Sun 11th April
We arrived at our wonderful gite in Chailly-en-Biere late afternoon and decided to hit Cuvier hard, with it being a joyous 3 minute drive away.
We warmed up on the start of the Red Circuit which featured some truly fantastic problems like Red 1 and Trou de Simon, as well as a desperate 5+ blue that took me about 4 attempts.
I made a beeline for Biceps Mou Roof and put on my fresh out the box 5.10 Projects that were a last minute impulse buy at work on Saturday. They felt super tight but had that broken in feel straight away.
I think my left arm must have recovered as I could now do the first move static that evaded me a couple weeks back. The rest fell into place and after greasing off the RH sidepull a few times, I locked it out static to the slopey shoulder and snatched my way up to the top.
As this went on Becki happened to piss up Picon Biere for her first forest 7a and then added the sitter for her first 7a+.
Dolph crushed Hypotheuse in about 2 goes and then Infidele and was trying the sitter to the latter.
As Dolph, Owen and Pete went on the deserted Carnage block I decided to run over to Aerodynamite. I met a guy called Raul there who was in Magic Wood last summer and happened to be the previous owner of Johnny the Dog. I had my first go and utilised Davey P's heel beta which made everything utter piss all of a sudden and I was stood up in the pocket only to slap with the wrong hand and slide backwards. Raul then crushed it and after a brief rest I got up it on the 2nd try. It was nice to get something done that had kicked my arse hard a couple years back!
We finished off on the Carnage block where Dolph then walked up Berezina, did the link into Carnage and then greased off the sitter repeatedly as it went really humid. I was getting shut down on the match on Berezina so went round back and tried La Balance. First go was good and as I brought my right hand up to the high sloper the left pinged off. Further goes finished much the same as it got harder to hang on to greasy holds. One to come back for.
Mon 12th
We hit up Apremont and warmed up just down from the Ju Jitsu block. I went off on a personal quest straight to Onde De Choc, brushed the holds, booted up and then did it first try. It felt about a million times better than last trip due to not being in the baking sun.
I got on Fil a Tordre to show Dolph how desperate it was and he agreed as I got spanked for the 3rd session on this 7a?!
There was plenty of action at Egoiste with several ascents and some near misses from not 1 but 2 people dropping off the top out.
A couple of people did Clin D'Oeil and Mark got up Hyperplomb after an epic to get over the bulge. I did a cool problem above this called Hueco Depart which was steep and spanny and we moved over to the other side of Central.
Owen flashed Faux contact and I did likewise just about. We then worked on the direct Full Contact and after about 5 or 6 different methods for the 2nd move, gave up and went and got a consolation problem of Happy Boulder. As most people tired of the climbing, myself, O and Mike went off to check out Crazy Horse at Apremont Ouest.
We got there and met some French guy who wanted to see beta before trying it. Me and O worked on 2 very different sequences and it eventaully succumbed to my left kneebar, right heel on rail sequence to get up and right again to the top holds. I thought the start was really brutal to get up and left in the crack to a decent pinch/sidepull but ok after this. The French guy then tried to copy but got a shut down after beta whoring for the previous 15 minutes!
I had a brief play on Sitting Bull but didn't fancy the topout, so bailed to meet everyone back at the carpark.
Tues 13th
I took a rest day feeling a bit battered from the previous days and followed Dolph around to try and get some actual climbing ascents on film, as the curse of the camera had worked to great effect on the first 2 days!
Me and Mark rocked up to meet the others at Imothep after briefly chatting to Neil H at the carpark and getting some directions. I had only been there a minute or 2 and shouted out the match beta for the penultimate moves, got the camera on and just caught him cruising it with ease.
The Beast of Rotherham also managed to see off Controle Technique after an almighty battle with blind alleys and the all day on-off showers that kept it nice and damp.
Owen climbed Renconnetre Plafonique with Andy capturing his girly screams of "be good..BE GOOD!" as he slapped blindly over the top to the mirth of many.
We had an amazing Chilli in the evening that Ste rustled up and I consumed my 3rd bottle of red in 3 days to keep up the strong drinking ethic.
Weds 14th
The rest day seemed to do the trick and I came out fighting with a brief warmup on some red's and Graviton and then to try Sale Gosse with my newly aquired right foot beta from vimeo. I pulled on to the first move with the mono and sidepull and sat over my right leg flagging deep, went for the left bi-doight splay and greased off. The holds received a good pounding with a towel and I used some liquid chalk. Another false start and my arms were finally warm. The first move was stuck and then the 2nd barely. I was having to adjust a lot on both holds as I got my left toe up into the pocket. I rotated and remembered to bounce the right foot up to a dish hold. All of a sudden everything felt instantly better and I could launch left hand up for the top. A moment of weightlessness and the right foot was still on... as was the left hand! I quickly matched and scrambled up in a Bradbury style to dispatch yet another nemesis.
The rest of the morning consisted of eating and heckling in equal measure. Si got agonisingly close to Graviton using the heel behind flake method. Fish head horribly overpowered it with his floundering beached whale technique and then made amends with a much smoother ascent of Jet Set.
The rabble headed over to Cul de Chien and found only a handful of French kids at Le Toit de cul de Chien.
I convinced Mark to go first and he got through to the lip hold only for his feet to cut early and he lost grip on the outswing. I went up next with the heckling of Owen whistling Z cars as he recorded it. Not to be distracted I got up to the RH mono to find it was actually a 2 finger jug. The left heel clamped on the polish, as the right foot flagged wide and I locked it out to the lip to find another fingerbucket, gained the jug over the lip and then campussed the next moves before a casual rockover (ignoring cries to french blow incase anything popped and made the flash safe).
Me and Dolph moved over to Le Autre Toit with Ste and Fish head along taking photos. He put the pressure on me by saying Arabesque is ok with beta as he flashed it with Andy Jennings shouting the numbers out. Time had taken its toll as he was unable to remember much and I spent about 15 minutes puntering it up. A kneebar pad was brought out to avoid my left leg getting wrecked and then it all clicked into place for Mike about keeping the left leg in for some extra hand moves. A good rest and I got through the steepness and stood up with my left foot on the Eclipse RH hold and right heel on the pocket shaking out the pump, before a wonderul rockover & mantle to the top!
I got down and had a good whitey before announcing I may as well have a little look at Eclipse as climbing hard tomorrow was a write-off.
5 minutes later and the moves were all done with the last move being a superb crossover/barndoor latch off a lovely pinch/sidepull. I was psyched and got through the roof only to find it hard to get the left toe just right. Dolph couldn't sit still watching a relative punter do all the moves fairly fast and warmed up trying the first moves.
Fast forward to about an hour later and I was lying on the ground feeling dizzy after having greased off or powered out on the last move about 5 or 6 times. Dolph hadn't faired much better having also dropped it with his fingertips at the hold. We eventually had to give in as it was too greasy and we were both battered.
We finished off at Gasthaus Unterslag where he made the terrifying leap and I bottled it. We both got up a great little quarried slab/arete called Dernier Angle just downhill and then got a lift back to the gite for an amazing all you can eat pizza night courtesy of Chef Fatneck.
Thu 15th
I chose to gamble on having another day off to fluke good conditions and send hard on Friday. We went early doors to Franchard Cuisiniere to the Karma area.
Mike made rapid progress on Karma hitting the 2nd right hand hold and then flicking his left heel up but kept sliding off the right hand due to bad temps and sunlight (as well as not being rested due to the Eclipse saga!)
Owen, Andy and Ste all got Bizarre Bizarre done from a sitter and we moved over to Magnifique which saw ascents from Kev, Pete and Ste also. Owen bailed off the top and aggravated his dodgy knee and lost the will to try again.
A bit of lunch and then over to Beatlejuice. It looked ok until people got on it and by the end of the session only Mike and Kev had got it done, commenting that it wasn't any easier than Jerry's Roof ...only 4 grades less!?
Ste got up Excalibur Direct to the left and we finished off up at Hale Bopp where several suitors got nowhere near the top and goaded me to get on it but I remained resolute to save skin for Friday.
Fri 16th
We awoke to the hottest day of the week by far and I was a bit gutted as we waited around for the Gite owner to pick up the keys and give us back the deposit.
We went for the most secure option of Cuvier with the cars full of belongings. I did a shocking 10 minute warmup and got straight on a very quiet Berezina. I did some pullups on the first holds and then got stuck in.
About 20 attempts and no matches later, I was defeated with a sore right arm from attempting to lock on a sloper of butter whilst bringing the left hand through to the good hold. As it got mad busy, we ran away to Cuvier Est.
Everyone ran around getting some mileage in and trying Festin de Piere.
Si did Duroxmanie which was really nice to see after his recent illnesses, injuries..etc. We did a couple more classics like the direct to Duroxmanie and me and Mike did the sandbag of Basses Frequences using various 7b sequences on this supposed 7a as well as a little gritlike arete downhill to the left in the Holly. I had a few goes on Michel Ange sticking the first move and getting a foot up inside but then feeling close to destroying my shoulder as I tried to lean into it, so sacked it off and dosed up on ibuprofen!
We bailed at about 3.30 to avoid the Paris rush hour and said goodbye to Kev and Luke who are over till next Tuesday. I hope the weather cools down a bit for them or it will need to be 6am starts to get up anything slopey.
1 comment:
Nice story Rich. Good to hear you crushed Font. Cool photos as well.
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