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Cul de Chien

The Island 8C, Cuqiubus Rumont

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…

In front of L’elephant