We decided to head west for the last few days of our trip, to Joe’s Valley. Joe’s is a great place to unwind, and we spent the last few days there repeating some old classics and putting up a few of our own.
Angela did the second female ascent of Jitterbug Perfume V10/11, which is a gorgeous, black, pocketed face up in the Right Fork. She climbed very well, and after trying it one day last year, did it on her first try on the second day of attempts this year. I was also psyched to finish that problem and after a few attempts at the mantle, I finally figured out a sequence which made it quite easy. There are some nice pictures posted on www.ryanwedemeyer.smugmug.com
I was more psyched on cleaning up some new things and I managed to put up a nice problem in the Right Fork. Yuri Kimball took me up to a gorgeous wall with several projects. I sent the left line but the right line remains unclimbed. It was a pleasant few days and now we are headed up to Idaho with MC, Tyrone and Isaac.
Today was a great day and Rolson, Brian Camp and I went up to the Park and we all climbed Veritas V11 from the sit start. This is an outstanding problem on good rock. It is one of the more proud lines in Colorado and very much not my style. I had tried it a couple days last year so it was nice to go up and do it on my first day this year. Angie made, I believe, the first female ascent of the stand start which goes at V9 or so and Kelly McBride did it right after her. Well done everyone. Tomorrow we head to Utah.
Its a bit of a shock being back in America after two months abroad, but it does feel good to be home. Here’s a quick video of one of the most classic problems in our country, Full Service V10. Enjoy.
Our final few days in Fontainebleau were a bit marred by the weather. Often times the things we climbed on were determined by what was dry. It was a bit frustrating to have such little choice, but there is not much to be done when holds are soaking wet.
Angela, Ryan and I all climbed a very nice traverse that seemed to stay dry called Atomic Playboy. In Fontainebleau, traverses are given “traverse grades”, which is slightly different from a regular bouldering grade. Atomic Playboy is given an 8A+ traverse grade in the guidebook, which roughly translates to an 8A boulder problem. It was a very nice send for Angie and she did it in two days. Interestingly enough, Dai Koyamada put up a problem called Angama which he graded 8C. The line is somewhat of a traverse, but is given a traverse grade in the guide book, suggesting that it maybe easier.
French bouldering legend Jacky Godoffe, who we had the fortune of meeting at the French Bouldering Nationals, on Atomic Playboy
More rain followed the next few days but we were struck with a bit of luck on the last day of our time in Europe. It was a perfect spring day in northern France, and while it was a bit warm to send anything hard, it was a great day to play on the rocks in the sun. I climbed an amazing problem called La Baleine 7A, which maybe the best problem I have ever done at the grade. It is a bit tall with a commiting deadpoint at the top to a nice crimp. A very outstanding prolem. Olson and I also climbed a very nice arête at Rocher Greau which is given 7C+/8A in the guidebook. It is probably 20ft tall with a flat landing and a perfect problem to end the trip.
The farmhouse where we stayed in Herbauvilliers
If you are traveling to Fontainebleau, I recommend staying in the wonderful gite owned by Neil Hart, www.maisonbleau.com. Neil is a Brit. living in France. He seemed very knowledgable about the bouldering in Font and he sold us the best guidebook available, called 7+8, written by Bart van Raaj. The emphasis of the old guidebooks is on the circuits, and I would imagine most foreign travelers would be interested in those problems 7A and harder, which is what the book covers. I would also recommend a visit to www.bleau.info, a great resource for finding information on problems. All in all I am really happy we took the time to visit Font. The weather seemed very unpredictable, which is hard to deal with when you are trying to climb specific hard problems. While I did enjoy my time in the forest, one thing was pretty clear to Pinto, myself, and Ange…
Yesterday, we had a very nice, albeit warm day running around Fontainbleau climbing some nice problems. The evenings here are pleasant and it is a good time to send your project. It has also been raining quite a bit and we have tried to squeeze in as much climbing as we can. We only climbed for about an hour today before the weather sent us packing.
Elephunk 8B
Elephunk 8B
I had heard alot about how difficult the climbing was in Fontainebleau and how I was probably going to get shutdown. There are also alot of notions about how things are graded differently on the Font. scale and how that compares to Hueco. It seems to me that things are surprisingly consistent. The past three days I have climbed a problem 8A or harder, and all of these problems would be graded the same, I feel, if they were in Switzerland, Hueco, or Colorado for that matter. It does seem like there are fewer problems here that are overgraded, and maybe there are more in Hueco or Switzerland.
A fun moderate
In Colorado the emphasis is on crimping and power, and we all see the results when Paul and Daniel climb in steep and powerful areas like Hueco. It will be interesting to see how they fair in Fontainebleau and more specifically on things like The Island, with huge open handed moves and very intense compression climbing. Suspension of Disbelief in Eldorado Canyon is very much a Fontainebleau style problem.
I would also like to mention that we have tried a 7C slab called Les Nombrilistes. It is very obscure but very tall and very beautiful. We mentioned it to Dave the other day and of course he knew the problem.
In fact he had climbed it, in a couple of sessions. I am ever impressed with his commitment to not simply go after the problems he knows he can do easily, but to seemingly have a never ending desire to improve, to climb the most amazing lines and to put up hard problems in all styles. He continues to make significant contributions where ever he goes, from Arkansas to France.
As we get more and more time to explore the forest we have seen many amazing problems. My favorite sectors are away from the road tucked into the woods with a handful of nice problems on great rock. We have been limited by the weather which is a bit frustrating, and somehow our grand European adventure is down to 6 days. After several rest days the forecast looks good for tomorrow and I am psyched to get back on the rock. Here are some pictures of from the “magic forest”
Ange on a nice 7A
Olson sends Salle Gosse a great 7C at Rocher aux Sabot
Olson and I have had a couple great sending days. Last week it was an amazing overhang Fata Morgana low 8A+ or 8B, at Coquibus Long Vaux. A very majestic problem. Today, Chad and Dave joined us for a nice session and Ryan, Chad and I all did the very beautiful Les Beaux Quartiers 8A at Rocher de Bouligny.
Dave Graham has added one of the hardest problems in the forest. No name on his new roof at Coquibus Rumont, but I believe he will suggest 8C. Last night I got to see some video and it looks amazing, with huge moves and very good rock. Well done!
It wasn’t easy leaving Switzerland. We had perfect granite, awesome weather, and a lot of motivation. Fontainebleau is one place that could lure me away. “It is by far the best area in the world” “It blows Hueco Tanks away” “If you think Switzerland is amazing, wait until you go to Font.” The expectations were very high as we walked into Bas Cuvier, the most famous area in the forest. Perhaps a bit too high. I saw no less than 5 used condoms on the ground, and a lot of trash littered about. Several “classics” had horrendously chipped holds and many of the problems I had heard about were contrivances or variations. Some of the sandy smears had been covered with messy glue. All this while a steady drizzle dampened everything.
And now that I have gotten that out, I can say that the climbing here is amazing. There are 1789 problems 7a or harder. That means that the number of problems in Font V6 or harder is 500 more than the TOTAL number of problems in Hueco. I still haven’t seen a Slashface or a Dreamtime, but there are a lot of very good problems. Some areas have perfect beach sand landings. Others are tucked away in a beautiful forest. Rest days are spent climbing the Blue circuits in our tennis shoes. As is often the case with sandstone, the rock forms amazing shapes.
It has rained every day but one since we got here, so the pace has slowed a bit. That hasn’t stopped us from climbing on some very nice problems.
Fata Morgana bas 8B
Rolson on Eclipse 7C
“The Little Wizard” finds a good method on Neverland 8A
As well, Dave Graham has made the second ascent of Kheops Assis in a few tries over two days, which he downrated from 8C to 8B+. Dave is also close on an amazing project that will be very hard when completed.
Our time here is Switzerland has come to an end. It has been a near perfect 5 weeks of granite bouldering. Magic Wood became snowy again and so I was left to try and clean up a few things close by before we head to Fontainebleau. Ryan and I both climbed The Riverbed, an amazing 8B in Magic Wood, Angie did Teamwork 8A and Petit pas Tapen 8A (in a day) and Daniel did Confessions 8B+ at Cresciano. Our last few days were incredible and we enjoyed perfect boulders in the day and pizza and wine in the evening. Ticino gets my vote for the best granite bouldering in the world. I can’t wait to return.
