Headed out to Franchard Haute Plaines to the 'Surplomb de la Coquille' boulder yesterday, with the intention of trying the right-hand sit start I came close to last autumn. I started by trying to repeat the standing start but quickly realised i’d worked a lot harder the previous day at Rocher Fin than i’d thought, and the familiar burning sensation flooded my biceps. I had a quick try of the assis moves, but just couldn’t stick the first move. It’s a pretty low percentage move for me – either a long span (which I don’t have) or a powerful deadpoint to a poor crimp. The moves from here into the stand are pretty straightforward, but without the first crux move, or the redpoint crux – the final dynamic rockover, I was going nowhere fast. So after a couple of hours I decided to pack it in and write the day off as a rest day.
On the plus side, I stopped off on the way back for another try at finding Les Nobrilistes, successfully this time! It’s a great looking boulder, standing on its own deep in the woods, but was too damp still to bother trying. I’ll be sure to go back to it later in the trip though.

Having polished off the first book of the trip - Slumdog Millionaire (a bit ‘meh’ if you ask me), along with 5 episodes of Prison Break, I was feeling pretty refreshed this morning, and felt like I needed to check out some new problems.
First on the list was ‘Double/Triple axel’ at Rocher Cassepot du Grises. Having seen Neil do this in his October dose, I was disappointed to find that pulling on was going to be a whole lot harder for me. My negative ape index certainly wasn’t helping here. It seemed I had to start a lot lower to work my way up to the decent holds, and even then I was at full stretch. So after some small progress I decided to quit while I still felt strong and move on to the next problem on the list – ‘Noir Desir’.

Well, what can I say - this problem is AWESOME! It feels like everything I’ve been training for these last few months. Powerful, technical, balancey, beautiful rock, and in a beautiful setting. It’s simply amazing.
There are two variations - the direct and the slightly easier left-hand. They share the same powerful undercut start, into some perfectly sculpted slopey scoops, and although they head in different directions the following moves are fairly similar, the left-hand version being the ideal preparation for the direct.
Again, I made good progress, figuring the start out quickly and feeling strong on the next moves too. But with the landing strewn with small boulders, having no idea which way I was going to come off if I went for it, I decided to return with another pad next time.
I can’t describe how psyched I am to do these problems. And from my experience that’s half the way to doing a problem - having the motivation.
Anyway i’ll stop ranting about it now, but Nick - I seem to remember this being on your tick list in November, and if it wasn’t it should be. I hope you’re ready for a few sessions on it when you come over!

So, happy with the day so far, despite not topping anything out again, I stopped at Carrefour to stock up on breakfast and have a quick coffee.
There’d been a quick shower while I was inside, but since the next problem on the list was in an area i’ve not been to before, I carried on anyway just for a look around.
The problem in question is a prow called ‘Katioushka’ at Les Beorlots. It took a bit of finding, as the boulder is out on its own, and the tree to which the all-important ‘Route de Collet’ sign was attached has fallen over and wasn’t immediately obvious.
Still, I got there eventually, and as expected the rock was absolutely soaking. No chance of even pulling on to try a few moves, but it looks like it’ll climb really nicely, so i’ll definitely be back.

All in all, it’s been a pretty typical trip so far. Some good days, some, well, less good days. Some sun, some rain, some cloud. Lots of getting shut down, a fair bit of progress and a little success. Sore skin and aching muscles. And of course lots of beer - and tonight - the mother of all chilli!