It is time I started keeping track of my climbing/training. It is a little bit late but where better to start than a Font trip?
Firstly a bit about goals. I just about broke into the low 7s last year, managing 1 7A+ and about 5 7As so the aim for this year is to consolidate at 7A and aim for a 7B. To help with this, I have started a bouldering pyramid for 2015.
The aim is:
1 x 7B
3 x 7A+
9 x 7A
27 x 6C/6C+ of which I want at least 13 out of the 27 to be either slabs or aretes. Most of my harder climbs have been roofs/overhangs and I need to work more on my weaknesses. Even font 5 aretes often cause me problems.
Before Font, the pyramid stood at:
7B: 0/1
7A+: 0/3
7A: 2/9 (Simple Simon Indirect and The Crack, both at Churnet)
6C/6C+: 1/27 (First Roof Middle at Gardom's)
So early progress on the pyramid has been a bit slow. I was hoping to have filled out a bit more of the bottom of the pyramid by now. I have found 3 projects (Wright's Traverse 7B, Wright's Unconquerable 7A+ and High Speed Imp Act 7A which all feel like they should be doable after varying amounts of work.
Away from bouldering, I want to do more sport and push myself harder at it. I'm not going to set any target grades or routes as I've never properly redpointed anything so I'm not really sure what a worthwhile target would be yet but we're aiming for a sport trip in summer/autumn and I'd like to be able to get more out of it than I would if I went on one now.
Enough rambling, time to begin:
Sunday (technically the week before but it was the start of the trip): It rained early in the night so we went to Gorges Aux Chats in the morning hoping something would be dry, aiming to do an easy circuit to get back in to the feel of climbing at Font. Just as we got out the car, it started to rain again. Had a look around, everything was very wet and clearly wasn't going to dry so back to the gite for lunch. This was the second year in a row where we tried to start our trip by going to Gorge Aux Chats, I have yet to pull on to a problem there.
In the afternoon, we went to a very busy Rocher Fin where probably half the routes were dry. Didn't seem much point trying to stick to a circuit so we just ran around on easy stuff. Did about 10 problems up to 6A including some nice balancy slabs. I was pleased with how easy Rubik felt, which was the scene of a bit of a meltdown near the top 2 years ago. Spent ages working red 16 Torticolis 5C, without getting anywhere near it
Monday: More rain overnight so we had a later start and then went to 91.1, which was bone dry and which we had to ourselves for the whole day! Warmed up on some low grade balancy slabs, which were starting to feel as easy as they should after a few days in Font. Then we did Red 12 Le Cure-Dents 6A and L'Arc de Cercle 5C on the chained boulder. Was pleased with these as I failed to commit to these 2 years ago but they felt very comfortable this time. Might be becoming less of a coward. We did Flipper 6B, which took a fair bit of work and was well worth its classic status.
Tried Red 34 La Balancoire 6A and Rideau de Pluie 6C, a couple of highish problems with a less than perfect landing but failed to commit to the tops. Tried L'Americain 7A+, Le Sous-Plomb 6C+ and Le Sous-Plomb direct 7A+. I was nowhere near L'Americain but both versions of Le Sous-Plomb felt closeish and I think I would have managed them if I had tried them before I tired at the end of the day.
Tuesday: Maunoury. It was good fun exploring through all the caves and gorges etc but climbing harder things was tricky with the number of rocky landings, highish problems and scrittly/sandy problems. Seems like it could do with a bit more traffic to keep the problems clean. Got up a few easy things then failed on: Red 19 Full Monty 6B (struggled to commit on a typical Font topout), Red 18 l'Ellipse 6B (too hard), Red 15 Le Jardin Suspendu? 5C (wouldn't commit to a sloping topout combined with a high heel-toe cam that felt a bit too good), Soupçon assis 7A (bunched sitstart that I wasn't very close to). I got up a few reds and blues but overall, I was a bit disappointed at some of the problems I didn't manage. With hindsight, we would have been better off having a fun day running around on something like the blue circuit and saving the skin for somewhere where we were more likely to succeed.
Wednesday: Apremont. Spent a while trying red 12 Chateau de Sable 6A. Didn't manage the topout and lost a fair bit of skin on the sharp crimps. It was a really good problem which I would have liked to get done although looking at the book, I think the line we were taking was probably harder than the intended line. Tried red 11 Les Yeux 6B where I couldn't quite move up in balance after matching the monos. Flashed red 8 Triste Portique 5B, then sheltered in a cave for lunch while it rained. Once things had dried again, did sky blue 16 Michodiere 5B with 3 different topouts as we weren't sure where the line went and attempted white 10? Les Etoiles 6A+/La Lune 6C+ but I couldn't rock over far enough on the heel at the top to reach the finishing jug. I think I had to be doing the right move, just needed to do it better. Wanted to try Science Friction 6B and 13eme Travail d'Hercule 7A but neither looked likely to dry that day.
Tried Égoiste 7A and Knees 7A in the fading light. I didn't manage to match the top hold on the arete of Égoiste before the move out left but it felt like it would have gone with a bit more work or if I'd tried it earlier in the day. Did the moves from the start to the massive slot on Knees first time and did from matched in the slot to the top first time but couldn't work out how to match the slot without dabbing and gave up with darkness well and truly descended. For some reason I never tried the kneebar which everyone used in the videos I checked back at the gite. Given the problem's name, you would have thought that would have been the first thing I tried... I'll put that oversight down to fatigue/hunger after a long day's bouldering.
Thursday: Franchard Cuisiniere. Started off poorly, failing on white 30 Rapido 6A arete, white 31 Le Puzzle 5C, an overhang where I couldn't workout the arete at the top (told you I was rubbish at aretes!) and white 29 Rhomboide 6A+ traverse (probably should have stuck at this one for a few more tries). Retreated to Orange 10 l'Equerre 4B, a highball offwidth/layback crack just to get to the top of something, then did red 21 Fissure USA 5C, an unknown mantle and two unknown balancy slabs over a poor landing (one of these was excellent).
After lunch, flashed red 24 Soif de Vivre 5C (a nice balancy slab), flashed white 39 Le Figaro 6A, a highish slopey arete, did white 41 Passion 5C, flashed the sitstart Proue de la Passion 6C+ (if you can call it a flash having already done the finish) and tried to extend it in to Passion et Vertu 7A. I couldn't do one move around the arete on to the face of Passion et Vertu unless I used a good higher hold which I suspect isn't allowed. The rest of the route felt easy for 7A so I think the higher hold must be out. I couldn't find any videos of the line so does anyone know how low you are supposed to stay as you come under the prow and on to the face?
Then did a couple of easy highish balancy slabs and attempted Undertow 7A. I was close to getting Undertow, I pieced all bar one move together quickly but I just didn't have the skin left to properly work something that slopey. I think I could have got it with a bit more work but that probably would have been the end of my trip.
On the way back to the car, we popped in to Isatis as I wanted to try Quartier Latin, a 7A I felt close to before. I quickly managed the move I couldn't do before, only to come unstuck on the slab at the top which I could do previously. Frustrating.
Friday: Bas Cuvier. Started off failing on a bunch of things: Charcuterie, Ariagnée and La Daubé all 7A (nowhere near any of them), Cortomaltese 6C+ (gave up to preserve the skin, suspect I was a further away from doing this than it felt) Coup de Sang 6B (a highball arete with a sloping top that I couldn't commit to) and Trav Leroux en aller-retour 7A (couldn't work out one move in the middle on the way back).
Feeling incapable of topping out anything, I set off doing a bunch of easier stuff to salvage something from the day. Did blue 38 Jus d'Orange 5C, blue 39 Porthos 5A+ and then did Orange 35-44. Then we found a few boulders with a bunch of highish slabs over good landings where I did blue 34 Mur de Tripes 5C+, Sans le Serpent 5C, Sans l'Arete 6B, blue 33 La Dévissante 5B+, orange 38 Les Tripes 3B, blue 36 La Diedre du Doigt 5A, blue 35 Surplomb du Doigt 5B and blue 32 La Dalle au Pernod 5C, almost all of which were flashed. I really enjoyed this area and pleased to do so many highish problems which I would probably have backed away from on earlier trips.
Saturday: driving home. Steak and frites and Pain au Raisin.
Sunday: indoors leading session, lots of new routes to attempt. Warmed up on 5b, 5c, 2 x 6a, 6b, 6c (all flashed). Attempted overhanging orange 7a, fell off two thirds of the way after getting a bit pumped due to poor route reading and then attempting to do a move too dynamically when it needed to be static. I think the grade was soft and I probably should have flashed it. Attempted the orange 7a+. Found it quite hard to read and it took a few goes to get some of the moves, then did it on I think my 2nd redpoint attempt. Went to try the moves on the green 7B. Found it easier than expected and quickly got all of the moves. Fell off the redpoint attempt due to using the wrong foot placement. Partner had to go so I finished off with some endurance work, doing the new V1-V3 circuit on limited rest.
Overall, I would have liked to get up more problems in the high 6s and maybe a few 7s at Font but I think there were a number of things holding us back there: 1) We often only got round to attempting harder things late in the day when tired and low on skin, 2) There were only two of us on the trip so we maybe didn't rest as much between attempts as we should have and we had less people to leach beta off and 3) we climbed straight through the week where we should have had a rest day or at least an easy day on a low grade circuit around Wednesday to recharge the skin and energy levels.
Had a great time though and was pleased with the progress on higher problems.
Apologies for the ramblings, I'll try and keep this week's entry a bit shorter.
