Thursday, August 2, 2012

Euro Boulder Roadtrip : Font


We left Frankfurt in a convoy of two estate cars loaded with boulder mats and aspirant bleausards. It was a quick hop to the border and a long journey through the french countryside. Marco got clocked and pulled over for doin 112 in a 90 zone. He played dumb and used the language barrier to his advantage, eventually the policeman got pissed off trying to communicate to us in broken english and he waved us on and we escaped without getting fined. We arrived at our hotel the Formula 1 in the evening. It was only 30 euro's a night for a room for 3 people and only 10 minutes from Fontainebleau. We stuffed our faces in an all you can eat Mongolian bbq restaraunt and went to sleep excited for the famous French sandstone in the morning.

For the 1st day in Font we went to check out the area Cul De Chien, a unique and wonderful place, silver grey boulders rising from the grains of white sand, sand everywhere, like a beach with no ocean scattered with lovely trees and local climbers out and about enjoying the great weather. The weather was a bit too good, roasting hot and there was no shade in this area. I forgot my sun block and got the bleedin' head burned off me, like a lobster I was.  We climbed lots of mileage for the day here, the problems from the red circuit seemed like a ideal challenge so we climbeed as many of them as possible before heading over to another area with a tragiclly bad name ... 95.2, sounds more like a radio staion than a bouldering area ! In 95.2 we scurried around on some more reds and Christian beasted a nice 6B prow which was like trying to hug a fridge all the way up and he topped out a lovely technical highball arete. Jamie was gutted at still being injured and unable to climb on his 1st ever day in Font. We found a pizza kiosk near the hotel and settled in to a rhythm of climbing all day and eating chorizo pizzas all evening for 3 days.
On day 2 we went to the awesome area Franchard Cuisiniere, a classic Font area full of famous problems like Karma 8a+, many slabs and with more steep stuff on offer than Cu De Chien and 95.2. We warmed up on some nice stuff and I climbed a few sweet slabs with Daragh before having a great battle on a steep prow called La Proue de la Passion assis 6C+. It was a hard sit start with powerful moves to crimps, heel hooks, pinches and an all-out desperation slap for a sloper near the top when your forearms are about to burst with the pump, it was savage and we all got stuck in and had a ball, everybody who tried it eventually topped it out, even Jamie whose injury was finally easing enough to let him climb again. It was awesome to see Adam fighting so hard and succeeding on this problem, it was right at his physical limit and he kept at it Spannish style 'A muerte''. Muy Bien good sir, muy bien !! Marco and Christian worked and topped out a nice 7A, a vicious rounded dome, it was just one giant hideous Font sloper, Jamie had a go too and made it right to the end, he palmed down, stood up and even shouted ''Yessss'' before his heel slipped and he tumble to the ground. A good day at Cuisiniere was had and more good pizza was consumed in the evening.


 Our final day in Font was spent at Franchard Isatis, another beautiful atmospheric Font area. It was a lovley day and the place was buzzing with climbers. I met an English dude called Tom who visits Ireland frequently for the Irish bouldering meet, I had met him there over 5 years ago when I first started climbing. Before we got stuck into all the warm ups and slabs surrounding us we went on a recon mission to try and track down Jamie's dream problem, a dyno called Rainbow Rocket 7C+. We followed directions from a map and advice from locals to a hidden away corner of the forest, Jamie wet his pants when he layed his eyes upon it's simple, epic and aesthetic beastliness. We headed back to the maze of boulders for a warm up on some quality easier lines. I spotted a sweet steep line called Surplombe La Statique 6B, nice dynamic moves in to a lock off to a sloper and top out, a local dude showed us a 7a start to the problem from a lower position and Christain and I worked away at that until we sent it. The real sit start is 7C and I would love to go back and do it one day !! Daragh was psyched out of his mind on the Font style slabs and he kept busy doing as many as he could, great little slab climber in the making.
In the afternoon everybody was tired and it grew hotter, too hot for bouldering. Brothling and the Whippersnappers paid the price of their enthusiasm and all had their first experience of the dreaded ache, Font elbow. Jamie still had energy left and he was super excited to go and try Rainbow Rocket so off we went. Rainbow Rocket is a magical dyno, it's huge for starters, a big jug and smears and an overhung blank wall, it's a second genertation dyno, you leap off the smears and jump a second time off the jug expolding upwards towards the top. Jamie gave it about 50 or 60 of his best efforts, he came real close twice before conceding defeat, it was fun to watch and he vows to return and latch it soon. Font was  great craic, we left with weakened bodies and shredded finger tips. You can climb a lot there even in the heat of the summer. We jumped in the cars and headed back to Germany for a quick stopover before the Swiss Alps and The Magic Wood ...

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