Another short visit
to the forest, unlike last time the forecast looked stable. My intentions were
to have a few sessions in the Island. But those plans quickly evaporated when I
warmed up on the first day. Conditions where 'summer like', not good for slopers
but very good for chilling out. The first day we started at Rocher Guichot, a
rather nice area that I never visited before. I briefly tried Le Bossu de
Notre-Dame 7c+/8a. A nice boulder but not the best choice, sticking a sloper in
the sun is hard when it is 23 degrees. I'll come back to finish this one for
sure. We escaped to Rocher Gréau. I wanted to try Le Toit du Gréau 8a, a north
faced roof problem without slopers. That one felt hard, I couldn't even do the
first move. Luckily the first move was the crux, the following moves still felt
hard but not as vicious as the first. I doubted if I could do this one within a
few days. In the evening I checked some video's of the boulder and noticed some
differences with my method. Especially the foot placement of the first move was
different, maybe with the new beta... The second day I didn't return to Le Toit
du Gréau, I wanted to do Opium 8a instead. Opium is another 'summer' problem
and I previously tried it a couple years ago. Feeling stronger than the last
time I tried Opium, I hoped to make a quick ascend. Things turned out
differently. For some strange reason the crux heelhook didn't stick, and
normally heelhooks are one of my strengths. I couldn't send the problem in one
session, so we came back in the evening. The temperatures where way better and
that was noticeable to the friction. The only downside where the mosquitoes ;-)
Finally I did Opium, a so called easy 8a but for me a tricky one. With regained
confidence I went back to Le Toit du Gréau the next day. The new beta worked
pretty good, thank God for the internet :-) This one is a hard 8a for sure,
maybe even 8a+. After sending Le Toit I was happy, sending two 8a's in three
days is not a bad score. But a climber is always hungry! So I began trying the
moves of Chaos 8b, the sit start of Le Toit du Gréau. It adds about 10 really
physical moves to Le Toit. I had a good session in Chaos and could link all the
moves to the starting position of Le Toit, but arriving there I was completely
exhausted. Another one for the project list and a good one for warm weather,
maybe a summer project?
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| Opium 8a, photo Sophia Bitlloch |
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| Working in Chaos 8b, photo Sophia Bitlloch |
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| Working in Chaos 8b, photo Sophia Bitlloch |
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| Le Toit du Greau 8a, photo Sophia Bitlloch |
