Also whilst on my easter holidays I had my first taste of font. Could really describe the taste, maybe bitter at first but sweetening after time.
The story begins in Newcastle where I traveled to blag a lift with my mate Dave, his brother and also his friend Chris. I wont dwell on the journey as it was quite frankly dull, although I must say went worryingly straight forward considering we were traveling over easter weekend. Another highlight of the journey that I feel is worth mentioning is the first french vehicle we saw after getting on the tunnel had two kids in the back who both decided to give us the finger as they over took us. Bienvenu a france!
The forecast for the weekend was looking devastatingly shit, however we arrived in good spirits and pitched our tent in the dry, hung out with some mates from Cardiff and hit the sack eager for some climbing the next day. Woke up nice and early to the delightful sound of a large quantity of rain, so decided to go back to sleep for a couple of hours. Finally the rained stopped and it soon became dry to the extent that climbing was possible. So we headed to some gorge but got lost so ended up and Rocher Cannon I think, or maybe it was the other way round.
I didn't know what to expect of Font, from what I heard was that it was nails and quite demoralising. Anyway I decided to completely ignore this and went out the goal of climbing some 6a's (a mid term goal of mine that I had yet achieved in Britain). Rocher Cannon suddenly put me in my place, and I was finding the whole thing a bit of night mare making to the top of about 3 problems in a whole afternoon, pretty shit considering I was kind of doing a circuit. Also the top outs are sporting to say the least, they basically involve slapping for some sandy none existent hold, make some ridiculous noise and doing a lot of frantic wriggling using any body part you have to try and get on top. This technique is known as the "Simmons Seal" for some unknown reason to me.
The next day, rather frustrated from my previous performance I decided to have a go at the blue circuit at le col du chien. This became pretty frustrating as we arrived at the beginning of some very light but all the same wet drizzle. We pissed about for a while, but in the end kind of gave up and decided to get some lunch. This was a good idea as the sun got out and by the time we had finished the rock was "dry", so we headed to the quieter part of the circuit and started ticking some problems all between 3a and 5a, and by no means easy. Anyway it was nice to finally get up some stuff and try and get used to the topouts. We were then graced by a thunder storm and snow, which stopped play, after it passed we did a bit of slacklining then headed back to the campsite.
Cardiff but on a pretty amazing if not slightly random party in a field with a large bonfire and an even larger quantity of alcohol that evening. So with the knowledge of a shit forecast the next day, we fully embraced the party vibe. A little to vigorously for some, who just stumbled off into the forest and some how found themselves in tents in the morning.
Rather un/fortunately we woke up the next day to a glorious days sunshine. We decided to head to Gorge aux Chat for our final day. Despite the fact that everyone was feeling very rough we had a quality day. The place was absolutely amazing, really quiet with just us and a couple of french guys in the sun, perfect and made even better by quality problem after quality problem.
I started the day on a slabby little number, which involved some delicate moves to crimps then slapping for the top into what turned out to be a large sloping puddle. We then tried a problem round the corner which was basically a one move wonder but eluded me. Dave on the other hand managed to get the on sight in his boxers and nothing else. His reasoning for not going all the way was that he didn't want to offend the french. We then did a quality rising traverse with a cool rockover move to finish and another delicate slab route with crimps just the right size. After lunch we watched dave work some font 7b+ which he was frustratingly close to sending but his fingers were not up for it. The problem did produce the best quote of font: "that hold is the shittest pile of wank I have ever had the displeasure of laying my hand upon" so well done there dave. Shortly after everyone got obsessed by a slabby 6a, which had a landing in a tree and a rather dodgy decent so I decided to opt out. I found a really cool 5c, that I ended up working for about an hour and was elated when I topped out.
The climbing continued, with quality problem after quality problem until it got too dark and cold. Just before leaving I decided to go a try the problem that eluded me in the morning and sent it on my second attempt, very happy and tired I headed back to the car.
That evening it rained so we all retired to our tents then spent the next day traveling home, which was dull.
Font overall was good, a bit frustrating but quality. With more consistent weather the place can only get better. Definitely go!
J
