Memoire d'Outre Tombe

One of the good things about being out here for so long is that the need to climb every minute of every day, whatever the conditions isn’t quite so overpowering. There hadn’t been any more rain overnight by the look of it, but the fields behind Maisonbleau were covered in frost and fog.
Normally I’d have been out like a shot flailing around on semi-dry rock, but today I could wait until things had dried out a little before heading out. So, I pottered round the gite all morning waiting for it to clear and praying that it didn’t start raining again.

Knowing that Rocher Fin is quite a quick drying crag, up on a hill; And knowing how close i’d come to doing Memoire d’Outre Tombe the other day, I decided to head back, while the beta was still fresh in my mind.

I got up there about 15:00, and feeling refreshed from the rest day yesterday, I just warmed up by doing the top-out from the lip of the roof – easy. I did it again, starting from the crux moves and topped out once more, then set up the camera, having remembered to put a memory card in it today, and shuffled to the back of the cave to try it from the start. A little foot slip quickly corrected, and I was topping out the first of the problems on my tick list, and also my first of the grade in the forest – sweet!



I had a quick play on the right-hand variant, which tops out with a powerful throw and a razor-sharp crimp, so after a few goes I sacked it off and started to play on the problem just opposite – a nice wall on slopey pinches. I made pretty good progress on it and thought it might go down in one session, but after setting up the camera again I bailed from the top in spectacular style, and then split a tip on my next attempt, so decided to call it a day – another one to come back for.
So i’m now sat in the gite, supping a nice cold victory beer, very happy to have got my first decent tick of the trip. Hopefully i’ll keep ‘em coming!

Also a quick thankyou to my buddy Mr P. who’s been egging me on all week. Admittedly his spotting skills ain’t up to much, but he’s good to have around!