While I proceeded to get a thorough spanking by everything that I pulled onto, Nick and Deb went over to Duroxmanie. Nick proceeded in spectacular style, to do all 3 variations (standing, direct and sit start) with Deb coming really close to linking the sit start too.
Of the problems that I was trying the first 'Picon-Bière' involved a really nice rock over move. Whilst I didn’t top it out, I’ll definitely be back to give this another go. I wasted a lot of skin on a couple of sloper problems, but for the sake of my skin I left them (unconquered) in the forest for another day ... the boars can have them.
Lance and Lou turned up, and while Lou set to work on ‘Fruits de la Passion’, Lance and I worked a really nice high-ball slab ‘Super Forge’ along with a chatty Scandinavian bloke. On his last full day in Font, Lance wasn’t messing about, so quickly and surely crimped his way to the top.
I had to leave to go and pick Steph up from the airport, which I managed slightly more successfully than last time, and also made it back to the gite in time for a couple of beers with Nick and Deb! We then headed to bed, in preparation for what was going to be a jam-packed weekend climbing with Steph.
We’d had some heavy rain overnight from the sounds of it so didn’t wake up too hopeful of finding dry rock, but surprisingly the patio was dry and the sun was shining.
Steph was eager to get back to Sa Pelle au Logis, and sure enough, after a few attempts to refresh her memory of the moves, she fired it off in style.
She had a quick look at the variant Variaspol but was eager to go and check out some new problems after her send.
I thought Steph might like one of the problems we’d done the other day at Apremont – Retablissement, so we moved on and sure enough within half-an hour she was topping it out (with the obligatory Font-style top-out!)
Next up I fancied another look at Onde de Choc. I was getting up to my highpoint with relative ease but didn’t get much further (some beta from Neil later on has given me hope so I’ll be back to this one too).
We then wandered back for a look at a problem Deb had recommended – 'Jérémiades assis' which, while looking really good, was pretty painful on the fingertips. After a few goes on this a short shower put paid to our efforts (and spared our fingers) so we decided to call it ‘beer o’clock’ and head on home.
In the meantime though we had received a text from Nick to say that, in typical last-day style Deb had nailed Magic Bus (Font 7b+) with hours to spare and that they were heading home well satisfied with a good haul from their trip out here. Props to Deb for getting this done and fighting through the pain barrier after the razor sharp undercut she was using had taken a chunk of flesh out of it the other day. Ouch!
So after saying farewell to Team Wolf, we came home, ate sausages, and Mr P got drunk and found himself a girlfriend (see his gallery).
Today, after eventually figuring out what the actual time was (disappointing to find we’d lost an hour overnight) we hiked back up to Rocher Fin as Steph was keen for another round on Memoire de Outre Tombe. It only took a couple of goes for her to realise that she can definitely do it, and a couple more before she was powering through the crux moves and into the last few moves. Unfortunately, despite coming agonisingly close to topping it out, the beans ran out and it’s going to have to wait a few more weeks. I’ve a feeling this one’ll go down pretty quick next time though.
Meanwhile, I had decided I should really have another look at the other variation on this bloc – ‘Chevalier Errant’ and after a little trial and error realised a sequence that I was sure would work. The moves out of the roof though, revolve around a finger trashing crimp, in stark contrast to the lovely slopers on Memoire, and I didn’t quite make the link before reaching my pain threshold.
So no more ticks for either of us today, but a really good session none the less.
I’m writing this now, having had a bit of a nightmare getting Steph to the airport in time. In fact, we weren’t on time, and if it wasn’t for the fact that her flight was delayed she would have missed it. Not sure how bothered either of us would’ve been about that though, to be honest!
So i’m sitting here now sharing a beer with Mr P as we plan our last few days in Bleau, before the next phase of adventures begins....
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