2 weeks in Fontainebleau: Day 4-7

Day 5:

After all the rain we had yesterday meaning all we could do to keep ourselves amused was to have a weight session at the gite, when the sun came up today we we're raring to go out and crush some boulders.

We decided to go to Cuvier Rempart and try the big 4 which consists of 3 7c's: Big Boss, Fourmis Rouge and Tristesse, and also a 7c+: Big Golden. When we arrived we headed up the hill a bit to warm up on some easier stuff. We climbed 2 7a's: Laser, and a nice little climb called Ridicule and also the super classic easy arête: L'Angle Alain. Then to get the hight factor warmed up we did Watchtower 7b+ which is pretty damn high.

                                                         Watchtower 7b+

Now fully warmed up with the sun beaming down, it was time to get on the big 4. As Big Boss was in the shade we decided to try this one first. Will hurt his finger so had to stop which is a bit of a shame on his first day... I almost flashed the problem but then had a bit of a hard time getting to the same point again. After a few more attempts with some different beta I topped out! Feeling good we then moved to the next (Fourmis Rouge). This took a little bit longer and was quite scary at the top. Slapping for slopers at about 4 or 5 metres is not the nicest thing to be doing but I managed to pull it off. Joe was really close to this climb and I think he will go back to get it sent. Tristesse had been in the sun all day so I was a bit sceptical to whether it would be doable. To my surprise it only took me about 10 minutes to get this one done. My favourite of the lot!

                                                            Big Boss 7c

                                                        Fourmis Rouge 7c

The last one was Big Golden, the 7c+. I still felt ok so started working the problem. I managed to get quite far but I could tell I didn't have much left in the tank. After lots of unsuccessful attempts I had to call it a day. A little disappointed I didn't manage them all but still happy with the rest. I will go back fresh to see if I can get Big Golden finished.

Day 6:

Today was kind of a rest day. We headed to Franchard Cuisiniere at about midday and warmed up. I climbed a hard 7b called L'Arete Du Star and then moved on to Rencard; a nice 7c just down the hill a little bit. This felt similar to an indoor style problem and only took about 5 minutes to get done.

                                                            Rencard 7c

After that I had a few goes on Karma which I had tried before but it felt even harder than last time so I heroically gave up.

Feeling tired with not much skin, we went for another session on Duel (an 8a slab) which I had also tried previously. I made even more progress than my attempts back in October getting just below the high crux move. Definitely need another session on this before we leave.

So all in all a pretty good "rest day". Tomorrow, we head to Marlanval to try Elephunk.

Day 7:

A mixed bag of emotions today. We set out to Marlanval to try Elephunk (8b). We got there and it looked slightly damp but it turned out we had perfect conditions. It only took me about half an hour to get all of the moves done. All that was needed was to link it.

The problem has a steady-ish start into an awkward hand flip and a tough move into a vertical crack. There's one more quite hard move which needed perfect body positioning, then you're into Mac 4 7b+ which is not too bad but is quite snatchy.

                                             Latching the crack on Elephunk

After a few goes from the start I did everything perfectly and got through all the hard moves into Mac 4 and my left hand ejected out of the crack. Devastating!

                                                       Left hand ejection!!!

The way you hold the crack, it crushes you're little finger and was tearing a hole in the side of mine. Which meant I had to stop. I am going to rest up tomorrow and not climb in the hope that the hole in my finger will heal up and allow me to go back and get it sent!

I'll let you know how it goes in a few days.

2 weeks in Fontainebleau: Day 1-3

I haven't been to Font since October and it was definitely time to go back to complete some unfinished projects and send some new stuff!

Day 1:

After doing the final round of The Depot winter boulder league last night then driving straight down to Font over night was pretty epic to say the least. It was raining when we arrived at our gite so we decided to do a food shop and stock up for the week. After that the weather cleared up and it became really sunny so we headed to Roche Sabots (a place we are very familiar with) to have a relaxed climb on some easier problems as we we're shattered. After climbing a few 7a's and 7a+'s I ended up repeating an 8a I had done in October last time I was there (Sale Gosse assis). Joe Swales had previously done the stand start to this problem which gets 7c so he attempted the sit. He cruised the flick off the mono at the start but just couldn't link the whole problem together. I am certain he will get his first 8a this trip.

                                              Joe Swales on Salle Gosse Assis

Day 3:

Yesterday we went to Bas Cuvier. Me and John climbed Aerosol 7b+ and then had a few tries at La Balance 7c before getting rained off it. 

                                                    John Thornton on Aerosol

Today was an awesome day! We met up with my friend Mike who was on his last day in Font. He showed us this really cool boulder in the middle of nowhere with an 8a problem on it called Opium. It was a bit morpho but I managed to send it after figuring out the beta that worked for me. I really enjoyed that climb and would recommend anyone who climbs at that level to go and try it.

http://vimeo.com/90013936

Video of me climbing Opium.

After that we wandered off to try and find a problem called Hueco Tanks 7c+. But instead stumbled across a huge outcrop of untouched boulders. I put up a new line fittingly called "Where's Hueco?" which goes at about 7b. I will definitely have to make a longer trip to font at some point to have a look at some of the other cool looking lines there.

After all of that we had some lunch and ate some weird pink stuff which sent us a bit hyper, we took the trek to find the elusive Le Kraken 7c. Leviathan 7a to the left was our warm up which I managed to flash and then started working the moves on Le Kraken. We were getting really close to the hardest move (a dyno to a crack) When me and Joe sent it straight after each other! All aboard the send train!!! Toot! toot!

I will keep you informed on the rest of the trip with more mini blogs like this one throughout.

It's been a while

It's been a while since my last post, but honestly it's been hard to top what I talked about in my last one. It truly was a great moment.

Since then, a lot of things have happened. A Font trip, a hell of a lot of training, World Cup Selection and The CWIF. I have actually gone from strength to strength since Laval. I managed another 8a in font (Salle Gosse assis) and another one back in the UK (The Joker) at Stanage Plantation. I won the GB Team World Cup Selection event at the Castle in London, meaning I am now competing in the full World Cup season along with The World Championships a bit later on in the year.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5UqHboI3t9I

Video from the last font trip.

Last weekend was the annual Climbing Works International Festival. this year a huge amount of international strong men and women had signed up including the likes of Rustam Gelmanov (RUS) and Jernej Kruder (SLO). I knew this would be a good tester to see how I will perform in the world cups to come.

Qualifying was made up of 30 blocs that were truly awesome. Super techy with only a couple of slightly burly ones. I think everyone who competed would agree it was set to perfection. I was really happy with my qualifying score of 291 which put me in joint 3rd with Gabriele Moroni (ITA), only beaten by Alex Megos (GER) and Stewart Watson (GBR) who both scored a very impressive 300. A full house.

The next day we went into isolation for semi's. I used this time to mingle with some of the other athletes who will also be doing some of the world cups this year (It's always good to have friends), and of course to warm up.

Because of my qualifying score I went out near the end. I decided to try some relaxation methods to calm any nerves I had about the competition. As I sat on the mat waiting to turn around and head towards my first problem. I closed my eyes and imagined myself laying on a beach on a really hot sunny day taking in the rays. This seemed to really help.

The first problem was a pull hard or go home kind of problem and I only managed to gain the bonus. After, I looked at the second and knew straight away I was going to send this problem. It was a ninja kick! (Anyone who knows me will know that this is my favourite kind of move), I flashed the problem with relative ease. The third, again I only managed the bonus but still felt pretty good. The last was a really balancy slab. I took my time to look at and prepare all the holds. It felt like I was on the wall for ages, but I pushed through and managed another flash!

                                            Me sending the ninja kick problem!

I was really happy with my performance at the weekend and I now know I can hold my own against some of the worlds best. Following last weekend, I have also had the opportunity to have 2 training sessions run by the Slovenian coach along with the Slovenian and Deutsch teams and Rustam as well. These were really good fun and I really had to try hard throughout.

So, as I write this at 1:30am, I am currently wedged like a Tetris piece in the back seat of a car driving down to Fontainebleau yet again along with some of my good friends. I will post this as soon as I get some wifi which may be a couple of days from now. I'll keep you informed on how it goes with a full report of the trip and we will also be making a video so keep an eye out!