Font 2005: The Last Chapter

3-31-05

Raza bailing off of Big Boss

The guys all decided to go up to Cuvier Rempart and dispatch the big four while the ladies finished up at Holey Moley. Our plan didn't really materialize since none of us sent anything, but we did try everything. I got pretty close on Big Boss and Ingar did well on Fourmis Rouges.


Ingar on Fourmis Rouges


Michelle DeGuzman on Beatle Juice

Later in the day, we decided to head over to Franchard Cuisinière to try a few things. When we got to Beatle Juice, there was a very loud British climber trying it barefoot. He was huffing and puffing and screaming on every move. It's one thing if you don't want to climb with shoes, but he had already done it and wanted to do it without shoes. We all appreciated the foot goo.


Rayneil DeGuzman on Excalibur

I was able to get revenge on Excalibur - a climb that, when I tried it three and a half years ago, totally shut me down. The problem was that you had to put all your weight onto a miserable foothold. It feels really good when you finally can do a problem that you couldn't do before.

4-1-05 (Poisson d’avril!)

Rayneil DeGuzman on Flipper

Instead of saying "april fools", the French say "poisson d’avril", which translated means fish of april. This of course made no sense to us but we had a great time saying poisson d’avril every chance we got. I was having a rest day when we went to Buthiers, but that just gave me more time to take pictures. Ray had an amazing send of Flipper. He was fighting the whole time and he had plenty of opportunity to fall off, but he sent anyway.


Lyn on Attention Chef d'Œuvre

Also at Buthiers is a classic highball called Attention Chef d'Œuvre that had been highly recommended to us and that Lyn had tried at the end of our first full climbing day. It was not an easy probelm to work out the moves on since it is so tall. After figuring out the beta for each sequence she worked her way higher and higher until she was falling from the top. After one more key piece of beta, she did the problem. One highball 7a in the bag.


Ingar on an extreme highball

Speaking of highballs, Ingar tried the mysterious black # 30 problem. The only reason he got on it was because it looked impossible but the guide book listed the grade at 6c. The lip of the boulder is easily 25 feet off the ground and it turned out to be the crux. Ingar thought it unwise to try any crazy beta at the top, so he down-climbed, much to the relief of his spotters.

4-2-05

Paul trying Total Eclipse

On this day I went out to Cul de Chien to try one of my long term projects, Total Eclipse. I had worked it a little on my last trip to Font and had done all the moves, but on a problem like this putting it together is the real crux. I was having trouble doing one of the harder moves on the link, so I figured out a way to basically dyno past it. I managed to link the sit down part of the problem but I ran out of gas on Eclipse.

4-3-05

The old road to Fontainebleau

This day we hiked to a newer and more remote area called Gorges du Houx. The trail that you take into the bouldering area is actually the old road to Fontainebleau, part of it still has the original cobblestones.


Denecourt carving

Claude Francois Denecourt was famous for making beautiful hiking trails through the forest of Fontainebleau. One of his trails goes right through Gorges du Houx. Up high on a boulder he left an engraving. It's hard to read, but it's dated 1852.


Michelle DeGuzman on Gargantoit

The main attraction at Gorges du Houx is a fabulous problem called Gargantoit. I was looking to do the sit- down start after falling off the top years ago. After repeating the top to remember how it went, I managed to do the sit-down. Ingar, Ray and Lyn also managed to do the regular problem. Michelle came really close to topping out as well despite all the bad beta given by the guys.

4-4-05 (our last day)

Lyn on Hyperplomb

It is always sad, but there has to be a last day. In the beginning, our last one wasn't looking too good becuase of the rain. We took that as an opportunity to do some last-minute shopping. After it cleared up, we jetted out to one of the faster drying areas: Apremont. Lyn had done really well on her three burns of Hyperplomb a couple of days earlier despite, or possibly because of, the dark, so she wanted to come back and take care of buisness. The problem is exciting becuase the hard part is right at the top, but there wasn't much excitement to be had because she did the problem really fast.


Ingar on Mur des Lamentations

Lyn's other piece of unfinished business at Apremont was Mur des Lamentations. She had managed to figure out the beta for the bottom half of the problem, but no one under 5'10" could figure out how to do the upper moves. It was getting dark and not much progress had been made until Ingar found a surprisingly good sidepull that allowed everyone to send.

The last supper

Rayneil (who also just happens to be a chef at Chez Panisse when he is not climbing) was nice enough to cook us our last supper in Font. Ingar, Lyn and I had moved into their gite for the last 3 days of our stay and for the little time that we lived with them, we ate some great food.

We'll that's it for this trip. Lyn and I had a great time and our little stay only whetted our appetite for more world-class climbing and baguettes. Maybe someday Lyn's plan to bring everyone to Font for the holidays will come true. Until then, au revoir Fontainebleau.

-Raza