Fontainebleau

I'm writing this with tired arms and fingers, which are usually markers of a good weekend passed. Certainly true today as we head back from Fontainebleau on the BoulderBus. And if you are a southern UK boulderer and don't know about this service, then you're missing out an amazing option for a sneaky weekend away.

Since my last update climbing overall has been going well, although training itself recently has felt somewhat mixed. I feel like I've been putting in the work, but something has just been a bit off and sessions have felt harder than expected or riddled with small errors like feet blowing off when they really shouldn't.

What has kept the motivation high has been the small wins. First through the gate was an easy send of Insatiable (7b+) in Cheddar Gorge a few weekends back. It's a short route with a crux that involves laybacks up a crack into a final long, balancy move off of poor feet to a jug. I've never before hit the start of the season where I felt as strong and confident at that grade, so very satisfying.

Next up was an indoor success - not something I'd typically write about but this one felt noteworthy. It started with a training session gone wrong, my warm up was ugly, motivation was low, so I easily binned it off when a friend suggested we tie in and do some routes. A couple of routes later I tied in and headed up a new 7a+, expecting my normal performance of uncertainty setting in when it got tricky, then arms blowing up and me falling off. Instead, it all flowed, I had time, I stayed with my breathing, and topped out a short while later. Lowering off I was quietly pleased with myself, but it was only as I reflected some time later that I realised I'd never before onsighted that grade. I kinda wish it had been outdoors, rather than at the gym, but I'm taking it!

Which leads us up nicely to this weekend's trip. We've been gifted near perfect climbing conditions, neatly sandwiched between a hot spell last week and the rain you saw in the picture above. We spent Saturday at Col De Chien and after warming up with the group I headed off to look at Arabesque (7B+) , which is an obvious line through a large roof/prow and exactly the sort of madness that inspired me down this path of tortured skin and tendons! Things started poorly as I flailed around trying to get through the first few moves. It all got much better when someone pointed out I was in the start holds which led into the 8A low start to the problem.  Moving up to the correct holds led to much more rapid progress and by the end of the session I had a workable plan for all the moves, with only two I still need to stick. All in all, it felt like great progress and I'm looking forward to getting back there one day for the send. Also heartening that my bouldering power is good (for me) even though the past few months training has centred on sports climbing power endurance.

I think that's it for now. I'm heading into a crazy, exciting period of travel culminating in our wedding in Malta in June. But before that I sneak away in a fortnight's time to Rodellar for another burn on the inspiring El Delfin amongst various other lactic acid inducing climbs.