Font Day 1: Bas Cuvier Bouldering

For our first day climbing in Fontainebleau I wanted to go to the area with a reputation for being the hardest- Cuvier. I figured that getting my ass kicked the first day out will make every other day feel easier by comparison. Also, I couldn't track down a pad so I wanted to go somewhere I thought might be busy enough to bum pads off people, but that didn't really happen. The one time I was offered a pad by someone it was a really nice Scottish guy, but I thought he was offering me "maps" and not "mats". Oh well...

We started out on some really challenging slabs. The first one I tried I got pretty easily but the next three problems shut me down. I had no idea what climbs or grades I was on- I was just out for fun and exploration. Bas Cuvier is a very popular and old area where most of the foot holds have been polished glass-smooth. The natural rock color is grey, so since the polished rock turns a light color, my approach has been to avoid those areas for feet. This works pretty good some times but definitely not on all problems.

After this introduction to the area, I started looking for some harder stuff. I learned later (via Bleau.info) what I was actually climbing. I tried a cool little sit start roof problem that took me a few tries to get but I couldn't figure out its name. Then at the recommendation of a Scottish couple we were talking to I jumped on a couple blue circuit problems both rated 4a or so. After trying and failing at a few 7a's, I jumped on Fissure Morin 4a which was a very fun problem. Between Fissure Morin and the Helicopter boulder there was a cool little 6a problem with a steep sit start on pockets and a slopey mantle on rock features the Scottish guy was calling "Dragon Back". After a few attempts (and scoping out the holds from above) I managed to get up it.

These were all fairly challenging for the grade but not unlike what I've grown accustom to in the US, grade-wise. The Font grading system covers more grades below V0 than just VB, so everything below about 4a is suppose to be in the VB range. 4a - 4c is suppose the be V0. 5abc is V1-3. 6abc is V4-6, and 7a meets up with our V7. I've found that the lower grades can be really challenging, and many that should be VBs or V0s (3a - 4a) often feel like V2 or V3. This seems to be a common observation with the area. 7a definitely seems to be the grade that I really have to work hard on, and success would take multiple sessions, which was my expectation.

Here are a few othe problems I tried and failed at: Cortomaltese 7a (I came really close!), L'Hélicoptere 7a, Holey Moley 7a, Le Carnage 7b+, and Charcuterie 7a. Other than Cortomaltese, I wasn't even close on the others.

[Note: Bad WiFi means pictures will have come later. Included links show soe of the climbs though.]