[dave k]

I am interested if any other Brits get trully spanked on slabs in Font. I can climb at a similar grade on steep grit and sandstone, up to 7c. But have climbed little harder than 7a on slabs in Font, and have numerous problems below that grade that have not yielded. Just for the record I have climbed up to English 6c slabs on Grit.

I know Bleau requires a technique all of it own, but after 6 trips there, totalling over 3 months in the Forest I should be improving. Is body tension and just good solid footwork the answer. If so I want some. All advice welcome.

[runt]

lame advice, but do you use pof? waiting for a go on a slab last easter, dutch guy in front poffed it,  made my attempt easier, perhaps its essential on the harder problems?? just a thought

[unclesomebody]

I don't think it's do with pof.  Pof is bad, real bad.  I used it on my first trip to font and thought it was great but soon realised it is actually very very bad.  I've stopped using it now, but still enjoy climbing in font.  As for slabs in font, i got truly and utterly spanked on my first trip.  But after another couple of trips everything seemed to come together.  I think that with font you hvae to climb there loads to get good.  It is such a complex combination of strength and technique.  I think the key to slabs there is a decent pair of boots and a lot of faith (and good use) in your feet.  Just keeping your body position correct makes so much difference.  It can be frustrating but if you are struggling on any slab (or any problem) in font then find a local... just watch them on it.  That saw me go from not being able to get off the ground on a certain slab to almost doing it!  Good luck!  i can't wait to get back to the forest!!!

[Bubba]

I'd rather not do a problem at all than do it with pof. Fuck that shit, if ruins the rock.

[Percy B]

Font slabs are hard, but I always think that its a 'feel' thing. Once you've been out there for a bit, and you remember how to climb the rock, it all gets a load easier. It takes me at least 4 to 5 days to start firing on all cylinders every trip I make, (and I've been at least once a year, every year since around 1990!)
Being naturally weak, I have had to learn to use my feet a bit, and this helps a lot. You can't bully slabs into submission with strength or brute force. A degree of 'knack' comes into play, and this is only learnt through experience, and a lot of failled attempts!

The pof thing is a tricky one, and people have very strong views on it - many of which are wrong. Before I get barraged with abuse, I'd like to make one point clear. I DO NOT THINK THERE IS ANY PLACE FOR POF IN BRITISH BOULDERING, and God help anybody I find using it on our boulders.

However, I also believe that 'when in Rome.....'! The 'bleausards have decided that they want to use pof, so they do. Thats their choice, and you have to respect that. If you refuse to use pof on hard slabs that are normally done with pof by the French then you will find the problem desperate and slippery and unpleasant. This is your choice, but you are making life very hard for yourself because of a slightly misguided moral standpoint. If you don't use pof it font, why should you use chalk on grit? Both substances make the climbing easier, its just a matter of making sure you use the right stuff in the right place!
Pof doesn't 'fuck the rock up'. It leaves a shiny layer of resin on the rock which can be removed with alcohol and a toothbrush. This doesn't harm the rock in any way, but takes all the resin off. I know a guy who cleaned all the pof off 'Science Friction' at Apremont in this way, and said the friction on the clean rock was brilliant, and was probably easier than doing it with resin. However, it took him absolutely ages, so its a lot easier to use resin!

The choice is yours. I personally use pof in font, and it does help. If you don't want to, good for you. The evil resin helped me up my first 7c+ slab a few months back so maybe theres something in it after all. And the smell of pine resin in the freezing cold dry air of a Font early morning is a wonderful thing...............christ, I'm filling up!

[dave]

pof = cheating :

font slabs never seem to be to be nice smearing like on grit slabs, more often (especially on 7a and above) it seems to be about stnaing on very tiny edges. thus onve you've got you head around that fear of your foot cheese-gratering off that gratton it can get ok. If i was going to try and do font slabs i'd go out tomorrow, buy some Mesas and grow my fingernails. Always amazes me that ledenmat does all his hard slabs in ninjas!

[Bubba]

Pof doesn't 'fuck the rock up'. It leaves a shiny layer of resin on the rock which can be removed with alcohol and a toothbrush. This doesn't harm the rock in any way, but takes all the resin off.

 :shock:  never knew that at all - I thought it was irreversable  :?

[mozzer]

slabs in font are nails, but then as dave said htey arent at all similar to slabs in the UK. Even limestone slabs here usually involve smearing at some stage, and the grit ones are very different.

The way i look at it, although I am alright at UK slabs (as i am weak so need ot be!) climbing on font slabs is intrinsically a different style, just as climbing aretes in font is -

so dont beat yours4elf up too much if you find them nails, as they are pretty different to what you are used to.

At least thats always my excuse when I am shit at them!

[runt]

News to me too bubba, am I going to get strung up this easter if i take a little bottle of something to splash on the odd foothold percy?

[Percy B]

Can't imagine a lynching if you clean resin off holds. Isopropyl alcohol is the thing you need (its called rubbing alcohol in the US), not brandy, or a tasty Merlot - much better to drink these types odf alcohol yourself.
Don't drink isopropyl alcohol - kills you, apparently. (and it tastes fucking vile too!) I've cleaned holds with this stuff before and nobody has made a big issue of it. Brush it on, they dry the hold with a rag. Whack it a bit with a towel and it should dry before your very eyes. Job done!

I'm never sure how big a difference resin makes - i.e: if it really makes things a lot easier,or just a bit. I thinks that Daves comment that pof is cheating is a little bit naive though. Surely this makes chalk cheating, aswell as sticky rubber? These things improve your adhesion to the rock but are hardly points of aid like pulling on a bolt. Do we perceive pof as cheating because we don't use it in the UK, so therefore it must be some dodgy french method of cheating? Or are the bleausards all just awesome climbers, pof or not, and we're all jealous and looking for something to blame for our own inadequancy :?:
Pof ain't a magic antigravity thing. It was originally used to improve grip long before climbers started using chalk in the forest. The old boys still get the hump when youngsters use loads of chalk on problems today. We get well pissed off if foreign climbers use pof on our rock, so maybe we should respect the frenchies way, and only use pof in Font.........
As I said before, when in Rome.....

[dave k]

It was not my intention to start the chalk/pof debate. I used pof on my first visit to Bleau. It is quite tricky to get hold of, well more tricky than chalk. I have noticed that foreigners tend to be uneducated in the use of it. I have seen far too many wacking every hold on the route about 20 times. The Bleausards mainly apply liberally to the finger tips, toe rubber and a few taps on the key holds. Overuse directly to the rock is BAD

[runt]

Ta for the chemical advice Percy, be interesting to see how it works. Think I'll avoid the pof vs chalk minefield, me being a sweaty tyke unfortunately need the chalk, but I see where you're at with the locals being the level they are. Mind you have you seen that Nadiras (sp?) bloke, does he need feet, poffed or not?? :shock:

[Jim]

Back on topic, I think as everone says, it takes a lot of getting used to style of climbing in font. I've only had two days there so far (hopefully many more to come) and very nearly got spanked on a 3+ slabby arete on a blue circuit. It felt like it should have been about eng 6b   .
Even a local poffed up to the nines couldn't do it

[dave]

I thinks that Daves comment that pof is cheating is a little bit naive though. Surely this makes chalk cheating, aswell as sticky rubber?

my point has always been that using chalk and resin are totally different things. Chalk at best will only give you the basic friction you woulod get in perfect conditions with hands not sweating. It doens't actually increase the friction you get (in a large amount its a lubricant), rather reduces the friction-loss due to sweat. I.e in perfect conditions you don't need chalk and it won't give you extra friction. On the other hand resin is an adhesive, which is always giving you friction you're not entitled to, i.e. if it was perfect conditions it would still increase your friction - forgetting the historical significance its still essentially a glue.

Anyway, i'm just good you're making the effort to clean it off!

[unclesomebody]

it's a good point that foreigners do not know the ways of pof.  I have to lament over the fact that there was this guy as Cuvier one day, who walked up to helicopter, pofed all the holds, hand and feet, did one move on it, then just walked away leaving it.  he then walked over to carnage, pofed up the handholds and footholds, and true to pull on, realising it was too hard he walked away.  THEN he walked over to berezina and proceeded to pof all of that up.  I was stood in amazement as I watched him try to pull on and get nowhere, then walk off!!! i was pretty pissed off to be honest.  I mean, it's not my rock, nor my forest, nor am I a local. but i have a very basic respect for climbing and the rock to know that he is a total prick!  This should be clear to everyone on here that this sort of behaviour is totally stupid.  

The french seem to use pof instead of chalk, on their hands and boots.  i tried this one day, but didn't really enjoy it.  Or, they just use it to pof up small footholds, they generally don't pof up massive handholds (although I have seen some frenchies doing this!).  

I think if you're going to use it, use it sparingly and wisely.  You don't NEED it to climb hard in font.  Personally, like i said, I won't use it again.  

Thanks for the alcohol/brush tip, although I would imagine this is a very very delicate process... and not one we should all embark on next time we're in the forest!  i can just see someone getting lynched at Bas Cuvier trying ot clean all the footholds under Helicopter!  

peace.

[billy]

I used resin when i first went to font and thought it was ace. Then i decided not to on my second visit and found i could climb just aswell without. I normally just resort to giving the holds a clout with a towel/rag which works great. My mates and me (bad grammar sorry!) decided the clouting with a towel approach works by both knocking the excess shit off the holds (same as on grit!) and by warming up the insitu resin to make it stickier. Not sure if either of these are actually true but it does seem to work for me....... maybe its all in the belief thats its helping :?:

(just in case anyone picks an arguement i use a different rag when i go to font, so theres no 'contamination' in the uk!!! ...... not that i'm suggesting climbers are argumentative :!:  :wink: )

[Pantontino]

Perhaps the nearest thing we have to 'micro gratton' Font slabs is slate:

Tiny painful holds, best approached with razor edged rock shoes, huge powerful thighs and re-inforced fingernails.

Okay, the friction is shite, and slate bouldering is hardly a popular pursuit...

[Jim]

Is roadrunner slate?
did it ever get filled in?

[Pantontino]

Roadrunner is not slate, rather it is some sort of fine grained volcanic rock similar to Dumbarton (I think - could be wrong).

The situation at the moment is uncertain. the floor has been dropped by 2-3 feet and the building work looks like it will continue for a while yet.

[dave]

the floor has been dropped by 2-3 feet

highball :shock:

[Jim]

lets hope it doesn't get filled in, it is a curious little venue worthy of a trip just to experience its position 2 ft away from a busy duel carriage way, yet so easy to be completely unaware of any cars going past

[dave]

....duel carriage way....

you often see blokes slapping each other round the face with a glove along there, pistols at twenty paces etc etc.