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Friday 15 September 2017

Fontainebleau Diary 2017 - Day 6

The last day of our holiday was forecast to be an utter washout, to the point we had started thinking about tourist destinations, indoor climbing walls, and other things to stop us getting cabin fever.  As mentioned yesterday the forecast climbed up towards the evening and when we woke up to blue skies we did indeed invoke our backup plan of 91.1 with my plan being warming up on the orange circuit and then pushing myself a little on the red circuit.


Things started off pretty much to plan; we warmed up on a few low level yellows and then started on a taller route which may have been called Les Fuilles Mortes on a boulder known as Casque which was a nice 6 metre climb, but at the top there was a great big hornet sat atop to the ridge I wanted to put my hand on to get to the downclimb. Instead I had to traverse a 45 degree slab while constantly watching it in case it took affront to me being on it's rock. Thankfully it never moved and I got down without incident :)

After this I felt it was time to look at harder things so Andy and I went to Flip Flop to try a couple of crimpy slabby problems on the red circuit - Le Savon and the harder La Savonette. I decided to try straight off on the harder 6a problem but I just couldn't get off the ground, and as it turned out I couldn't start the easier problem either.

From here we moved on to Ingratitude which I was struggling with as I couldn't trust the first foot.  Kelly got it sent without much fuss and then Andy managed to get it done too.  I worked this one for quite a while and eventually managed to find a starting foot which worked for me and get stood up, and then in a few more attempts I had the rest sorted and was over the top.  Totally stoked to get a 5b+ in Font, definitely the hardest thing I have climbed in the forest.


I moved on to try La Gratitude after, but this one was a 5c+ and my energy levels were waning, after a valiant effort where I got half way up and couldn't stick it I was rather shattered so went for a rest and to see what Liz and Ceri were working on for a bit, then to see how Ed was getting on with Le Flipper.


Just as I was thinking of giving it another go there was a brief rain shower so we stopped for lunch, only to have to scatter all directions for shelter when the rain got heavier, hastily stuffing half made sandwiches in any safe location we could find and then hiding under rocks until it started to dry out.  With lunch finally done I was enjoying some digesting time then gently getting my head back in to it on a traverse when the rain came back even heavier, so it was back to our caves.


When we emerged after the worst of the rain had eased off all the rocks were soaked and there was no chance of further climbing, so we packed up and headed home to finish off the last of the beer and wine and to treat ourselves to pizza from Croq Forêt before the long drive home.

In the words of Lars Ulrich, Same time next year?


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