Font Heat

It has been super cold for most of our trip but the heat came in a few days ago. Taking a look back at my goals and comparing them to what has happened so far in the trip will reveal that I’ve been unsuccessful in climbing anything at my limit. However, I have been successful in improving my climbing on less than steep sandstone. Which gives a glimpse into what climbing in font is all about. The easy problems are just as fun as the hard ones. Even lowball V0- or 5a can be a blast. The blue (easy) circuit at Isatis is fantastic. I think the reason is the sandstone. Moving on smooth sandstone holds is more fun than granite, in my opinion.

Before I started this adventure, the longest climbing trip I had been on was two weeks. I thought that six weeks in font would be a lot of time and I would be able to project hard problems more than I have in the past. The problem is font is so massive that we seem to go to new areas everyday and climb on new problems. I haven’t spent more than two days on a problem since we got here. Clearly it is a good thing to have so many classic boulders just a short drive away but it means that three months here would be ideal in order to project a few harder lines that are on my list.

The other issue with font is the skin factor. Yesterday we went to Petit Bois and Rocher Greau after taking a rest day the day before. After warming up I worked on Big Dragon which is a rad arete with a sharp crux hold. I tried it maybe 10 times and had to quit because my skin was shredding on both hands. I had enough skin left to try Tigre et Dragon (another classic 8a) three times before my tips were bright pink and ready to explode! Granted it was a balmy 70 degrees so that didn’t help at all! Now I’m on a two or three rest day period before getting back out to the boulders. It’s supposed to be in the 50’s and 60’s next week which isn’t ideal but I’m sure we’ll have some rad days and finally get some projects completed!

Top three on my list at the moment are le Surplomb de la Mee 8a, Tigre et Dragon 8a, and Big Dragon 8a. I’ve tried them all briefly and feel like they will go next time I get to them with skin and decent temps!

It’s looking like we’ll hang out in font until the first or second week of April. Not sure what our next destination is. Probably either England, Spain, or Switzerland.