On day 3, we decided to check out the Bas-Cuvier sector of Font. We warmed up and tried the famous dyno Hale Bopp, 8A. The problem is basically one big jump off of two very small but positive crimps to a jug lip. The feet are good but pretty low, so either you can reach it or not. For me, it was the latter. I could get an inch or so under the lip each time, but just couldn’t jump far enough to get it. After I felt like I couldn’t possibly jump any further, we packed up and moved on to try another famous boulder, Karma. This boulder is really really hard and is the universal standard for Font 8A+. It is also probably the most known boulder problem in the forest. The problem goes as such - You stand on a root and jump start to a good pinch. You then set your feet and do a huge right hand slap to a really bad sloper, then heelhook the pinch and rock up on your foot to a good left hand edge. I tried it a bunch of times but never got the right hand sloper good enough to be able to get my heel up. Although I didn’t send it, it was nice to finally try this boulder that I’ve heard so much about. I will definitely return someday to finish it up. After this we moved on to another area and I onsighted a 7C traverse called Eclipse, and also got really close to flashing the 7C+ to the left, but was too tired in the end to finish it up. All in all it was a fun day and we still managed to climb despite the rain.
Day 4 - Rain, Rain, RAIN!! Another day that started off with an early shower and then continued to drizzle for the rest of the day. We visited a really classic area called Cuvier Rempart. This sector is home to classics such as Fatman, Gourmandise, Sideways Daze, Fourmis Rouge, Noir Desir, etc. We warmed up and I climbed a 6C, 7A+, and 7B. We then moved on to try Noir Desir, 7C. This boulder has three problems on it, two 7C’s and a 7B+. I climbed the first 7C third try, then flashed both Noir Desir and the 7B+ to the left. Right up the trail from this boulder is a small roof with one perfect line coming out of it called “Grand Angle du Fond” 8A. The crux of the problem is only three hard moves and involves really huge slap moves between bad crimps and slopers. You start with your right hand on a small pocket it the roof and your left hand on a crimp on the arete. You put your left heel next to your left hand and do a big cross move to a really small and sharp gaston crimp on the lip of the roof. You then toe in really hard with your right foot and match this hold (its really bad with the right hand), and then do a HUGE left hand move to a perfect flat jug on the face. From here its maybe 6C to the top.
I worked the boulder for about an hour and finally near the end figured out the beta that worked the best for me. I fell a bunch of times slapping the final finish jug because the left heel that you do the move off of it really small and slippery, so I would have my hand on the jug but my foot would come off. After about maybe 50 tries, I finally hit the jug without my foot slipping and matched the hold quickly before I swung out. I still hit the pads a bit, but I’m taking it anyway because its pretty much impossible not to dab on this boulder. There was no way that the dab helped me anyway, I wouldn’t have fallen, so whatever. Maybe its invalid but I don’t care, for me it felt like a send.
So today I go back to Belgium, train in the gym for two more days then I’m off to Barcelona! All in all I was pretty satisfied with my Font trip. The weather wasn’t perfect but we still did a lot of amazing climbing. I climbed better then I thought I would, since I haven’t bouldered at all since January, and hanging out with my friends was also really fun.
On one final note, although I didn’t climb so many big grades, I want to point out that the grading scale in Font is WAY more stiff then that in most areas in the US (Hueco, Gunks, Bishop, etc.). I got shut down on a lot of 7B’s and 7C’s that I felt would be graded way higher in the US. Most of the 7C’s I climbed here would be at least V10 in Hueco, or maybe even harder sometimes. It makes me wonder.. Which scale is off. Is Font really stiff or is Hueco really soft?
