A VERTICAL WORLD....: Fontainebleau

Tuesday 26 April 2011

Fontainebleau

After Everyone informing me on how good Font is for bouldering I decided to go check it out, As it was the majorty of the craggy island climbers would also be heading to font this gone weekend, I headed out with Matt and my Little one Alisha, we planned to meet up with Pete, graham and Rob, they had been there all week and managed to tick some steep routes including a Font 7c from Pete, After a long drive out including a 1 and half hour tour of Paris we eventually arrived in Font ( Never trust spongebob square pants on ya sat nav.) we met up with the other guys at Apremont Gorge. I was pretty keen to get on some rock, I tried a few 6a,s and they felt pretty easy, i then came across my first font top out.... flipping hell! I must of took an inch of skin off my stomach scraping my way over the top of the route. I then managed to do a classic 6b route called "Science Friction". opposite this was another problem that some guys were trying so I decided to give it a go, I managed to get to the top holds but slipped off on the mantle, I didn't give it another go has we needed to head to the campsite to get set up, later after looking at the guidebook I was a little pissed has the route was actually a 6c+ called "La Lune" which i reckon I could have got.
I spent the whole next day getting used to the top outs trying to tick as many 6a,s and 6b,s as I could hoping that Sunday Would allow me to get something a little harder done. Graham managed to get a font 7b Dyno done whilst Pete went around cruising up most of the font 7,a's
Sunday we headed to Franchard Isatis, this was really cool, I managed to get a few 6b's done before trying to work the 7a "Vin Rouge" After many attempts I was still unable to get it, Another craggy lad called Seb managed to get the route completed which was cool because we managed to piss the German lads off that were also working the route....
Monday morning we had a few hours before needing to head back to Calais for the train home, we headed to an area called Cuvier, I felt really good today, I warmed up on a few 6a's then managed to tick an un-named a 6c +, I then moved on round to try a font 7a called "La Rhume Folle" after working the route I was so flipping close to getting the tick, I was managing to get to the last hold but kept popping off, unfortunately i didn't have long has we needed to leave for the ferry.
This route did really upset me but it also gives me a reason to go back to font now...A great trip all in all with great climbing and great company.....

Below are a few shots from the weekend in Font....