warm rock...: April 2014

De Fil en Aiguille

We're actually nearing the end of our epic road trip... Yes, honestly, we are coming back soon! We'll be back in early May, and we're spending our last weeks in the the beautiful forest of Fontainebleau. We've already spent some months of our trip here, but love it so much that we had to finish the trip here. Most importantly it's a popular time to visit the forest and many of friends are visiting too. We're having a great time climbing and catching up with lots of people whom we've missed lots on our travels.

Eyeing up the crimp on Le Petit Toit

Beautiful days...

We've mostly focussed on climbing with friends and having lots of fun, although we have tried to project some harder lines too. Claire has been crushing and already sent Festin de Piere 7A, Action Direct 7A, La Coquille 6C and Duel dans la Lune 6C. She has been eyeing up some 7A+ lines, but it still trying to find one with non-reachy moves - very difficult in Font!

Falling from the top

Finding the balance

I've been a little less productive, but do seem to have a long list of problems I'm close to! However, I was very psyched to send La Directe du Surplombe de la Mee - possibly my first 8A in the forest, although opinions seem to differ on the grade. Very tall people seem to think its 7C+, however they are tall enough to reach past the hardest move on the problem. I'm generally good at being tall and reaching through, but just couldn't manage it on this problem. I climbed all the moves except one in the first session, but spent another 2 sessions trying to accomplish one foot move. With some help from Ross I adapted my beta and found a solution to link the two halves of the problem. I got very close in the next session, and fell right off the top. This was quite scary as I fell from 5 metres with my right heel above my head, fortunately I managed to land on my feet!

Sticking the lip

I'm trying various other lines from 7C-8A, but good conditions seem to be very elusive. We've been here for 6 weeks and its hardly rained at all (almost unheard of in Font). This is great for climbing lots, but it has been unseasonably warm - we had 23C at the beginning of March! We've found some better conditions in the mornings and evenings, but generally only get good 'sending temps' once or twice a week. We're not complaining though, since its much better than rain!

That's enough rambling for now, so we'll finish with more photos....