Compared to my trip to Fontainebleau in November 2012, where I injured myself on the second day, the first week of this trip went rather well. The weather was kind and from Sunday on we had nice weather. Especially on the first few days it was still obvious that there had been a lot of rain the two months before and it was very humid, which didn't help for good friction.

We climbed a lot of parcour problems and didn't spend a lot of time on special problems. Additionally to the easier problems I could also repeat some harder problems in the first four days like the traverse “Coccinelle” on the fourth attempt, the strange “le mandarin” and “Vague patatras” also on the fourth go. As the temperatures were freezing (down to -3°C with wind) we only spend little time in the forest, as it was just unbearably cold.

On the weekend the weather god changed his mood, it was snowing, raining and foggy. The forecast said there would be an improvement each day, but still the bad weather persisted and the amount of snow made our spirits and motivation sink as well.Still, we didn't give up, and on Monday we decided to drive to multiple crags and have a look at the state of the boulders. We finally reached Buthiers and wandered around the adventure park, where we stumbled upon the traverse “Atomic Playboy raccourci”. Everything was covered with snow and wet except this very problem, where 3 quarters of the problem seemed to be dry. I started to shovel off the snow and hopes started to grow for the next days.

The morning started like the last ones with light rain, fog and so on, but the motivation wasn't low but had grown instead. Therefore I drove my girlfriend to the shopping centre and made my way to Buthiers. When I arrived the warmth made all the snow disappear, leaving the boulders dripping.. damn! Fortunately I had shoveled off the snow on top of the playboy, and so it was “only” wet. With the help of 3 towels I tried to dry it up as good as possible and started my warmup. As the only dry rock was to be found on this block, this was also the place for my warmup. After slowly warming up and figuring out the method, I started my first attempt and suddenly stood atop the block, wicked! Although it's not that hard a boulder, all the circumstances with the wetness, the snow and so on made it special for me, and sometimes you simply have to believe it.

Font seems to be jinxed for me, as already two days later we had to leave becaue of sickness. Still, I can't wait to return. Despite all the throwbacks, Fontainbleau is becoming my favorite climbing area and to cite a really strong climber „Fontainebleau is why I climb“ (C. Schulte). http://vimeo.com/61828257 Cheers  

Coccinelle

 

le Mandarin

   

Vague patatras