Saturday, April 17, 2010

Font update

Convenient internet access is hard to come by here, hence the rather sporadic updates from your intrepid Bleusard wannabes, but here goes. Our days follow a now familiar pattern: eat, sleep, climb, and when Sarah lets me, a rest day to recover muscularly, and dermatologically. Skin-wise, we've actually not done badly. Sarah had a small split in her right index finger yesterday, but apart from that we've been fine. We've managed to tick off quite a few of our projects, but also gained a few more, and still failing on a couple of stubborn ones. Both me and Sarah did "Graviton" and also "Gravillon", equalling my previous personal best, and sending Sarah's quite a few notches up. Both of us also succeeded on the amazing "Duroxmanie" - I'd gotten nowhere on this last September, and a very credible ascent for Sarah, as this is muscle beach territory. I shot a video of Sarah on her successful attempt. Sarah also managed to remove another thorn in her side from last trip, the classic line of "l'angle Allain", this time also doing the left side variation for good measure. We also managed the technical wall to the left, "Laser" - more Sarah's bag than mine, but eventually I wobbled my way up it, too. We've run into quite a few of the Bristol crew, which has been nice. In fact, when Sarah did "Gravition" it was a bit of a party atmosphere with Ian, Dean, Chris and Dave successfully grovelling over the top not long after Sarah. Always a big crowd gathered around "Graviton" and the neighbouring big dyno "Smash", with a good vibe, plenty of willing spotters and stacks of pads. Sarah is still working "L'angle a Jean-Luc", and she can't really get any closer without sending, but the last inch is proving irritatingly reluctant. Back at Isatis, Sarah went back to finish off "Angle de Serac", which she previously got rained off. This time it went first go. We'd run into Paul and Beccy from Bristol, and we then moved around the corner to try the considerably harder right-hand side of the arete, "L'angle Ben's". It's perfectly blank, and I've had a handful of plays on it before without really getting much off the ground. With me, Paul and Sarah working it, we somehow started to make some tangible progress, and suddenly I found myself crimping for dear life on the only hold on the whole route trying to psyche myself up for the slap for the top - and missed. A few goes later I stuck it, and this is my hardest problem to date. Paul topped out soon after, and Sarah - her diminutive altitude unfortunately playing to her disadvantage - was forced to explore a different way, unable to reach the crucial crimp from the foot holds that Paul and I had used. Last day with Paul and Beccy saw us for the first time at Apremont. Amazing as the place is, with a proper maze of boulders scattered over the largest area of all the Font crags, to make much headway here will probably require a significant investment in terms of time to learn to navigate the place. As our third day on it was intended as a chillout day, and we started as is traditional with an ascent of the ultra-classic, and most excellently named blank slab of "Le Science Friction". It's a kind of rite of passage for several generations of aspiring Bleusards. Sadly, some moron with a chisel has 'improved' some tiny flaws into useable holds which now has to be avoided at all costs to preserve the original experience. It's been done hands free, bare footed, backwards etc, but many strong, indoor-bred climbers accustomed to cranking heaps of grades harder are also frequently seen failing. Or flailing. Strength counts for precisely zero here. If you haven't done it, you owe it to yourself to try it, and keep trying it until you get it. This is an essential introduction to the footwork skills that make the locals look so bloody effortless around here. Unfortunately, Sarah managed to split a tip on her ascent, which forced her to abandon climbing for the day.

And so we're rapidly approaching the end of our stay in the forest, with barely two weeks to go. Climbing three days on, then resting one is our absolute max, and we still debate if the extra few days gained this way is worth the inevitable dip in performance on the third day. What has been nice this trip is to actually be able to spend some significant time working a few harder (for us) projects, rather than trying to cover the maximum amount of ground, like you probably would if you're here only for a week. We feel we have especially Sabots and Isatis pretty well covered, and we'll probably try to explore some of the lesser known areas a bit during our remaining time, but with a few excursions back to the handful of projects we're still working. I still have "Jet Set" to finish, and Sarah would be devastated to leave without sending "...Jean-Luc". Climbing-wise, both of us are now in the shape of our lives, and it will be interesting to see if this translates at all to the route climbing season back in Blighty once we get back.