[baker_uk87]

Hey guys,

I'm planning to drive to Font with a couple of friends (who've never bouldered outdoors before). I climb around V3/4 UK and my friends ability is a little less than this.

In that respect we're beginners - Font looks like a vast sprawl of bouldering areas. Are there any locations in particular you feel we should focus on - we'll need some easy routes to build confidence...I also notice on this article : http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=1567 the grading system sounds like route difficulty doesn't go as low as V1/V2 UK, I may be confused here, but if anyone can clarify please.

Finally, we'd like to camp, but again, the information is a little scattered. Any suggestions? Anybody been recently and found free camping?

What's the etiquette on using chalk, and are there climbing shops to hire crash mats?

Any other info you reckon would help us, I'd be grateful for!

Thanks guys,

Dave

[Plattsy]

Font grading starts at 1A which doesn't even register on the Vermin grade scale. V0 = 6A or something. There are thousands of problems in the 2A to 6A range in Font and most if not all large venues have an easy circuit or two somewhere in this range. Easy stuff galore. Fill yer boots.

[slackline]

also notice on this article : http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=1567 the grading system sounds like route difficulty doesn't go as low as V1/V2 UK, I may be confused here, but if anyone can clarify please.

Not true, read the article again and follow the link at the end of the section discussing grades. 

BTW V grades were developed in Hueco in the US by John Sherman, not in the UK (although some walls and guides use them).

Finally, we'd like to camp, but again, the information is a little scattered. Any suggestions? Anybody been recently and found free camping?

What's the etiquette on using chalk, and are there climbing shops to hire crash mats?

Both of these have been asked and answered many times (maybe try the abroad sub-forum) and there is also information on the UKB Wiki.

Any other info you reckon would help us, I'd be grateful for!

Don't go with expectations of ticking a certain grade, go and have fun (and learn the Fontainebleau grades).

[psychomansam]

Font is the best place in the world for easy bouldering. Just don't be stupid enough to look at the grades. Yes, that project you just sent is a 4c.

http://www.camping-grez-fontainebleau.info/caravanning.html

If you're camping around this time of year / Easter, I'd camp here as it allows fires. Decent campsite, with a 5 min stroll to a very good bakery. About a fiver a night each.

Buy or borrow a guide and use it to boulder anywhere with a good range of circuits. In font, at this level, guides are for reading beforehand to pick a venue. Your friends might want yellow and orange circuits, you might want blue and red. Ignore grades, follow circuits, wander through the trees, climb what looks good, don't leave any rubbish, take a shit before going into the forest, buy cheap beer for the campsite and eat lots of French bread. That's how men are made.

[lagerstarfish]

for beginners (and a nice easy day of on-sighting) I really rate

http://bleau.info/potets/

between the yellow and the orange circuit there are 80 easy (mosly graded below 4) problems all within a small area

check out this topo of the yellow circuit to give you an idea
http://bleau.info/images/topos/potetsjaune.pdf

[nai]

Buy or borrow a guide and use it to boulder anywhere with a good range of circuits. In font, at this level, guides are for reading beforehand to pick a venue.

baton wicks recently had an offer on, buy the circuits guide with a 30% discount and get the off-piste guide free. Worth checking to see if it's still available, two guides for under £14 is a bit of a bargain.

[slackline]

baton wicks recently had an offer on, buy the circuits guide with a 30% discount and get the off-piste guide free. Worth checking to see if it's still available, two guides for under £14 is a bit of a bargain.

The 30% discount appears to still  be available, but the free second book was a one day offer only.

[Pebblespanker]

Yellow circuit at Cul du Chien is excellent, beautiful area with large sandy areas and forest and you get to see one of the most famous classic problems

On thing to be aware of is that some easy problems are very polished, often due to resin/'rosin' build up- especially true at easy access areas like Bas Cuvier, these may well feel, and actually be, impossible -  don't let this discourage you; if in desparation anyone buys any resin/rosin and brings it back please do NOT be tempted to use it in the UK.

Beware goal setting on your first trip until you get a better feel for the Font grades; Marie Rose (first 6A in the forest?) is a classic example that spanks many

+1 for ignore the grades to a degree, take a look and if you fancy the look of it try the problem and see what you can manage, when you find them jamming cracks/problems are often undergraded in my limited experience and can provide a moral boosting tick, especially offwidths

Lastly enjoy yourselves, its a holiday; don't ruin it by chasing grades

[webbo]

Do you not mean cracks are often overgraded rather than undergraded. As if it's as you say that would rule out any chance of getting one over on our continental brother and sisters by jamming some crack graded 7+ that they layback.

[psychomansam]

Indeed. I'm sure that's what was meant. It would seem those froggies can't jam for 

[i.munro]

Get yourself a chunk of welcome mat type carpet & use it to stand on & be obsessive about cleaning the sand off & 'squeaking' the soles of your shoes before they touch the rock.
This will add hugely to your enjoyment & the range of things that you can & climb more importantly (from my POV ) minimise your contribution to the runaway problem of polish which people's failure to do this seems to be  causing.

NB I think we can be fairly confident that attributing this polish to pof use is utter bollocks as it's a recent phenomenon & pof use goes back for a century.,

[psychomansam]

Get yourself a chunk of welcome mat type carpet & use it to stand on & be obsessive about cleaning the sand off & 'squeaking' the soles of your shoes before they touch the rock.
This will add hugely to your enjoyment & the range of things that you can & climb more importantly (from my POV ) minimise your contribution to the runaway problem of polish which people's failure to do this seems to be  causing.

NB I think we can be fairly confident that attributing this polish to pof use is utter bollocks as it's a recent phenomenon & pof use goes back for a century.,

Avoiding the pof argument, but +1 for cleaning shoes like its a religion. Then get them cleaner. If there's any sand on them, any, then they're not clean - simple.

Yes, it will give you better grip if you clean them, yes your shoes will last longer, but who gives a fuck, it's about the rock. Which has lasted 30 million years so far and could do without our fat asses eroding it.

If this is unclear, ask a friendly volunteer to sandpaper your face with 80kg of pressure. That should clarify things.

 

[Sloper]

The mozzies at the camp site at Gres surloing can be fairly epic and you can spend a lot of time in the car getting to the areas, there's a nice campsite at Samoreau just east of Font (well Avon) but for convenience La Musidiere (or what ever it's called near Milly la Foret) is the most convenient but it can be noisy.

For good beginners areas I would suggest canache aux mercier, rocher guichot, francahrd sablons and appremont bizons, quieter, less polished, good low quality problems and good landings.  The yellow circuit @ roche aux sabots, the oranges at cuvier & etc are polished to fuck and not ideal for a first trip in my view.

If you're driving other than in the dead of night, don't go through paris but follow the A104, N104, A4, N2014 A6 bis route around to the East of Paris, a bit longer but holy fuck it's worth it.

[slackline]

camp site at Gres surloing [/qupte]

  Good portmanteau.

You mention you'll have a kid with you.  You might find the Wik entry for Fontainebleau useful in this regard.

[SA Chris]

How long you going for?

Expect your skin to suffer! This will be the major limiting factor for your trip. Don't thrash away for too long slapping for the same sloper and sliding off it in the midday heat, or you will be through to blood in no time. Take a tactical approach to maximising your enjoyment over your time there; take a breather every now and then, take your shoes off, chill out, take some photos or video, or else you will be dead on your feet by the end of day 2. If you are there for a week think about a rest day or two.

[Pebblespanker]

+1 for ignore the grades to a degree, take a look and if you fancy the look of it try the problem and see what you can manage, when you find them jamming cracks/problems are often overgraded in my limited experience and can provide a moral boosting tick, especially offwidths

fixed, sorry my bad, should not write posts when in a meeting 

[erm, sam]

NB I think we can be fairly confident that attributing this polish to pof use is utter bollocks as it's a recent phenomenon & pof use goes back for a century.,

What tosh!

Pof use may go back a centuary but I am sure you would find total amount of pof used in the forest increased greatly over the 1970-2010s just a function of the number of people bouldering and using pof. Obvs I don't have any acutal numbers to support this.

[fried]

I don't generally like commenting on this kind of stuff..but..

Look at where the polish is. It's normally on footholds, often on problems with sandy ground. Watch old Bleausards pof up holds. Do they just put pof on footholds? No, they also put loads on handholds. Ever seen a polished handhold in Font?

Polish has become a serious problem in Font. Please clean yoiur shoes.

Anyways..

[slackline]

Ever seen a polished handhold in Font?

The ones that double as footholds?

[fried]

Don't you start bringing 'science' and 'logic' into this!

[erm, sam]

I don't think it is an either/or thing. Pof can polish holds and sandy boots can erode rock. I was disputing the seeming great confidence i munroe had about his contention that Pof had nothing to do with it. His augument seemed circumstantial.

[fried]

The problem is that the arguement goes 'Pof is rubbish and it's polishing all the holds and whatsmore it's French too. So, I'm going to use that as an excuse to use loads of chalk'

All the evidence is circumstantial.

Anyway this is off-topic, just say 'no' and keep your shoes clean.

[flyguy]

What actually is pof? Just googled it and it just comes up with a very popular dating site.

[slackline]

Resin from pine tree

[flyguy]

Cheers

[kelvin]

I'm a bit confused now - so all my mates have been telling me pof is bad/wrong/workofthedevil but the local's site says we should be using pof and not chalk 

Yup. Confused.

[slackline]

I'm a bit confused now - so all my mates have been telling me pof is bad/wrong/workofthedevil but the local's site says we should be using pof and not chalk 

Yup. Confused.

   You could go through the annals and find endless debates on the pof v's chalk front if you can be bothered. 

Just respect the rock/forest, clean your shoes well before pulling on and tidy up after yourself (finger tape included if you use it and fag ends too if you smoke), and if you're going to try using pof don't use it anywhere other than Font.

[i.munro]

I'm a bit confused now - so all my mates have been telling me pof is bad/wrong/workofthedevil but the local's site says we should be using pof and not chalk

Not sure which site you're referring to but most that  I've seen say something like "please don't use chalk!  If you must use  something then rather pof than chalk" which is very different from saying that you should use pof.

[psychomansam]

I'm not going to get involved in the debate as such, but the reality is that the majority of visitors, and certainly the brits, use chalk in Font.

So if you do choose to use chalk, here's some guidelines:
Don't chalk up at the start of your session, just for shits. Use chalk as and when sweaty palms require it or
Just take a break, and stop lunging for the sloper like an epileptic. Rest and precision is a lot more useful than burning through skin until you sweat blood.
Don't use any more chalk than you need when you do use it.
If you've left excess chalk on the rock, brush it off.
If someone else has left excess chalk on the rock, brush it off.
Don't dab chalk directly onto the rock, or make tick marks of any kind. Learn to climb.
Be aware that any chalk left under overhangs won't get rained away - and locals might see it as graffiti. Clean it off.
Keep your chalk bag secure, and if you're sliding down a rock with a chalk bag on your bum, close it and move it out the way so it doesn't tip upside down.
Do up your chalk bucket between uses or
Don't take a chalk bucket since it encourages excessive use of chalk.
As a last thought, perhaps consider using liquid chalks since they seem to leave less chalk on the rock*

*and the fact that most of them are made with small amounts of pof mixed in doesn't matter so much in Font!