You fell in love with bouldering. You are a regular at your hometown gym and you are getting pretty invested in your passion. Are real rocks calling you yet? Great! Endless adventures, lessons and possibilities open up when you make the step to put your skin on sandstone (the type of rock at Fontainbleau forest). Before we start, you need to know: Fontainebleau is one of THE bouldering walhalla’s of the WORLD. Be aware of this and may it increase your appreciation, gratefulness and excitement of your opportunity to visit this rock formation so close to home.
This blog will provide you with my top tips for your first trip to the Fontainebleau forest. I hope it will give you some guidance in order to make the most out of your trip! If you have any more questions or tips of you own, please DM me.
Mindset
No expectations - explore & enjoy.
This first and foremost advice is all about your mindset. If you started indoor bouldering 2 years ago and sometimes manage to top a 6c/7a at your local gym, don’t expect to top a series of 6 graded boulders while in the forest. Grades are different, the surface is different, the climate is different. Your mind and body need to get familiar with this. And getting used to a new environment takes time. Be patient with yourself and you will be rewarded.
Expectation is the mother of all disappointment. So manage your mindset and set goals that are related to learning and getting adjusted to the rocks, instead of setting hard
grade-related goals.
Getting acquianted
A great way to ease into outdoor bouldering is this is to climb circuits. Trying to do half of an orange or blue circuit can help you get a good idea of the different kinds of climbs you might encounter here and how the grading feels for you. To give you an idea: the forest contains tens of thousands of boulderproblems divided over more than 200 area's.
I advice you to start off with easy access area’s so you can spend your day on the rocks instead of navigating through a sea of very high firns (been there).
To name a few areas: Bas Cuvier, Gorge aux Chats, Franchard Isatis, Roche aux Ouiseaux and Apremont.
Choose a topo that is easy to read for you.
Warming up is life
Rocks are hard. They are not ergonomically shaped for your hands an feet like at the gym. If you want to have a good time, prevent any chance of injury by warming up like your life depends on it. A 30-40 minute warmup is not overdoing it. Make sure your blood is flowing, your joints and mucles are prepared and you trust your feet limitlessly. This is my flexible formula 1. Bloodflow: get your heart and lungs working by doing cardio of any form. Do a circuit of jumps, squats and running or mountain climbers. Myself, I really love doing something that I like to call ‘parcours’ where I jump from rock to rock and run as fast as I can in between different boulders. Watch your feet when you try this ;)
2. Big Muscles: Every attempt at a boulder is a short moment where you give all of your power. Make sure your muscles are ready for it by doing squats, lunges, push-ups and pull-ups for example.
3. Getting boulder-ready: Leave the hangboards to the more advanced climbers, because you´d better focus on getting confident. Practice trusting your feet on the sandstone by doing some easier climbs while focussing on really putting your bodyweight on your toes.
Fontainebleau is known for its compression moves and mantling. So warm up those triceps and hamstrings!
Go with (advice from) more experienced climbers
Again, I wouldn't recommend going for grade-based archievements during your first trip. But if your mind is made up and you do want to project/ climb high grades, you can increase your chances by very good preparation. These are my tips:
Talk to people that look like you who did send outdoor boulders. People with the same strengths in technique, same body proportions and length and same avarage grade. Ask them which boulders they topped and what the bottlneck was for them. You can make a list of these boulders and visit them in real life.
Check Betty Beta or bleau.info to investigate boulders and watch other people’s sends so you can make an estimation of which of these boulders would be doable for you as well. But beware: it looks much easier than it is.
Find a guide. Someone who knows all the rocks by heart and can match them to you according to your body type, grade and style. I found an awesome woman who guided me. Without her I would never have topped three 7-grade boulders in just one week (or ever.)
Work/rest timing.
We’d all love to climb all day err’ day. Unfortunately we are humans (unlike Alex Honnold) and we need rest so our muscles, tendons and skin can recover. A good rule of thumb is 2 days of climbing, 1 day of rest. But I make adjustments in that schedule based on my energy levels, skin, (level of) pain and most importantly: the weather.
Get the most out of dry days! The account of Bleau Meteo is founded and run by locals and provides the most accurate information about the conditions in the forest.
Sleep and eat well in between your sessions. Outdoor bouldering is more exhausting than indoor.
Mantling and down climb
In the gym you don’t need to worry about your down climb. Worst case, there is no juggy hold near your top hold so you might have to jump down on the big, safe mattress. In nature you have two options: climb down or jump down on your little crash pad. My advice: check if there is a good and safe downclimb possible from the rock before you climb. If there isn’t and you still wish to do your climb, make sure there is someone around to help you down. You might want to slide down faced out, using your heels for friction, but climbing down facing the rock is much safer.
As for getting on top of your boulder: you probably need to 'mantle'. There is no finish hold like in the gym. You need to actually climb on top of the rock. There is little possibility to practice this in most gyms. If you can, visit gyms with a topout wall, try mantling on your dinner table or climb some low walls in your town to get used to this movement. It prepares you for that sweaty-pumped-panick-moment where you either have to mantle your ass up the rock or fall down to your crashpad and start over.
Spotting and falling
What you are up to is considered an extreme sport. Safety is important. Make sure you have enough crashpads (most topo’s include an advise on how many you need). Practice your spotting and falling and make sure your friend(s) do as well. The magical interwebs is full of (selfprocraimed) experts to guide you, like these guys. When in doubt, don't take the risk.
Respect nature
We are guests in this magical paradise. It’s our job to leave it like we found it. Keep these rules in mind.
Crashpads Carry them. Don't drag them across the forest floor, because this causes erosion.
Rocks Never EVER climb on wet sandstone. Wet sandstone is very brittle, so you might damage or break the rocks. Secondly, make sure you start your climb with clean shoes. Wipe them completely clean using a towel or bring a doormat.
Brushing Be gentle. Do it only to remove your magnesium. If holds are sandy, your brushing will not make that go away and even worse: it erodes the rocks. So, this leads automatically to the last advide: easy on the magnesium. If you really want to be kind to nature: use pof instead of chalk.
Trash Take every thing back with you. Every piece of paper, every wrapper, take in back with you. Yes, also your toilet paper. Put it in a plastic bag and trow it out in a trashcan.
Fire I hope this goes without say: don’t even think about open fire, smoking or leaving traces of tabacco or cigarette buds in the forest.
The forest is an UNESCO biosphere reserve. Be a good kid and treat it like that.
Be safe, have fun and keep climbing!
