Fontainebleau Diary 2017 - Day 1

After a late night drive to Dover on Friday night followed by a hasty pint in the first acceptable pub we found it was to the B&B for (attempted) sleep.  Saturday morning saw an early ferry to Calais and a long drive across France through some rather damp weather before we arrived at Le Grand Gîte Franchard ion the late afternoon.  Unpacking and a quick shop done, we proceeded to drink all the wine we had bought and satiate appetites with copious quantities of pasta. Plans were made and in light of the weather we decided to have a relaxed start and head to Rocher Fin as it dries quickly after rain.

We awoke to a grey and damp sky, but no rain was falling. Slowly people surfaced, and we ate the traditional breakfast of coffee, grapefruit, and fried eggs on toast before loading up with climbing gear and a lunch of more coffee, fruit, baguettes, and various meats and cheeses before loading up the cars with mats and people and making the short drive out and rather longer walk in.

Ed and Kelly were planning on doing the full Orange Circuit, whereas I was planning on not going quite as over the top as I did last year when Andy and I climbed everything in sight.  I decided to warm up on a few yellows then try oranges as I went around and any interesting harder problems I spotted.

Touring around the problems went much to plan, occasional orange problems needed a bit of thought  and got the heart going but for the most part they were doable, and I wasn't worried about skipping ones which weren't doing it for me.  It didn't take too long before I started adding in climbs from the Blue Circuit and they were enjoyable, which bodes well for the rest of the holiday.  I was really pleased to get La Fissure Rouge as it felt like it rewarded the effort I put in.

After a break for lunch it took a while to get my energy levels up again and get my head in to climbing, there were a few things I just couldn't comprehend even on the easier circuits, but then it turned out that the Orange was a 5a- which is well out of the usual grades for Orange.  I soon found a blue crack climb which looked interesting and gave it a go, bailing out at the top out.

Later Andy and Kelly came over and both got up it in very different ways, after a rest I tried again and combined bits of both of their beta to come up with a third different approach, successfully sending it.  After this I was pretty much spent and couldn't climb yellows any more, so I resorted to ferrying kit and watching people try and finish the orange circuit - 4 problems from the end and nearing 6pm Ed, Kelly, Andy and Kelly were finishing up on The Cube and we decided it was time for home. 

When we got back to the Gite we went out for an evening Run, with Kelly, Kelly and Andy going for 12km while Liz and I did a gentle 5km through muddy puddles in the forest before it was time for beer and dinner.  Assuming the weather holds up tomorrow we will be heading for Apremont.

UKC Logbook for 10th September 2017
Bleau.info Profile