Dave and Jamie go to Fontainebleau days 1-4

Day 1: Our first day of climbing didn't exactly go as planned. We ended up spending much more time lost in the woods than actually climbing. Gargantoit is a problem that was on the top of my to do list so  we decided to head to the Gorge de Houx area along with Thomo and Cedar area to check it out.  Unfortunately we started by parking in the wrong lot and walking in the complete opposite direction. As we kept going further and further feeling lost we would show the map in our guidebook to random french hikers we passed and ask them if we were on the right track. 3 separate groups of people all said they were quite certain that yes we were on the right road and it was just a bit further.

Eventually we gave up and turned around. On the way back out we found an old man with a map who very kindly showed us the way we should have been going in the first place. A 20 minute walk in the opposite direction brought us to the area. Gargantoit was even bigger and more impressive than I thought it would be but unfortunately there was not much around it to warm up on. At this point it was getting late and we were tired and fed up so Jamie and I decided to just get straight on it. We were joined a few minutes later but a few spanish guys whose pads were very welcome as it was a lot higher than I thought.

We made progress quickly and before very long we were both pleased to have ticked a very enjoyable problem off of our list. At this point we had spent so much time lost that it was nearly dark so we packed it in and called it a day.

Day 2: It was quite misty overnight and the consensus of the climbers staying at our gite was that  the best place to be sure to find dry rock is the area 95.2, so that's where we went.

After a quick warm up we got on the very impressive prow line Retour au Sources. After many tries figuring out the beta I managed to do it in two separate halves. The top half has the crux which revolves around just hauling your leg up for a very big high step. Unfortunately neither of us were quite able to get our foot up on the hold when trying from the ground despite coming just millimetres away we eventually had to walk away from this one as we were just getting too tired. We tried a couple other 7As but before long I found that my arms were completely useless so we called it a day.

Day 3: As I had completely exhausted my arms the day before I decided I would take it easy on this day. Jamie did some internet research and found a problem he wanted to do at Petit Bois. Most of the hard problems in font involve bad slopers but Jamie found a crimpy V9 that he thought would suit him. We warmed up then Jamie flailed on La Baleine, a problem I had done on my last trip with no crash pad in warm conditions. He said the rock was damp, but he's a known complainer. Also at Petit Bois is Big Jim, a highball V5 that I wanted to do so I thought I would take it easy and just try that and leave the hard stuff to Jamie. Big Jim climbs up a big impressive face on two finger pockets. Despite getting up and slapping towards the top jug I didn't manage to top out and on my last go I had to hop down because I felt like the shallow right hand two finger pocket was hurting my fingers. Sure enough my fingers are still hurting a bit, I think I managed to tweak an old injury which should make the rest of the trip interesting. After that we went up to Jamie's V9 Mur du Son. After sorting out the beta it looked like he was going to send it quite quickly but then started to have trouble sticking the first move again. After some effort he managed to get past the start and finish it off for a very impressive tick.

Jamie warming up at Petit Bois

Day 4: With both of us feeling tired and injured we decided to head to Bas Cuvier to do some easy classics. We warmed up and then went for La Marie Rose, the worlds first V3 first climbed in 1946. We tried hard on out flash burns but both came off of the upper slopers. With refined beta we both managed to get up it second go but it was still quite a struggle. Very impressive climb for 1946.

We had planned on only doing easy things but Cortomaltese proved too tempting. This is a problem I had tried many times on two previous trips without success. Its basically one hard move where you have to hold a classic font sloper in each hand and then fire up high to another sloper. I had slapped up at the high sloper many times without sticking it. Jamie got it quickly and gave me the confidence that I could do it. Pretty soon I was very glad to be standing on top of an old nemesis.  

Fun Slopers

Going big.

With boosted confidence we moved on to L'Helicoptere, another classic problem that gets its name from the crux move where you have a sloper high up with your left hand and you have to throw out right to a good hold making your whole body swing around at which point most people go flying towards the ground. Jamie managed to send it pretty quickly but after I took the classic Helicoptere fall and bounced horizontally off the pads knocking the wind out of myself I was a little hesitant to try the move again so we moved on.

Next we went on to cuvier rempart and made quick work of Droxmanie a super classic V5 that I had flashed years ago on my first trip to font. I was pleased to do it first go again today. Then we moved on to Angle Allain. This was the worlds first V2/3 and was first climbed in 1934. Hard to imagine what kind of climbing shoes would have been worn then and using tiny feet is super important on this climb. It climbs up a sharp and blank arete and requires a jump off of bad feet to the lip. We both managed to flash it even if I barely got my finger tips over the lip on my jump. 

Looking for holds on Angle Allain

Jamie (with pedo stash) very happy to be climbing in font.

Satisfied by a long day of classic bouldering we packed it in and headed back for wine and supper. There is some poorly shot footage of some of the climbs so far which should be posted shortly after the trip ends.

New Video

A plumbing issue has left me sitting at home waiting for the plumber instead of going climbing. So instead I put together a little video of some problems I did over the fall and the new problem we did in NL over christmas. You can see what I meant about a convoluted top out for Riddle Snake but it was the only dry option.

A Few Boulders from Dave Stack on Vimeo.

Christmas Bouldering

I made it out of St. John's today just before a much hyped snow storm really took force. With all the talk of snowmageddon, being the last flight to leave YYT kind of felt like flying out of the exploding death star.

Now I'm waiting in the Halifax airport for my flight across the pond and back to Geneva. After nearly a  month back home I thought updating my blog on what little climbing I got to do over christmas was as good a way to kill time as any.

In that month I managed to get in two days of bouldering outside, which given the time of year is actually pretty decent. Both days were spent at an exciting new area being pioneered by David Bruneau and Lewis Loader.

Past all the developed bouldering in Freshwater Bay, all the way to the point at Gunners Cove there is a HUGE boulder that I had seen briefly on a hike years ago. With a 30 foot tall face that at first glance looks kind of chossy I decided it was not worth the hour hike in. Bruneau and Lewis, however, went to check it out and found that crawling through a hole to the back of the boulder put you in a really cool cave setting with some very appealing lines. They also noticed the presence of several other boulders in the woods nearby.

Day 1

Our first day there over xmas was spent mainly climbing on the main big boulder. Lewis and Brunes had already put up two lines. A relatively low warm up and a terrifying line called "Yer gonna die" that only Bruneau climed and rated V3, the climb follows a diagonal crack up the face of a boulder that is placed directly over a deep hole. The crack flares out to tenuous fist jams at the top and is more than scary enough that as someone who tries to lay back any crack I get my fingers in I was way too scared to try it lest the name proved all too apt.

Instead we focused on putting up new lines. Starting with another warm up. "Get up, Stand up"V1 climbs up a tall arete with the crux being needing to trust all your weight on a high-step to stand up to the top with very little for your hands.

Bruneau on "Get up, stand up" V1

The second climb we did was in the cave at the back of the boulder. The cave is formed by several boulders leaning agaisnt each other to give the feeling of almost being indoors. There is a really nice crack line that goes all the way from the very bottom of the boulder to the opening at the top that will be very nice once it is climbed but was filled with ice when we were there.

The line we focused on was slightly further to the right and after starting on a big flat ledges follows some nice and well placed crimps up an overhanging face. There were a couple options for the top-out, climbing straight up leads to where another boulder is leaning against the main boulder, so the options are climb to where they meet and drop off, try to grovel through the small hole available or traverse way to the right  to top out on the other side.  As the straight up version was icy we went with the right exit, though I think the drop off will be a better line once it is done and Bruneau is confident he can crawl through the hole.... which at the very least will be entertaining to see him try. Whichever way you go it's a really fun climb in a great setting. 

Bruneau on "Riddle Snake" V6

After I climbed that line we moved on to an "offwidth project" that Bruneau and Lewis had already tried. It involves wedging yourself between two boulders leaning agaisnt each other and trying to worm your way out. My best attempt was when I managed to get all points off the ground, though any movement from that position was far from an option. Impressively Bruneau and Lewis were both managing to make progress towards the lip of the boulder and are confident with time they can complete the problem. What grade it would be once finished I couldn't begin to guess, felt like v17 to me.

Bruneau Making Progress

My best effort

Day 2

Our second day down there we were joined by Jamie Robbins and my brother's dog Kaya. Jamie and Bruneau made quick repeats of "Riddle Snake" then Lewis and Bruneau went back to wedge them selves into their project while myself and Jamie explored the woods for more boulders. I was more than a little impressed with what we found. Several worthwhile boulders were quite nearby and there could easily be others we have not seen yet. Many of them will need cleaning before they are climbable and thinning out the paths between them would really help make it a more appealing destination but I believe the potential is there to make it one of the better areas on the Avalon Peninsula.

Here are a few of the boulders we did not climb on, due to either ice or moss:

The boulder I am most excited to come back for.

A fun looking overhanging face.

This boulder has potentially the best V0 in the province.

After our scouting mission we decided to try to put up a few more lines on one of the boulders that didn't need much cleaning. We started with a face that had what I thought was going to be a very straightforward line up a series of cool holds. We expected to run up it quickly then move on to other lines. Once we started trying it though we realized it was going to be a lot harder than it looked. After considerable effort I managed to use a tenuous heel-hook to make my way to the snow-covered top of the boulder. I found this one very hard to grade but am guessing at V7. I named the problem "She-Wolf" after Kaya dog's first day out bouldering. After that Lewis did the FA of the easy but fun arete on the ride side of the face then we had to hustle to hike out before it got dark.

Jamie trying She-Wolf

Lewis topping out "Get Daun" V1 (She-Wolf climbs the chalked holds to the left)

Overall I am very excited about this new area and am looking forward to coming back in the summer to      

climb the lines that were ice or moss covered this trip.

Chamonix Bouldering

(I made this post a few weeks ago but was having trouble displaying the images for some reason and it took me this long to sort it out)


Last weekend I got to have a pleasant change from my normal routine of taking a train alone  2 hours each way to boulder alone. Our friend Rene graciously offered to drive myself and Erica to Chamonix for a little bouldering/ sight seeing day trip.

You might notice the pictures in this blog are considerably better than my normal phone photos.  Photos courtesy of Rene Robert.

I had purchased the guidebook for bouldering in the Chamonix region over a year ago but had not gone yet due to lack of a ride. I chose the area in the guidebook with the best recommendation and we headed there. The driving directions ended up being pretty straightforward and we soon found ourselves walking into an almost magical feeling forest with a carpet of fallen leaves.  Almost immediately upon entering the forest we found ourselves surrounded by boulders with surprisingly flat landings given the density of large rocks in the area.

I check to see what looks good in the guidebook while erica checks to see what looks good in the picnic basket.

The classic problem of the area is called "La Proue" french for the prow which is exactly what it is. Sit start then squeeze your way up an impressively angular arete. After a quick warm up this was my first objective.

"La Proue" with Rene trying out some climbing in the background.

Warming up

"La Proue" either tops out straight up at v5/6 or traverses left along a sloping rail before toping out quite high for v7. I managed to get to the lip on my flash attempt so I decided I should try the v7 exit. I made it through the traverse but by the time I got to where you need to mantel out I was so pumped I didn't want to commit to the top out over one pad with inexperienced spotters  so dropped off.

After a long rest waiting for my arms to de-pump I got back on and did the straight up version.

It was a super fun problem and i'll have to come back for the traverse top out with either more pads or more endurance.

I didn't know any of the other problems in the area so next I just wandered around until I found a boulder that caught my eye. I found a steep face with interesting incut holds that the guidebook seemed to indicate was v6 from a stand start or v8 from a sit. It turned out to be another very fun problem and I managed it from the sit in a couple of tries.

Overall I was quite impressed with the quality of the problems and the area in general. There are several other areas listed in the guidebook for the Chamonix region and if the others are even half as good as this one then I am quite looking forward to checking them out.





Our non-climbing plan for chamonix had been to go up the "Aiguille du Midi" which is the worlds highest vertical ascent cable car, but when we got there they told us it was closed due to high winds. As there was not a breath of wind we suspect this was just a cover for the fact that they weren't busy and so wanted to close early.

This was re-inforced by the fact that on the other side of the valley a separate gondola was still open.


(from here on the photos are back to my standard ipone quality)

Going up.

Having beers and hot wine at the top.

Erica doing some climbing of her own.

Pretty pleased with herself.

Giant meringue reward.

Summer Recap/ Return to Swiss

I know it's been a long time since my last blog post, sadly it's because I ended up basically taking the summer off from climbing. Not intentionally. First I was forced to stay off my hurt finger for a while, then by the time it was healed I was too busy getting ready to move out of the country to have much time for climbing. I'll start with a quick recap of what little climbing did happen over the summer.

A few new boulders were found/developed. First following a tip from Neil Bradbury I found two nice new boulders on the highway close to the vacation boulders. I managed one day of climbing there during the summer but the flies were so bad I just managed to clean and climb on line while being eaten alive. The climb was worth it though. "Fly Casual" is about V4 and one of the best at its grade I have ever climbed. It squeezes up a slightly over-hanging prow feature with big moves and a fun lunge to a jug at the top.

Joel Harvie on "Fly Casual" V4

The other new development this summer was at some boulders found by Kyle Hussey and John Bennett beneath Topsail Head. There are several large boulders there but so far only one has had any climbs done on it due to the fact that the cleaning process involved removing several large trees that had fallen on the boulder using only small hand saws.

Once the trees were removed we were left looking at a 20 foot tall overhanging face with widely spaced holds. Some of the rock was a bit loose so we were wary of getting 20 feet up over an uneven rocky landing so ended up doing the problem headpoint style with a top rope first. A fact I was very glad of when I pulled off a hold near the top while harnessed in.

David Bruneau and myself got the first ascents of "Know what'm sayn" another new very high quality problem.

(UPDATE: John Bennett had already climbed the problem so here is a video of us repeating "Nice Try" V5 that we thought was the FA)

Know What'm Sayn? from Dave Stack on Vimeo.

Both new spots have plenty more good problems just waiting to be cleaned and climbed so hopefully someone will get at them.


The other big bouldering thing this summer was the first ever outdoor bouldering event/competition in newfoundland. The Flatrock Boulder Bash saw nearly 50 people bouldering in Flatrock at once. That's more people than normally boulder there over an entire year. The event was aimed eqaually at getting new people out bouldering and testing the abilities of seasoned boulderers. A ticklist of 30 problems ranging from V0-V10 had plenty of problems to keep everyone busy for 7 hours of climbing. Sponsors Evolv, La Sportiva and flashed hooked us up with prizes. Lewis Loader climbed the most problem for the Men and Keely Whitelaw wasn't far behind him at the top of the women's division. Hopefully this will become an annual event.

I should mention that the event was organized by the newly formed Newfoundland section of the Alpine Club of Canada. The club is dedicated to brining together the climbing community in Newfoundland through monthly climbing related events, as well as maintaining climbing areas. If you are living in NL and are interested in climbing at all I would highly recommend joining the club.


Other than a few scattered days out here and there I didn't get much other climbing done over the summer because I was getting ready to move to Switzerland. Now that I am here I am very excited about climbing regularly again. I've been hitting up the closest area to Geneva at St-George pretty regularly and am starting to feel like I am getting back in climbing shape. I am very excited to check out new areas and managed to get to one this weekend. Vernayaz is nearly 2 hours by train from geneva but with a high concentration of quality problems in the v7-v12 range it's more than worth it.

Here is a little video from my first trip there.
Vernayaz Bouldering from Dave Stack on Vimeo.

Highway Boulder Topo

The Highway Boulder

1. Highway 420, V0 - Climb the left arete.

2. Road Rage, V7 - Sit start on two sidepulls then climb straight up the face using small crimps. Powerful and fun.

3. Highway Robbery, V4 -  Climb the right arete using heel hooks and a small crimp to get out on the face then up.


Description: One of the first boulders developed on the highway this boulder doesn't have very many problems but it's short approach make it easy to stop at while coming to or from other boulders. Or for the adventurous you can keep heading in towards the power-lines to the area called "the unknown" for more boulders. The unknown has seen very little attention for quite a while but there are several good problems to be found in there.

Directions: From St. John's take the TCH west past the witless bay line, turn around at the Holyrood access road then park at the large green sign that says "St. John's 37 km". Walk up up the hill and you should be able to see the boulder once you are at the top.

Drive ~25 minutes Walk ~ 5 minutes

Inspiration

So I've had to come to the frustrating decision that I actually need to take some time off to let my finger heal. With a long list of projects I want to complete and the weather getting warmer every day this is pretty annoying.  There's been some new boulders discovered recently so I am going to try to focus on cleaning new stuff to keep myself occupied. I just need to make sure I leave my shoes at home to keep myself off the rock.

I've been going out and showing people areas / spotting recently instead of climbing. I am happy to say there seems to be increased interest in bouldering with several new people keen to get out and send.

Just recently one such person came into the gym. Head to toe in denim, with a feather sticking out of his fishing hat he and a friend walked into Wallnuts and went straight for the gear display case. After they looked at that for a while we asked them if we could help with anything.

"Do you have YOUTUBE?!" Denim man shouted back at us.

"Uh?"

"YOUTUBE! Can you play YOUTUBE!?"

Once we told him we could indeed "play youtube" he made us look up his name and then pointed out some videos for us to watch. Explaining that he had just been "Mountain Climbing" on signal hill while his buddy filmed.

Here he is with an impressive free solo first ascent:



In this one he  tackles some bouldering instead:



I was particularly impressed by the circuitous route of his problem. Not being constrained by traditional concepts of what constitutes a "line" or "rock worth climbing" or "sanity".

After watching a few more of these very impressive climbing videos he asked us if he had "That thing that goes into the rock and makes the 3 point hole?"

We told him that we didn't think such a thing existed but if he was interested in climbing then the outfitters would be a good place to buy gear.

As they were leaving we advised them not to die out there and they went on their way. Where are they now I wonder. What feats of mountaineering greatness will they accomplish next?  Only time, and possibly the news report of an air rescue will tell....