We ended the trip as we began... clambering on the beautiful boulders of Fontainebleau in the forests south of Paris. In all we spent 12 days in Font and enjoyed 8 days of climbing. The Bouldering (with no ropes and just crash pads) was a welcome change from the sport climbing and gave us a good mental break from the mental pressures of falling off all the time! Although we still fell lots, is was generally short distances onto comfy pads!
Ideally, the best weather for bouldering is cool and crisp; below 10C and low humidity makes it much easier to hold the often very sloping holds. When the weather is hotter the rocks feels greasy and the palms sweat lots making it much more effort to hold on. Unfortunately, and rather predictably, the summer weather was hot and humid! Most days were 30C and humid! The morning and evening were pretty balmy too! However, we did have one (relatively) cool day with a chilly max of 22C. This was the sending day, and I manged to get a 7a+ and a 7a.
Claire climbed her best ever and managed a handful of 6a's and a couple of 6b's, which was great considering the friction. Claire's shoulder is definitely improving and, although still not better, she is still seeing a steady increase in strength.I was pretty pleased with the 8 days. I managed nearly 20 6a-6c's and one 6c+, two 7a's and a 7a+.
Boo hoo, the trip is over!
We ended the trip as we began... clambering on the beautiful boulders of Fontainebleau in the forests south of Paris. In all we spent 12 days in Font and enjoyed 8 days of climbing. The Bouldering (with no ropes and just crash pads) was a welcome change from the sport climbing and gave us a good mental break from the mental pressures of falling off all the time! Although we still fell lots, is was generally short distances onto comfy pads!
Ideally, the best weather for bouldering is cool and crisp; below 10C and low humidity makes it much easier to hold the often very sloping holds. When the weather is hotter the rocks feels greasy and the palms sweat lots making it much more effort to hold on. Unfortunately, and rather predictably, the summer weather was hot and humid! Most days were 30C and humid! The morning and evening were pretty balmy too! However, we did have one (relatively) cool day with a chilly max of 22C. This was the sending day, and I manged to get a 7a+ and a 7a.
Claire climbed her best ever and managed a handful of 6a's and a couple of 6b's, which was great considering the friction. Claire's shoulder is definitely improving and, although still not better, she is still seeing a steady increase in strength.I was pretty pleased with the 8 days. I managed nearly 20 6a-6c's and one 6c+, two 7a's and a 7a+.
