20 a day

Mileage was the name of the game in Font this January trip, almost no projects, no dwelling just a few send attempts at each problem and then on to the next one.

I believe I got through about 20 problems or more a day and as the hours of bouldering passed, my ability to move through the problems improved and my confidence just kept getting better. It was so cold during our trip that I found if I stopped that was the end of that! It got down to about -2 or -3 at some points and any chance of hanging around projecting something was kind of out of the question!

I stopped only once on the third day of bouldering to do a little bit of work on a project of mine called Beatle Juice (7a+) in Franchard Cuisinere. Repeated parts of what I'd done before but this is a long long problem and I didn't have the power this time round. The moves, all of them sequencey and strong, are pretty dialled now, so I think I just have to get strong enough to put it all together.

Kev Power tried it too... and well... he came, he saw, he crushed... It took him a few go's at the individual moves and a five goes from the start before he topped out. Super impressive.

I think I'll need a few more sessions on it!

Brilliant fun though, I love that boulder, she's a beauty!!

Got to see three more areas of Font this trip, 95.2, La Roche aux Sablots and Bois Rand.

I think Bois Rand is a cool place to go first day to warm up and get a feel for the forest, wasn't hugely impressed with 95.2. It's ok, but it doesn't live up to the likes of Aprement, Cuisinere and Isatis so we moved back to La Roche aux Sablots which I think is a brilliant spot.

The guide points out that it has one of the best blue circuits in the Forest.

So we did 2 days on, 1 day off, 2 days on and during the bouldering days the pace was pretty good if not a little easy going. With the lack of pressure to send anything out of my comfort zone, it became all about the fun and games as we ran around problems ticking 95% of them off as we went.

Our accommodation was absolute luxury, a beautiful gite in a village called Recloses that made evenings comfortable and our day off a pleasure!

The five days seem to whizz by and even though (with the exception of Clare) I was surrounded by a group of crusty trad climbers ;) that would rather do anything than talk about bouldering or admit they were on a bouldering holiday (prefering to refer to the trip as a practice session for real climbing!) I really enjoyed myself and I think the trad climbers did too!!!

I think the next trip will have to have more daylight available, earlier mornings and (now that I know how to warm up in Font properly), more focus on problems that will push my grade and take me out of my comfort zone.

Great trip!!