A poor trip to Font, but always a great sandstone!

Hi there.

It’s finally ready a little video reportage about my week in Valais at the end of september. It is 7 mins long,it includes the historical radja and other ones. 

 Seven minutes of Valais from niky_ceria on Vimeo.

This blogspot is dedicated to my week in Fontainebleau, although there isn’t a lot of stuff to tell since it was a really empty trip for me. We were in 4, me, Marco, Max and Aly and we left Biella on sunday the 21^st. I thought that I could take profit by my good shape after the ascent of Entlinge, but it wasn’t. The first symptoms of the shape’s drop appeared two day before the starting when I did a training session in Silea. I did three hours of training, I suspected that it was too much for that day because my skin was still hurted by entlinge and maybe the good shape was leaving me. The first day in bas cuvier was basically a rest day, the lines was still a bit wet by the long rain and I felt already tired at the beginning of the trip. The second one we went to apremont, together with Anita and Stefano, two really nice peolple who climbed with us in Biella some years ago. I climbed one of the best 7Bs of the forest advised by the guide, “onde de choc”. For sure it is a really great line, but I don’t think that it can be one of the nicest of Bleau. Unfortunately, Alice took an ancle twist and she wasn’t ready for the day after.

On wednesday we went to fata morgana block where I had to try satan I helvete whereas last season I almost grabbed the crimp on the left. This fall it went worst. I wasn’t solid enough to set up the dynamic move,I felt really out of shape with bad skin and a drop of power so I quitted. Then me and Max went to “elephunk”, a marvelous 8B which is often humid and wet. After a fast checking, it wasn’t at the top of conditions but dry enough to try it. I set the pads and after a session I understood that it is hard but possible. The rock is perfect there, maybe one of the best boulder of the forest. The second single move looked the hardest one for me and I wasn’t capable of taking the intermedium to do the jump. After some tries on that single move we moved under “hip hop” but after few goes I prepared the pads again to come back home. Hard beating again. 

Marco on "double axel" 7A+ Cassepot

I decided that I had to take a rest day. On thursday we went to cuvier rampart where Max went close to climb “noir desir” 7C and in the afternoon we moved to bas cuvier where I did a bit of stretching to recuperate faster my tiredness. Meanwhile Marco climbed a really good one near biseps mou, called “vent claire” an awesome 7B+ with great and lovely pinches. The morning later I rested again and we went to Cassepot, maybe my favorite sector, then we reached Rocher Saint German where I started to warm up since in the late afternoon I wanted to try “the island”. I did some easy and cool boulders then I went to “megalight”, a little arete with a really nice dyno at the end. I climbed it two times because that move was so great to do.

"megalight" 7B roche Saint German

We left the sector and we went to “the island”, the famous compression roof opened by Dave Graham four years ago. Last spring I was able to do every single hand moves and just one footwork was left. This time I took a session to remember the right beta which I used and I was still confused for the higher part of the line. I did the footwork which missed last season, then I tried the last part after the crimp but I couldn’t do it rightly. The day after we went to cusiniere and the plans for the afternoon were to come back to “the island”, in this way, I would have tried it again to understand every new possbile thing for the next year, since I knew that it was impossible to climb it on this trip. My right hand hadn’t skin enoguh and I was a bit signed by the session of the day before. In the late morning I warmed up then  I crushed “Karma”, the famous and historical line climbed by Fred Nicole seventeen years ago. I tried it in 2010 but just for few attempts since it was too hot to try it in fact I left it quickly. This time the conditions were really better and I did it on the 5^th go of that day. Karma was graded 8A and I think that it could be considered like one of the most important boulders about that grade in the world. Some years ago, I think in 2001, A mad person chipped and broke the slopery crimp of Karma and from that time, it is also considered like an 8A+. He also broke “carnage” and “fatman”. After Karma, Max and Marco climbed another 7B called “pensees cachèes” a wonderful prow just belew the square of Karma. 

"Karma" 8A Cusiniere

"Karma" 8A Cusiniere

 At 4 o’clock Max and I went to the island and when we arrived the light was perfect, from that hill the view was fantastic and he took the occasion to make some photos. The session was important for me, because although I didn’t the island, I understood other things about it, trying new changes of beta and I was capable of doing it in two sequences. I was anyway happy of that, in fact I would like to thank max to have carried me there. When I will return there probably it would be at the top of the list together with “elephunk” and “atomic playboy” since this time we never went to Buthiers. On sunday we took the way home with few lines climbed and no projects done. Probably I missed the plans for this trip, I had to know that the both conditions, the physical and the climatic ones, weren’t so good to dedicate the whole week to project on my limits. I should have dedicate the climbing to many moderates since there is a paradise to climb on a medium grade, probably it would have been better and more satisfactory.