, I left very early this morning for a not too long climbing session in Rocher des Princes. It has been quite a while that "Prince Hip" was opened and I wanted to give it a try for long already. The boulder merely being about 100m from the parking was an advantage and it allowed me to carry two crashpads, just in case.
It was quite cold and it took me a while before my hands were warmed up while I was trying out "Prince Hip", but as soon as I was warm enough, I was able to top out quite fast.

Fontainebleau - Rocher des Princes - Prince Hip 7B

The logical next step was of course its sitstart which isn't named "Prince Hip (assis)", but "Prince Hip Fluorescent", because it starts in "Fluorescent Adolescent". Having never done the latter neither, I couldn't figure out the method immediately, but after a while, I got the hang of it and the ascent followed soon. Some really nice moves on that one, I enjoyed it a lot.

Fontainebleau - Rocher des Princes - Prince Hip Fluorescent 7B+

February 19, 2023 - Mr. Cab Driver.

Yesterday afternoon my oldest son received the last of his mandatory driving lessons and now has to drive under my surveillance for the next two or three months. During that period, whenever he's at home, I told him to drive me everywhere that I need or want to go, something that he gladly accepted. It started this morning, when I told him to drive to Franchard because I wanted to go there for a climb. Of course, this meant that he had to wait for me to finish my session as he is not allowed to drive alone yet, but he didn't mind.
We walked to Franchard Hauts Sablons, where I easily flashed "Toutes des Précieuses" on my warm up attempt. This felt like a soft 7A+ at the very most, but it's a fun problem, climbing those strange features of that beautiful boulder.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Hauts Sablons - Toutes des Précieuses 7B(7A+)

The main reason why I wanted to go there, was to try "Porte à Gauche" again, on the same boulder. I had already spent a few sessions, but somehow never found a good method to come out of the roof. This time, it seemed like I wasn't going to do any better at first, but I made persistency count and ended up topping out, thanks to a change in a minor detail. Thanks to small detail, I even managed to do repeat immediately for a different camera angle. Nevertheless, this very nice problem felt quite hard in my opinion and nothing compared the previous, difficulty wise. Can very well 7B+ this one.

Fontainebleau - Franchard Hauts Sablons - Porte à Gauche 7B(7B+)

Making a very long detour on the way back, Anthony drove us home again.

February 18, 2023 - Vandalized skin.

Last Sunday, Pieter and I went to Rocher Cailleau to have some fun on the boulder "Vandale". Pieter tried "Vandale", while I was going for "Vandale (direct)". We were both quite quickly able to their respective standing starts, but Pieter still had to work out the hardest move, being the first one, and even though I needed some time to get acquainted with it again, I did manage, but fell off the last move two times. We had done good, but when we went into reserve energy after a while, we both realized that it would be require another session.
I was able to stop work a little earlier, but was greatly disappointed to find the roof and the starting pocket in it, soaking wet due to condensation. I did however, do the standing start again, just to keep the muscle memory trained. This morning, I went back, feared and prepared for the worst, but to my pleasant surprise it had already dried up. I did the standing start of "Vandale (direct)" on my first attempt as a warmup, which gave my confidence a boost. It still took quite a few attempts to come from the sitstart, but after a longer break, I managed to top out. Just in time, because the skin on my fingers was starting to get heavily vandalized.

Fontainebleau - Rocher Cailleau - Vandale (direct) 7C+