Font again!
Just back from a flying visit to Font :). Was in email contact with amusing veteran curmudgeon JCM off UKC, he was heading over for a weekend trip with JCM Junior, and invited me along. Obviously I had to meditate long and hard about my elbow injury, including deciding and changing my mind several times… But in the end the ease of joining in on the trip, the lure of La Foret, the unlimited easy bouldering potential, and the welcoming enthusiasm for my presence on the trip (something which I value highly), won me over.
So:
Friday: Leave Sheffield mid afternoon Friday. Arrive at JCM headquarters just before rush hour. Leave in JCM mobile in the middle of rush hour. Get delayed on M25 car park and end up in mad rush for ferry. Arrive 10 minutes after last check-in and board immediately. Breath sigh of relief. Arrive in Etap motel hours later and listen to techno to fall asleep.
Saturday: Wake up and ensure JCM Jr is adequately fed. Go to Apremont and climb easy reds. Fail to flash La Science Friction and decide to sulk instead of any serious further attempts. Laze in the sun instead (and realise later how well cooked I’m getting). Potter some more then retire to cafe and France’s largest hot-dog for late lunch. Head over to Canche Aux Merciers in evening. Feel appreciative of the amenable forest vibe there. Feel less impressed with with tiredness, painful fingers, and draining heat. Any serious exhertion seems to result in a general throbbing sauna-like feeling. Find a good looking red roof traverse and do that. Retreat exhausted to swank dinner of magret de canard aux sauce poivre and a pleasingly large amount of JCM Jr’s scarcely touched boeuf carpaccio. Yum. Admire sunburn and listen to techno to fall asleep.
Sunday: Wake up and steal as many fruit compotes from motel breakfast bar as pockets will allow. Decided finger skin might dictate an easy mileage day and shoulder skin might dictate a lot of shade/suncream. Go to 91.1 and get rather giddy about the number of great looking red problems. Spend entire day within 30seconds walk of initial drop-off point and do lots of good problems. Fun! Get photos of JCM Jr on a quality micro slab that looked amazing if you’re 6 years old and 3 feet tall. Leave feeling well battered. Attempted mad rush to ferry slightly spoilt by clear fast roads North of Paris - arrive in plenty of time. Eventually get back to chez Fiend at 3:45am zzzZZZzzz…
Here’s a photo of something or other:
Kinda cool really. The elbow dictated a gentler trip than before - but not as much as the heat dictated a gentler trip than before!! Lovely weather but too warm and next time I go I want it below 0′c ;).
One thing to rant about: Font slab grades are utter toss. It’s always been obvious they are toss, when a Font 5 slab is clearly way harder than a Font 6b wall and not much easier than a Font 6c arete, but I hadn’t really had a way to put the pomposity of such non-grading in clear perspective, until JCM said about La Science Friction “you wouldn’t really want to find this part way up Downhill Racer”. The same was said about La Gratitude and Ingratitude at 91.1 - comparable propositions.
The point - well put across by JCM - being: Font 5 = V1 = English 5b/c. Which clearly these slabs bloody well aren’t.
Now I haven’t done Downhill Racer but I’ve done enough slabs from the Culm Coast to Caley, I know what they’re like. I have done, say, Poetry Pink E4 6a and the crux of Grips Of Wrath E4 6a which would seem fair comparisons, both in the style being safe but hard slab cruxes on small holds, and more importantly in the difficulty. Both of these I think are solid 6a.
Solid English 6a = V3 = Font 6b. Which these slabs bloody well are.
Personally, I’m not interested in the historic so-called grading scale that has the sole purpose of allowing a bunch of geriatic old Bleausards to sneer at the donkey footwork of les Anglais before dousing the place in poff and dancing up some faux-easy slab that they’ve got more wired than Adam Long has the Plantation. I’m interested in grades that describe the actual relative difficulty of the problems and I see no reason for Font to be exempt just because they invented one bouldering grade scale.
Still, climbing is bloody good, irrespective of toss grades :).
(Also here: http://fiendophobia.blogspot.com/2008/04/font-again.html )
April 29th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Intersting ideas - but, perhaps you do have donkey leg work and they really are Fb5. Science Friction as an example is not very hard and can be done sans les mains!!
April 29th, 2008 at 10:40 am
Perhaps it was donkey leg work that got me up Manson’s Wall, What A Way To Spend Easter, Honourary Caley, Satin in 3 goes (first two attempts aborted due to fear rather than difficulty), onsights of some of the Count’s Buttress slab routes, or doing several of my hardest trad leads on slabs…
SF might be “not very hard” but V3 is not very hard either. It would, however, be more accurate.
April 29th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Some very valid observations - but is it a case of doing well on the medium you know and finding less familiar rock harder because of the subtle differences in its design? I used to find Fb 7a really hard and a bit of a stuggle, but now I find (despite being fatter and weaker than before) I find it easier to do them quickly or indeed flash them because I have more familiarity and experience with the style and area. I’m sure with more time there you would find this to be the case. Having been 2 to 3 times a year for the last 10+ years with trips of 1 week or longer at a time I have found this to be the case for me at least. Plus Honourary Caley is also ‘not very hard’ and over graded - not sure if I’ve been on the other examples.
May 1st, 2008 at 10:40 am
I realise my reply was a bit tart ;). But I wouldn’t have posted my original entry if I was going to back down graciously ;).
Funnily enough I found climbing in Font felt very natural the first time and indeed subsequent times. Despite warnings of how super-technical it was meant to be, I found it fine, a generally perfect combination of friction and holds. Apart from some slabs maybe. I do concede - grudgingly of course - that my recent experiences might be slightly exaggerated by warm conditions (but the UK slab ROUTES I mentioned were done in fairly warm weather too…).
I agree Honourary Caley is not worth it’s recent upgrading, I did it before then.