quinze

Hot weather has kept us from climbing during the heat of the day. We have been escaping the heat mostly by eating and catching up on Lost episodes. Yesterday evening we took the chance to circuit at J.A. Martin, on the deceptively difficult blue circuit. We managed about half the circuit before it was too dark at about 9pm.

Today was supposed to be a rest day, so we went for a hike at Bois Rond -- but of course we brought a pair of shoes and a pad or two "just in case." The Easter crowds are starting to arrive and this weekend looks to be a circus at the popular areas. We stopped in to see if Boissy aux Cailles was dry, and it was -- furthermore the conditions seemed pretty good with the strong wind. So we took our "just in case" supplies out to Les Nombriliste to see if we could work out some moves. There were no sends, but the beta is worked out and we are planning to return with our full quiver of shoes for a second attempt. Fun!

poisson d'avril

At Cuisiniere, we had fun just exploring higher up on the ridge. Circuit problems, unmarked slabs, and old classics were done. As usual on April 1, we looked around for a new problem to establish. After some searching, we settled on a surprisingly fun slopey arete, and the grade was confirmed by two ascents.

Kate Mossy

After Rayneil dispatched Magnifique, we tried the crazy hard Échine, but couldn't hang on to the marginal pockets. On to Footrix, followed by a neat jump start topout problem just higher on the ridge.

Footrix

treize

Two days of rain and rest.
Coquibus
gîte pheasant
fontaine Médicis
Dalloyau
Patrick Roger
Rue Croix des Petits Champs

douze

One thing that constantly amazes me about France, and Fontainebleau in particular, is how child-friendly it is. There are bouldering circuits specially designed for children, and we are always seeing bouldering couples with toddlers.

Isatis child care center

Hopefully, these pictures will encourage those of you with toddlers to come to Font and utilize the child-friendly environment.

Bug in a rug

onze

Yesterday was quite a warm day, which led us to Petit Bois. Besides the fact that someone decided that the boulders needed some graffiti, it was beautiful -- the trees were sprouting leaves, there was clean rock, and the conditions weren't bad.

glazing bar*

After doing some of the fabuleux red circuit, Michelle had a couple of burns on La Baleine before a tendon injury halted her session. We don't know quite how bad an injury it is -- hopefully not too serious. Pleinchamps and accuweather both predicted rain at 15h, and they were right on the money.

17 Rouge
la baleine
* Google Translate's interpretation of "Petit Bois"

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Today, we continued our ritual of religiously checking the weather sites, and rain was predicted again for around 15h. So we got an early start and headed to the quick-drying Gorge aux Châts.

Rubis sur l'Ongle

It's not raining yet, so we push are luck and head to Isatis.

Uncle Ben

It's still not raining yet! Boo to pleinchamps and accuweather for making us frantic, but good for them for being wrong. We accept our gift horse with open arms, and head next door to Cuisiniere for more work on La Chose and a look at Duel.

Duelling

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Bas Cuvier. It is likely too warm for serious bouldering at Bas Cuvier, but it is a perfect temperature for Camden to tromp around in the leaves and for us to climb without the help of hand warmers, leg warmers, or the like. Michelle and I are always pleased when we can wear our flip flops in between boulder problems.

Camden smiles for the camera

After warming up we headed over to give the Joker. Despite the heat, we made good progress, but remain a bit stymied by the topout. We wish that Lyn and Courtney could be here to share their beta with us!

After we'd crimped until our fingers seemed to be bent permanently backwards, we decided to give the boys a chance to climb. We headed up to Rempart so that they could work on Baisers Voles.

It was not the best day to slap slopers on the top of Baisers Voles, so near the end of the day we retreated to the shady side of the Rempart to give the slightly mossy Philanthropie a try.

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Finally, the rain has let up and we are able to climb again. We braved Isatis, despite the risk of wet boulders. We were rewarded with a nearly empty climbing area (even though it was Saturday) and some very good conditions.

Ingar made it through l'Angle Ben's in his moccasyms, using some tall beta from a Norwegian guy. And I managed to find the balance on La Memel.

huit

The weather forecasts here in France could really use some help. It rains on the days which are supposed to be clear, and vice-versa. We were snubbed at Cuvier today twice, but we took the opportunity to hike a portion of sentier bleu n°5, and scout out some new projects.


The forest paths are definitely not ADA compliant

Every country has its own set of balancing rocks

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Quick post before we head out for the day. Wednesday brought more precipitation, and we were rained out after a short warm-up session at Sabot. Fortunately, the weather cooperated yesterday and we headed back to Sabot to finish what we started. We started out on the fantastic circuit rouge, which has so many classic problems it's unbelievable. Conditions were clean and cold, perfect for slabbing!

19 rouge

Sale Gosse

Graviton

And finally, the end of the day saw a few ascents of Lucifer, by Randy and Nora.

Lucifer

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Sorry about the lack of updates, but not only has the storm kept us from climbing, but a lightning strike fried the DSL modem upon which we depend. We still managed to get in some climbing, despite the weather.

Monday we started out at Bouligny to check out the cool Gecko / Beaux Quartiers boulder. This boulder is an amazing lump of sandstone, but we didn't take any pictures, so you'll have to settle for this. After our afternoon coffee break, the sporadic hailing/sleeting started up. It would infuriatingly start hailing on us every time we geared up and got to a boulder with our pads. But we did get to tour a number of areas that I hadn't previously seen, including the incredible-looking slab, Les Nombrilistes:


On Tuesday, Nora came down with a cold, so I headed out solo to Bas Cuvier for my annual confrontation with La Balance. The weather cooperated and it was excellent climbing with excellent people.

And now for some pictures, thanks to Katherine:

Mark and Camden making the trek back from Apremont

Frozen Mix

Mark on Circuit Noir at Éléphant

Matador

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What would spring in Fontainebleau be without a bit of rain? Yesterday the temperatures rapidly dropped and the wind picked up; today we woke up to 30-40 mph winds out of the west with driving light rain.


Speaking of yesterday -- we saw a new aspect of Éléphant in Matador, an amazing Flipper-esque line on the north side of the hill. Then on to Apremont to work on the old classics Clin d'Oeil and Égoïste, followed by more crowd avoidance at a hidden problem in the Coquibus area, Jeu de Paume.

The forecast looks fairly grim for the rest of the week; hopefully there will be long enough breaks in the weather for more climbing. Does anyone know of a good NOAA-like site for Europe, where I could get water-vapor satellite imagery? Maybe I'll explore the ESA site some more.

four

Isatis. We joined Roland and Holly for a day at Isatis, revisiting old favorites and discovering new ones, such as L'Angle Ben's. L'Angle Ben's (shown below) is the Cocaine Corner of Fontainebleau, complete with glassy feet and sharp rock beneath the arete. Pinkies required, apparently.




In the afternoon we made our way further up the hill to El Poussif, so that I could try (once again) to hold onto that pinch and turn the mantle. The pinching feels much better this year, but I still haven't quite figured the mantle out. This picture doesn't really do the boulder justice, the way the pinch snakes from left to right. It is a bizarre rock formation--which always seems to make for good climbing.

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Day 4. Rest.

In our dreams, we have a house like the Huygens. If we have one Font secret, it is this gite that we stay in. The entire house is designed in a deliberate manner, with a Dutch design aesthetic that is at once fashionable and functional.

Mr. Huygens has a barn where he keeps his hydraulic log splitter, the tractor he carries the wood in, and it is surrounded by the logs he delivers, via said tractor, directly into the back of the fireplace which he designed for such a convenience.

I could devote an entire blog to my love of this house, but I will spare you for now.


A short walk from our gite is the famed Chalet Jobert. Every year this pig is wallowing in the pen in front of the restaurant. And every year we think to ourselves, "can that really be the same pig", surely a pig wouldn't last long in front of a restaurant where they serve pate in casserole-sized dishes like meatloaf.



Lest the pig get lonely, it has for company a very friendly donkey. We hope he stays out of the casserole as well.


We greeted the animals during a short trek through Dame Jouanne, where we had gone to get a little rest day exercise climbing the long staircase through decomposing boulders to take in the view of the Basilica St.Mathurin. It was too hazy for photos of the view, so, dear readers, you get animals instead.

What would a rest day be without pastries? At the Salon de Thé by Frederic Cassel they plated our macaroon and mille feuille to share, with bonus bits of chocolate and pistachio. Coffee wasn't bad either, for France.

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Day 3. Gorges du Houx.

Courtney found Gargantoit less of a challenge than last time around (did she say six years ago?). This area was deserted, with the exception of a randonee group, some joggers and the constant hum of a lone chainsaw, logging truck, and French lumberjack who was singlehandedly disproving any stereotype of the French being less than industrious.

From Gargantoit, we crossed to the opposite side of the small valley where Randy made a serious effort on a very imposing and difficult Londinium.



We also found a few very enjoyable slabs, some tricky warm-ups and a number of other problems to return to with more skin, cooler temperatures, or preferably, both.

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Day 2. Ingar completes an unnamed problem at a surprisingly dry Cuisiniere. Last year repeated visits to this area were met only with mossy and damp sandstone. As you can see from his shirtsleeves, the weather might be considered too warm for serious bouldering.