Bouldering is an interesting sport when it comes to risk, by its very nature it encourages climbers to push themselves to attempt moves they might not try on a 25m sport route for example. When describing bouldering to non-climbers I usually describe it as non-roped climbing usually up to 4-5 metres in height often protected by crash mats. I think that’s a pretty fair description, but it doesn’t cover every bouldering problem. There are problems both lower and higher, others are impossible to protect with crash pads.

On a recent trip to Fontainebleau I came face to face with what is described by the guide book as a ‘Highball’ at around 8-9 metres in height. I had never tried a problem this high without a rope and initially I wasn’t keen to attempt it, not only did it look high it looked hard too (not to mention damp). A tenuous right hand traverse took you up to the 4 metre mark, the remaining 4 metres were up a vertical crack. You can somewhat estimate whether your climbing ability will allow you to make the moves necessary to complete the problem but you need to factor in the risk element of being without a rope. I wasn’t at all sure I’d be able to complete the problem, for starters I have very little experience of crack climbing. In the end I had the benefit of one of my climbing partners completing the problem first, though that also gave me the added pressure to make the attempt. You can’t spend too long going through risks in your head otherwise you would never leave the ground, but my thought process went something along the lines of ‘I can quite safely jump down after the first 4 metres’ and ‘If I fall from near the top, it might mean broken bones, but probably not death’.

A few seconds later and I was on the rock, it wasn’t the most solid I had ever been and my feet slipped a couple of times. Once I made it across the traverse to the crack it was a nice climb to the top, the size of the crack meant you could fit your whole hand inside and twist to create a solid lock. The top out was predictably frightening and looking back over my shoulder it looked a long way down. My first highball completed. I can’t really justify the risk and I’m probably not going to make a habit of this sort of climbing, but it certainly won’t be the last highball I attempt, I have one planned for an upcoming trip to California. It’s also been put in perspective for me a little when I recently acquired a strained ankle tendon from a two foot controlled jump onto matting at an indoor wall.

Our easter was spent in a very cold and occasionally very wet Fontainebleau, it’s a testament to the quality of the climbing there that we had an amazing time despite a temperamental mother nature. I’ll be posting some videos, photos and some further information on the circuits that we worked in the near future - however this post is just a few tips on Font in general that might be useful.

Accommodation

We stayed in the Etap Avon just south of Fontainebleau. It’s a very basic hotel, but it’s clean and in a convenient location being only a 10 minute drive from the centre of Fontainebleau. The rooms are €40 a night and sleep 3 (a double and a bunk), so it works out about a £10 a night each. There are a few restaurants right by the hotel including a very good pizzeria opposite. There is also a huge Champion supermarket right next door which sells pretty much everything that a large ASDA would in the UK. The downsides were breakfast (get it from the supermarket instead) and the parking (gets full quickly, but you could park at the supermarket).

Eating

We ate at the Cafe Belgique in Fontainebleau twice, very good food and not too expensive. We also ate at the Pizza place opposite the hotel which is also very nice.

Getting Around

We used the Jingo Wobbly guidebook exclusively, despite it’s complications it’s a nice guide and was suited to our level (Orange/Blue) but doesn’t seem to have much for the more experienced boulderers. We used a combination of Guidebook and a TomTom to find our way to the boulders. Although we could have navigated with just maps it saved us time when looking for the parking spots. We used the manual click-and-drag TomTom function to pinpoint the locations we needed, it was usually pretty spot on. Most of the circuits that we did were were around 10 miles away, the roads are very good and not too busy around Font. It’s mentioned in the guidebook that car break-ins are a problem, we left nothing in the car and it was fine despite often being the only car parked. If you have a GPS unit take it with you and be sure to put the cigarette lighter back into its socket. A missing lighter is a sign to a thief that a there might be a GPS in the glove-box.

Equipment

We took two bouldering mats, but would have felt better with 3 on some of the routes. Best place to buy is probably alpkit where you can get a decent sized ‘phud’ mat for £70 and a smaller one for £45. We’ve got one of the smaller ones and it’s excellent. We also took ropes and harnesses in case we had to climb indoors (or wimp out on the highballs). We didn’t use them though. If you’re doing circuits you will need to cover a lot of distance, pack as lightly as possible. A laptop is very useful for checking the weather and watching climbing videos on rest days.

Photography

A mono-pod and tripod are recommended if you are going to be filming. You can also get some great shots with a mono-pod and a camera with a remote release.

Macquarie Ridge is a lesser known Boards of Canada track only released on the Japanese version of The Campfire Headphase. You can download it here. [flac 26mb]

Amazing climbing from Sharma.

Driving in England is not much fun, on a recent trip to Sheffield from London it took around 10 hours for what should have been a 5 hour journey at most. Granted, the exhaust fell off my car and we had to be recovered, but the majority of those 5 extra hours were spent in queues on the M1. If I ever have to make a journey north again, I won’t be taking my car - it’s simply not a viable option any longer. Apart from the obvious stress and fatigue of stop-start driving for 10 hours, it’s also a dangerous pursuit.

In contrast, a couple of years ago I did a road-trip from New York to Florida (and back), a distance of of over 2200 miles. I only recall being stuck in two minor traffic jams, both for tolls. I have also had the same experience on a road-trip around California, Arizona and Nevada. Driving is still fun in America, you can cover vast distances and still arrive when you expect to arrive. I think there are a few reasons for this (besides the obvious fact that modern America is modeled around the automobile):

• Americans don’t rubberneck. Looking at my Florida road-trip footage there is a scene where we drive past a huge lorry with it’s cargo ablaze on the hard-shoulder. Even though it’s a busy highway, the traffic is moving freely. In contrast on the way home from Sheffield, a tailback was caused by the elderly occupant of a broken down car wearing a thermal foil sheet.
• The police don’t shut the highways at any given opportunity. Take the above lorry example, the police were present yet all 3 lanes of the highway remained open.
• No speed restrictions during roadworks. The lower speed limits in the US mean that it’s not always necessary to lower the speed limit during roadworks. Also the workers are often protected by proper safety barriers rather than cones.
• Last but not least is that there is no concept of a fast lane. All lanes are equal and undertaking is allowed, when combined with the slightly lower speed limits often between 55 to 65 mph this really helps keep traffic flowing.

When driving from Florida to New York, we covered 650 miles in 10 hours. At the weekend we couldn’t manange 160.