Font Day 5: Bois Rond

Weekends in Fontinebleau are known to get a little crowded, so for our last day I decided to head to a less populated area called Bois Rond. This area is known for lowball boulders and high quality traverses, and most importantly-- no crowds. It also sports a very difficult Red circuit (up to 7a), a purportedly high quality Orange circuit, and what the guide book says is a disapointing Blue circuit. This is exactly what I'm looking for on my fifth day on straight.

One thing I should mention about Fontainebleau is that the climbing is divided into major geological areas. Within those areas, clusters of boulders are further defined, and each major cluster of rock usually has between 100 - 200+ different boulder problems! Realize that you're never more than about 20 minute drive from the furthest area (and there are dozens of areas with as many as 5 or 6 sub areas), and you begin to understand just how much bouldering there is in a very small proximity. For the Orange County climber this is like driving to the beach from Fountain Valley or Huntington Beach! An insane amount of climbing right in your backyard.

When we get to the climbing area (a 2 minute walk from the parking), I start warming up on a few blue climbs. In contradiction to the guide book, I find these little blue climbs to be exactly the type of climbing I enjoy: short, powerful, long movements. After a half dozen blues or so, I start feeling confident enough to jump on some harder red circuit climbs. Right off the bat I flash a couple 5c's called Souplesse Oblige and Vita Stop. Then I work another 5b Red 31 from a sit start.

Rachel worked a steep blue for a while that had a powerful section at the bottom and a somewhat slopey top out. After this, we dragged our stuff around the corner to a traverse called Le Long Fleuve Tranquille 6a. I jumped on this knowing nothing about it other than that it was a traverse, and managed to eek out a flash. The top out was a little sketchy since the holds thinned out pretty bad.

While Rachel worked on another blue I wandered off to check out some other red climbs. I stumbled into Red #1, a technical 5c called Pas Fin de Fan which I managed to flash. It had some crimper side pulls, but the trick was to stem the feet between opposing holds. the finish was a little desperate and high but it went down quickly.

Next, I dragged the pad over to a 6b called Obli-Yettes which starts way down in a cave with decent holds and a right heel hook. A couple semi-power moves bring you to a lip where the feet are reset to the left for a flag and a big move to a sloper on a marginal slopey crimper. Once the feet are adjusted higher, the last jug is reached and the climb is basically over. After a few burns to get this beta figured out, I took a long rest and fired to the top.

Feeling confident from this ascent, I decided to try some other hard problems, but had no luck. Five days straight climbing has taken its toll, and I'm pretty much out of gas at this point.

Overall, I'm really happy with how I've climbed and I'm leaving inspired to train hard and come back again. Next time I will have a better idea of what to expect and should need less time to adjust to the rock. Every day I climbed here I got a little more comfortable with the style: I started climbing orange circuits, graduated to blue the next day, and was climbing red and black the day after that. Definitely an amazing experience!

And the cheese and wine were excellent too!