Bleau 2014 Video

Sorry its taken a while.. Our Fontainebleau 2014 video is here - fun times with friends in the forest!

(We are back in the UK now and will post an update of what we're up to very soon!)

Dans la Foret...

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....

Trying to turn the arete...

Dave sticking the dyno on La Superbe

Squeezing hard on Le Proueptologue

Visualising...

Le Kraken Droite

Action girl

Dan being beautiful

Ben throwing shapes...

Squeezing (again) on Papillion

Simon on La Quille

Golden Grass

The bold and the beautiful...

At last the final volume of the La Pedriza is finished!

After a month in Albarracin we returned to Pedriza and discovered many more spectacular lines.  The local crew had been busy and discovered more awesome boulder problems.

On the crux of Martina Dry

Claire returned to Los Guerreros and quickly dispatched her project - I think the steeper climbing of Albarracin had improved our fitness a little.  I was still plagued by my elbow/shoulder injury so unfortunately my projects were off the agenda. However, I still climbed some beautiful lines and had a great time climbing with the local crew again.

Claire on Los Guerreros

Rob and Sam (the English guys we'd met in Albarracin) joined us too. They really liked Pedriza too, but needed a week for their skin to toughen up...  Al and Jen (the Scottish couple we'd met in Albarracin) joined us also.  They were a great crowd to climb with and we tried to show them the sights of the area.

It was great to catch up with all of the local guys again.  They showed us a new area near El Boalo and we climbed a stunning arete called El Pajillero (shown on video thumbnail above).  I won't tell you what the name means since its not such a beautiful name...!  It was very sad to leave Pedriza and we will really miss the local crew.  It was great to meet such warm, friendly, kind and generous people - THANK YOU GUYS, WE WILL MISS YOU....!

Marieti on the first ascent of X-men

Moon rise over the distinctive rocks

Looking for Balance

Red rock, elbows and shoulders...

Claire working A Ciegas

Its been a while since our last post, so we thought we'd let you all know we're alive and well. It seems that even Spain can't escape the bad winter weather hitting Europe. I don't think its as bad as the UK, but the weather fronts seems to be rolling in with a relentless monotony. We fled Pedriza and found slightly better weather in Albarracin...

Cold weather and beautiful snowscapes...

We spent 7 weeks in Albarracin last year and by the end were ready to head off to new challenges. We returned this year with a new desire (and hopefully more strength) to finish off old projects. Albarracin was a little bit of a shock to our bodies after the techinal style of La pedriza, however, we soon adjusted and things began well - we both felt stronger and sent some great new lines. We returned to old projects and were making good progress... However, two weeks in I picked up an injury... The dreaded font elbow struck on the sloping top out of Fonteneblistico (a little ironic)! I didn't feel it too much at the time, but it felt pretty serious for the following days. Its been plaguing me for over two weeks now and is only now showing signs of recovery. I've been stretching and exercising lots and managed to get out for some very easy days on the rock (perhaps managing 20 moves in a session!). It's been very frustrating as I'm pretty confident I could have sent Pinturas Buldetres (8A), La Fuente (7C) and El orejas de las regletas (7C+). C'est la vie!

Claire sending La La Grima

To add injury to injury Claire hurt her shoulder too. Annoyingly, she did it trying to move a crash pad. She's been out for over a week, but had a pretty successful return to climbing yesterday. Her shoulder isn't perfect yet, but seems to be on the mend. She has various projects from 6C to 7A+ and may still realise some of them before we move on...

Rob on Techo Don Pepo

Sam on Cagamiento en el filamento

Although we've been out of action for a few weeks, we've still had a great time here. We've met lots of great people and still been out climbing vicariously through others! We've spent lots of time with Rob and Sam - a couple of English guys who have just embarked on a year-long road trip.  They are great fun to go climbing with (and mostly watch them climbing!), and we've had some good social evenings...  

Beers to behold!

One night in the town was particularly (un) memorable - when many beers were consumed.  The beers were quite something - served in very tall glasses with copious quantities of head! We also have made good use of the BBQ area and revived the tradition of 'Burger Monday' (first conceived [to our knowledge] by South African Chris!). We collected lots of wood and warmed ourselves around a roaring fire.  The local butchers provided ample fodder for a gluttonous evening. We've had two burger Mondays, and plan to continue the tradition this evening!

Night out on the tiles...!

La Pedriza Volume II

Volume II of our video is finished...!  It'll be a few weeks until Volume III since the weather here is atrocious. We're off to Albarracin for a week or two...

La Pedriza

Lendi on El Arbol del Ahorcado

I'm sure you're all wondering where we've been for the last 6 weeks... Well, we've been in the beautiful National Park of La Pedriza. Situated 30 miles North of Madrid, La Pedriza is one of the lesser known bouldering areas in Spain. We'd seen some awesome photos of the area in the Bouldering Guide and had to check it out for ourselves. We had heard stories of the sharp granite, so were slightly nervous about how our skin would fair...

Read on or go straight to La Pedriza Bouldering Volume I:

On day one we visited Canto Cochino - one of the more classic areas. The area gives a great introduction to the style of climbing in La Pedriza - technical, slopey and requiring good footwork. It feels similar to Fontainebleau, but on a medium grained granite. The boulders range from low to pretty damn high and scary - something for everyone! On our first day we were fortunate enough to bump into the local climbing crew.  A fantastic group of Spanish climbers (their Blog), who gave us an extremely warm welcome. They instantly took us under their wing and pointed me at a load of highball classics.  My skin took a bit of a pounding (nothing too serious though), however, it was a great introduction to area.

Groucho

We have spent many days with the local crew and been guided to many great new areas not in the guide. Although the guide includes nearly 2000 problems, the local climbers are developing new boulders at an astounding rate, their motivation and commitment to expanding the area is incredible.  The potential is still vast - there are currently many projects and second ascents just waiting to be climbed.  Its not all hard either, first ascents are available at all grades.

Lomo on Garrapata

The local crew have been pointing me at various lines waiting for a first or second ascent.  Some of the lines are breathtaking, and I've been fortunate enough to get second ascents on some beautiful problems.  The details of these will be in Volume III of the videos. I've not managed any first ascents yet, but have been trying a few tough lines in the 7C-8A region...

Los Guerreros

Arroitatostegui

El Jardin de mi Casa

Toulouse and Targasonne...

It's been a while since our last update, so you may be a little confused about our whereabouts...  After Annot and La Camargue we visited Adrian, Delphine, Liam and Luka in Toulouse.  It was great to see them again and catch up since our last visit.  The swimming pool (for which I'd helped with the landscaping earlier in the year) was now finished so we had to try it out.  It wasn't heated, so felt a little Baltic in November!

From Toulouse we stopped in a Targasonne for a couple of weeks - we couldn't resist the great climbing and fantastic scenery, oh and perhaps the hot springs tempted us too!  We met up with some other English climbers from Bristol - Hugh, Ross and Lucy.

Unfortunately Claire had a bout of Autumnal 'Flu' so didn't get to climb too much.  I ventured out lots with Ross and Hugh and finished off lots of the classic 7B and 7B+'s.  I got very close on Eroto Mechanics 8A, but it wasn't to be!

After Targasonne we ventured Further South to la Pedriza - a lesser known granite area North of Madrid.  We were anticipating a long drive so left early.  Our journey took slightly longer than expected because Juan's engine cut out whilst travelling at 50mph!  It turned out that our fuel gauge is not very accurate!  We had, for the first time ever, run out of fuel.  Of course, Sod's law dictated that it would be cold, raining hard and 10km to the nearest fuel station.  I hadn't been running for over a year, but saw this as a good opportunity to get some training in!  Forty five minutes later I arrived sweaty and wet at the Petrol station. I acquired a Jerry can and filled it will diesel.  Fortunatley, a Spanish farmer recognised my plight and offered a very welcome lift back to Claire and Juan.  After a one hour break, we were on our way again! After a very windy drive we arrived in La Pedriza that evening, found a quiet spot and relaxed for the night... La Pedriza post coming soon!