Another Five Days

This past week has brought us light rain, but otherwise perfect temperatures and clean rock. A really brief update on what we've been up to:

04.04
We took advantage of the last few days of dry and windy weather and went to some of the slower-drying areas. Today with hit Franchard Cuisiniére. It was a tiny bit warm for the more marginal problems, but it's hard not to have a good time at Cuisiniére.

beetlejuice

04.05
Sticking to the Franchards, we went to Isatis today.

Rognures d'Ongles

Buerre Marga

04.06
The rain and sleet returned today with a vengeance, but with cold precipitation comes a cold front, which would bring nice crisp temperatures in the following days. It was time for a rest day anyways, so we hiked around in the rain in the "Roche du Paradis" and Mont Sarrasin areas near Puisilet. Sarrasin has a black circuit which consists of huge, scary, highball problems with bad landings. It would be a toprope circuit, if there was such a thing. Paradis, on the other hand, seemed more reasonable. Still large boulders by Fontainebleau standards -- more like Yosemite-sized boulders. Beautiful lines there and some potential for some new problems. It also happened that the French national bouldering championships were happening this weekend, so we stopped by Avon to watch a bit of the finals. Quite interesting to experience a French bouldering competition, and to notice the differences -- one of the most obvious was the sound made by a few hundred people yelling 'Allez!' over and over.

Roche du Paradis

women's finals

04.07
Paul arrived today, so we took him to everyone's favorite introduction to Fontainebleau area -- Sabot. After a day of climbing there, we headed up to Cuvier Rempart so I could try Baisers Volés again. That problem has an evil top-out, which got the best of me once again, but I have a new footwork plan for the next time I get on it.

Holly fingernail-crimping

graviton

sale gosse

blue circuit

l'Angle Allain

04.08
Finally, today, we had to meet some friends in Fontainebleau, so we ended up back at Bas Cuvier. Nora made short work of Super Forge.

Super Forge

Canche aux Merciers

Canche aux Merciers is a mellow, quiet bouldering area (during the week), and the trailhead for a popular hike through the Forest. Stef and Jo once again met us for an afternoon of climbing. Nora, Roland, and Danny got sandbagged by Jo on "Le grand nez", a crazily cantilevered flat rock. There is the lip itself, which is a sloperfest, or else you can climb under the rock itself, doing a 10 foot roof section a few inches off of the ground. There are a number of variations on the boulder -- back and forth, through the roof and looping back around the "nose", and so on, ranging from 6b+ to 8a+. For us Indian Rock climbers, the contrivances felt natural.

no. 11, rouge

In the meantime, I continued my quest to complete a circuit, which I finally did. The red circuit is a 33-problem slugfest of roofs, crimpy dynos, pumpy traverses, and slabs. Short by Font standards, but nonetheless a serious workout.

Roland tops out a red circuit problem

After spending some time in France, you get comfortable with living here; the driving seems natural, purchasing items is ordinary, and so on. Then a few times a day, certain things snap you out of your daze and you realize that you are truly somewhere else. It can be the tête de veau in the meat section at the grocery or the insanely French-looking farmers you see on the side of the road. Well, this morning, it was a this gigantic house spider hanging out by our clothes.

that's the heel of my shoe in the upper left for scale

Apremont

Still seeking the drier areas, we headed out to Apremont. Seems like the road is permanently closed, but the short hike from Barbizon is a good warm up.

Brown-bagging it, Font style

Forest near Barbizon

We all have projects we return to in Fontainebleau, mine is La Balance, and one of Nora's is Clin d'Oeil. The difference between the two is that Nora is making progress.

Clin d'oeil

Apremont has a plethora of good slabs; Lamentations and Science Friction are always enjoyable.

Danny slabbing at Apremont

Holly contemplates Lamentations

I was originally going to try out the sky-blue circuit, but after struggling with the text in my French guidebook, I realized that the circuit was described as an "anthology of cracks". Needless to say, I skipped it, but we did try a few on the circuit, including this wacky chimney.

Roland wiggles his way through problem 33

Walking out of Apremont

Gratuitous BMW-in-France picture

Song heard more than once on the radio today: Hello, Lionel Richie

A Week in Fontainebleau

Sorry about the lack of updates! Although internet access in France is becoming more ubiquitous, it can still be tricky getting a reliable connection. Although we are in the Fontainebleau area later in the year than usual, the temperatures are just about perfect for climbing. The rock is clean and grippy, there are few crowds, and the rain.. well, let's just say it's Fontainebleau weather. Bulk update on climbing thus far:

03.26
We took Gogi and Nicole to Rocher aux Sabots for an introduction to bouldering here. After the usual Fontainebleau footwork learning curve, they quickly got the hang of things and we did sections of the blue and red circuits. Conditions were excellent until we got rained out.

Highlights: Watching folks experience Fontainebleau rock for the first time, Jeux du Toit.
Bakery / Cheese: Ury / Chevre Fermier

Blue Circuit at Sabot

03.27
Back to our usual post-rain area, 95.2. We tried out the orange circuit, which is beautiful and well-designed. It is an excellent introduction to circuiting, with a variety of slabs, downclimbs, overhangs, rock-hopping, and boulder finding. About half-way through the circuit, we again got rained out. Roland, Holly, and Danny arrived later in the afternoon and the weather cleared up, so we headed out to Éléphant for a twilight session.

Highlights: Discovering a new circuit, having bouldering areas all to ourselves.
Bakery / Cheese: Cély-en-Bière / Comte

Circuiting at 95.2

Eating always seems to make the rain stop

03.28
Today, we tried out a new area for us, 91.1. The orange circuit was recommended for Nicole and Gogi, and there is also a tricky red circuit there. We met Stef and Jo out there and got a local's tour of some of their favorites. Again, we climbed until we got rained out in the mid-afternoon.

Highlights: learning the difference between mouillé, trempé, and humide, and getting stuffed at Chalet Jobert. Oh, and the red circuit was awesome.
Bakery / Cheese: None / Massive cheese plate at Chalet Jobert

Red circuit at 91.1

03.29
Yet another new area for us, Apremont Bizons. I'm really surprised we haven't climbed here in the past. We have been making an effort to circuit more this year. It is really a unique way to experience bouldering, and you gain an appreciation for what the Bleausards consider worthy problems. Anyways, I thought the red circuit here was fantastic -- for me, it was one of the best circuits I've been on. Just the right height, difficulty and variety to make it enjoyable.

Highlights: Having the red circuit all to myself.
Bakery / Cheese: Cély-en-Bière / Comte

03.30
We saw Nicole and Gordian off at the train station in Nemours this morning. Sad to see them go, but it seems like they enjoyed the climbing and they may even be hooked! After four days of climbing, we took a much-needed rest day but still managed to walk around Rocher Gréau and scope out some projects.

Highlights: A gîte with heated floors, and catching up on Lost.
Bakery / Cheese: Larchant / Comte

03.31
Today started out ominously with steady rain. However, the microclimates of Font prevailed, and it cleared up later in the afternoon just in time for us to try out another new area for us, Manoury. I was excited about the 71 problem blue circuit there, but it was still a bit too wet for circuiting. Plus, I would've had to average about a problem a minute to finish it. Instead, we found an area with a good concentration of problems and just enjoyed the setting.

Highlights: Pulling off the ground on les Tétines, the view of Larchant from the summit.
Bakery / Cheese: Villier sous Grez / Comte

Typical weather -- pouring earlier in the day and now this

Red circuit at Manoury

les Tétines

04.01
Poisson d'Avril! We hit good old Bas Cuvier today, in hopes that a mid-week session there would be less crowded. Sure enough, there were a few Brits and Aussies there, a few Frenchies, and that's about it. Cuvier is always a good place to gauge how you are climbing in Fontainebleau. Well, let's just say that I'm going to stick to circuits rather than projects for this trip. Nevertheless, there were some good efforts; Nora sent Nescafé and there were some near-sends on Abbatoir.

Roland and company received a notice that the water was going to be shut off in their town, Poligny, for some sort of cleaning of the reservoir. So they joined us for a fusion dinner of Madras curry and Thai rice followed by ice cream.

Bakery / Cheese: Villier sous Grez / Reblochon

Danny on Nescafé

le Clé

A rare site at Bas Cuvier

Schwabmünchen to Bleau

The drive from Schwabmünchen to Fontainebleau was in some serious weather. It was snowing quite hard; hopefully the weather in Font is better. We figured out how to fit the large crashpad longitudinally in the car, and Gogi and Nicole managed to reduce their luggage to one backpack, so the drive was somewhat comfortable.

Autobahn in less-than-ideal conditions

We drove through some beautiful German and French countryside, including the historic Verdun region.

Nußdorf to Schwabmünchen

Monday morning we awoke to more than an inch of fresh snow. Having left our ski gear at home in the states, we were reduced to sightseeing in Austria rather than skiing (besides, we could only drive as far into Austria as Kufstein to avoid paying the toll).

View from our bedroom

After dropping Hanna off at the Bahnhof so that she could catch her train back to Wien, we parked the car downtown and started walking towards the fortress.

Walking near the Festung

Medieval walking tour

As it so happens, we walked directly to the entrance of the Alpenverein with the attached Kletterhalle. Unfortunately both were closed, due to the Oster Montag holiday.

Kufstein alpine club

Our walking tour of Kufstein was cut short when we learned that the fortress required an entrance fee of nearly nine euros--which we decided was a very effective way of keeping the foreigners out!

That afternoon we left Nußdorf for Schwabmünchen, making a quick stop for Konditorei in Rosenheim at Dinzler. This boutique coffee roaster had excellent espresso and giant pieces of cake and was packed with people on this holiday afternoon.

German latte art

It took just over an hour to drive from Rosenheim to the Stapf's home in Schwabmünchen. After dinner, Margit treated us to a selection of homemade schnapps, including some that was not quite liquid in form... more like very, very strong eggnog, served in miniature ice cream cones.

Raw egg liqueur

Ostern in Nußdorf

We have been treated to some extreme Bavarian hospitality in the last few days. We owe Shirley a huge thanks for being such a warm and generous host. One of the most enjoyable aspects of staying with a local is the opportunity to experience and learn some of the regional traditions. And the Bavarians have many Easter traditions.

Easter Breakfast

The "Easter Tree"

Shirley has an amazing place with a view of the Inn valley and snow covered peaks.

Relaxing with a storybook view

Later in the day, we took a brisk hike in lightly snowing conditions up a local hill. We had had a great time as Margit gave impromptu field lectures discussing the medicinal qualities of the alpine plants.

View Larger Map

It's hard not to hum some Rodgers and Hammerstein up here

Beech Trees

At the top was a terrific traditional Bavarian mountain hut with a view across the valley past Brannenburg into the Alps.

Leider geschlossen...

but what a view

Good thing we are used to inclement weather on these trips, as the light snow turned into huge flakes as we headed back down. It snowed throughout the evening, and tonight we have maybe a 1/4 inch of accumulation.

Ostern, oder Weihnachten?

All in all, this has been quite the Easter Sunday. Our new car is getting put through its paces, also. Practically the first day out of the factory and it held its own on the Autobahn and drove in the snow.

Schnee auf dem BMW (my first German rhyme!)