Item 70: Go Camping With Dan
When we went to Font in July 2010 we spent a bit of money on gear, and thought we'd better go on another trip to get value for money :)
For one reason or another, Font 2011 was the first time we would have a chance to use the tent.
We stayed at Camping Les Pres at Grez sur Loing, in the usual spot. It was a nice enough camp site. Showers were warm and pretty clean considering how basic it was. I was not so impressed with the amount of spiders and bugs and webs in the ladies though...
Saturday morning we went to Canche aux Merciers, which is a nice low crag to get us started. A lot of us on the trip only top rope or boulder indoors and certainly I was a little nervy with no safety net at all. We did a yellow circuit, following the arrows around the problems, which I am told is an English grade 3 or 4, but they all felt harder than that! We also learnt the lesson of checking the descent from the rock, as sometimes getting down was trickier than climbing up!
In the afternoon we moved to La Roche aux Sabots, another low(ish) crag with yellow circuit but also harder problems for those that wanted them.
I must admit I sulked a little here. I wasn't feeling well, and wasn't mentally in the right place to push myself. The rock here was quite polished in places and very slippy. Most things I tried, I failed. Including a particular problem I'd spent ages overcoming a year ago. I thought I'd leap up it this year and demonstrate my improvement but actually I couldn't do it. I ended up taking a few photos of others, and trying to enjoy being outdoors in a beautiful forest on a sunny day.
Sunday morning we headed to Elephant, and to a very high climb my brother wanted to complete after dropping from 20 feet or so from it last year. I made the decision to support him that morning, and to focus on climbing mostly in the afternoon. An easy choice to make since Elephant is mostly quite high, and I am not confident far off the ground without a rope.
Several people made the climb, but my brother didn't. I think he could remember last years fall too clearly, and although I'm really sad for him, I'd rather he came home with all his bones intact. Elephant pushes the boundaries for me between bouldering and soloing, and I was happy enough we all made it back to the minibus with no broken bones.
In the afternoon I was raring to go, and we went to Dame Jouanne with the advice to not look for circuits, but just to climb anything that looked interesting. I find this really hard. I can't pick my own problems easily. Left to my own devices I'd end up climbing routes that could be done in trainers, or problems so hard I wouldn't succeed and would be frustrated. This crag was also quite high, and after some fruitless time searching for parts of circuits, I went for a scramble with a friend instead. We figured we'd go round the bottom of the rocks looking up at the tall rock in the middle, and come out the other side. Half way round we found steps built into the ground and boulders, so we headed up them and at the top found the rocks flattened out to a big enough area to stop and admire an astounding view, before re-joining our friends.
That evening I was a bit deflated. I'd done so little climbing, and panicked at anything higher than about 10 feet. I didn't feel I had challenged myself, or achieved much at all. At dinner that evening I requested a lower crag the next day, with an obvious circuit for me to follow.
And wow did I get what I wanted! We ended up at a quiet little crag called Beauvais Guinguette with a nice yellow circuit with 50 problems. We trotted off to see how many we could get done before lunch. There was a nice variation, nothing was too high. Some required brute strength, others more technical ability. I only bottled one problem for being too high, and one or two I chose to skip after an attempt so I could attack the next problem, rather than waste 15 minutes of energy on one thing.
By lunch time most of us had hit problem number 25. Those who started at the front of the group, got to about 35 as they hadn't had to wait around at all. And two of our guys finished the lot. I think most people considered it the best crag, and I certainly feel I got some good climbing done after a disappointing Sunday.
I will definitely be back to Font, its such a beautiful area and I have only scratched the surface of what it has to offer. I'm going to to try and do some more outdoor bouldering before next year, to get more confidence in my ability, and possibly consider learning how to fall off!
Before I went, @CrossfitTonbuk tweeted to his followers that I was in Font to see if Crossfit (a particular type of training which focuses on strength and balance) had helped my climbing. I spent a lot of the weekend thinking about this, and on that final circuit realised that at no point in the weekend did I give up because I lacked the strength. That never let me down and thats probably a first for me. Crossfit has definitely helped my climbing.
My nerve and my confidence let me down and that is all in my head. I feel I've hit a bit of a plateau in my climbing. I'm getting pretty good, I'm more flexible than I was and I'm stronger than I was. I'm getting more stamina. The wall I've hit, is mental. I need to believe I can be better, that I can make that move, that my foot won't slip, that my arms won't suddenly give up and that's where my next improvement is going to have to come from.
Oh yes, this 101 item was in the "love and romance" section. I messed that up. Nothing romantic about camping at all, especially when you're there to climb! Unless you count the romance of the shared passion for climbing :)
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