We’ve had some freak weather in Fontainebleau. For a while the temperature was up to 29 degrees during the day. One day we even measured 31 degrees in the shade at Isatis parking lot. I heard it’s been the longest period without rain ever recorded and it has been perfect weather for anything except climbing. We’ve been out climbing almost every day, but even the easier problems are challenging enough in conditions like this.

Despite the heat, it’s been pretty fun just repeating old classics that I’ve climbed lots of times before. On one of the warmest days I climbed Michel-Ange assis 7c+ish in Cuvier Rempart. One of the problems I wanted to do this trip was L’Insoutenable Légèreté de l’Autre. I worked on it one day in scorching hot conditions and could barely do half of the moves. I did however do the stand start of it that day, which is possibly the hardest and most technical mantle I’ve ever done. The stand used to be a 7c on it’s own, but a key undercling for the mantle broke and made it quite a bit harder.

L’Insoutenable Légèreté de l’Autre

We went back with “better” conditions and I quickly managed to do it in two parts. I felt like it was too warm to link the whole thing that day, so I just gave it another go for practice. I made it all the way to the ending and somehow managed to press out the mantle leaving some blood marks on the lip! I was stoked because I definitely did not expect to link the whole thing in such hot conditions. As far as I know this was the first repeat of L’Insoutenable Légèreté de l’Autre since the hold broke and it’s hard to say given the conditions, but it felt more like an 8B now. When we got back to the parking lot, it was close to 30 degrees in the shade.

Eventually the weather cooled down enough to actually think about climbing anything hard. One of the best problems I climbed this trip was Surplomb de la Vallée de la Mée. There’s two exits for this problem and one of them apparently broke last year, so I climbed the direct one. The sequence is really interesting with a crazy high step and the problem goes at around 8A+. There’s also a sit start to it, which looks good, so I may have to go back for that one.

Surplomb de la Vallée de la Mée, 8A+

On the coldest day we had, I went try Imothep, which is an amazing arete in Cuvier Ouest. I had tried it about a year ago, but I couldn’t really figure out the beta and barely did any of the moves. All of the moves are compression at full extension so it’s hard to even see anything while your climbing. This time I managed to send it pretty quickly. However, It did not feel easy to me and I think it would warrant 8A+. Compared to Partage, for example, Imothep is a lot harder to me. Either way, it is one of the best problems in Font and I’m surprised that not many people ever try it. The low start to it is also a very hard project, that I’m psyched to try next time!

Blind slapping on Imothep, 8A(+)

Here’s a little interview about my trip in French if anybody is interested:

http://www.kairn.com/article.html?id=2286