domenica 1 marzo 2015

The Forest. First part.


Time has gone quickly since the last time I travelled to Font, the suggestive forest in the south of Paris. It was autumn 2012, when I sent my last problem here, the historical “Karma”, located in the centre of Cusinere sector. If I have not lost the count, that deal of the 7th time in the Forest. It is a lot, I have to admit. Sometimes I try to get conscious about how lucky I am to live not so far from this place, which can be reached by car from my home (7.30 h more or less). Every time I came up, it was the same story year after year: I came here, the motivation was high, I climbed, I tried to get confidence, I had lot of fun and then it was already time to leave. One week in a place with tons of good rock is everywhere too little. The longer period I have ever been is for 8 days and considering how the area is large and how many stones it counts, 7th short times don’t seem too much after all. That last time, back in 2012 fall, I was almost sure that it could be the last short visit and I promised to myself that soon or later I would have set a larger period in the forest; The reasons are simple to realize. I wanted to get used with the rock, the style and enjoy as much as I could this place where I have always been with rush and few time on tap. I had to wait for 2 years and half, before the desire fulfilled, but now the moment has come.

I left on the 12th and the first 2 weeks of the trip are now passed by. It is good. Being here in the forest and enjoy it as deep as ever is sweet and exciting. I can now set a longer list of goals, investing time and energies working on the lines I have always dreamt to attempt, enjoying the wood and the sandstone boulders in all their shapes, difficult, heights and styles. During these two years I fortunately visit other several places around Europe and the globe. Compared to the other trips I had up here, I have got now a different vision and I have more experience to match the quality of this place with other great areas where I have been from 2012 till now. Font is always good and the first days of climbing confirmed to myself this thing. There are a couple of factors that make this place special for me. The sandstone quality comes first. The climbing it requires is not something harder than Granite or than other kind of Sandstone, but it is simply a totally different thing; a different kind of approach. The approach is in fact totally singular, the body positions are tough to find as well as the holds are something we are not used to grab; you have to learn new moves every day and feel what you have up on the tiny footholds. The typical package of holds is a perfect mix of “sweet” grey sandstone which presents wonderful ultra-gripped pinches, edges and mostly slopers or “tortoise” slopers features to squeeze in many directions with your open hands. This is great. Nothing is foregone, both for the easiest boulders but even for the hardest, both in the positive expectations and even for the negative ones. Secondly, the forest makes this place sweet and great. The moss which cover woods was something I missed in these year and I finally have the pleasure to see and admire it again.

During my previous trips here I only knew this world class area, beyond Ticino which for me is certainly a lower point below Font. Now that I have been in other couple of world class places , I can almost put in the same level with this area other spots like Rocklands, Red Rocks and Albarracin. Everyone of these amazing destinations had some special points higher than the respective ones and for a reason or another I love them at the same point.

The weather is probably one of the few negative side of Font, here is typical to go up and down quickly. It is continental climate, so it is less foreseeable and pretty weird in many cases. The good thing is that the rock dries up quickly. Unfortunately for this factor I have been able to climb 8 days in a total of 17. Almost 50% of the time, which is not obviously as I wanted but I haven’t to complain about, since the weather will do its own loop. I fortunately got profit by the good sunny days, where the friction wasn’t so bad. Here is a list of the problems I managed to tick and below it you could find my Insta upload with all the news about my trip. Enjoy.

Ticks (in order of beauty)

- Partage 8a+
- Elephunk 8b
- Eden Rock 7b+
- L’apparemment bas 8b
- Controle A 7c
- Bagheera 7b+/c
- Coup de kick 8b
- Formis rouge 7c
- Hip Hop assis 8b
- Ubik assis 8b
- Deux faux plis en plats reels 7c
- Atomic playboy raccourci 7c+
- L’aeredynamite assis 8a
- Conviction 8a
- Gibouleè assis 7c
- Tristesse 7c
- Respire 7c+
- Le Zebulon 7c
- Sale gosse assis 8a
- De vitae beata 8a
- Plates tonique 7c
- Atresie 8a
- Big golden 7c+
- Big boss 7c











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