Back to font

Yo yo, guess who went back to Fontainbleau? That's right, me baby, me. I find it kinda cool that people spend years climbing before going outdoors and I've been 3 times in 5 months. Anyway, this time was different from the last time for a few reasons. Firstly, I went with 4 other guys. 3 of them are at a much higher level than me, the other being my mate Ross who, although climbs, never really did much bouldering which means I had a climbing partner, woot.
This time I also had more climbing experience behind me which meant I attempted and completed a load more climbs than I had tried previously. It's pretty cool what a few weeks at a climbing wall can do to someones confidence, ability and stamina. I recommend it before going anywhere!

Things I learnt in font:

1: French supermarket checkout people are so ridiculously slow you might as well sow the seed and reap the rewards yourself. Possibly over-exaggerated but really, honestly, it's a painful experience.

2: When you're with a group of people trying to do everything together, as a unit (like, for instance, buying food together) you need to make compromises and not be so picky. If you don't want to work as a unit, or a team, then don't. Discussions are the enemy, they take so fucking long and no-one is ever happy. Basically a discussion (especially between men) is everyone trying to get their own way.

3: Warm up - I went straight for a hard, pumpy climb on the first day and totally fucked my elbows. I think I have tendonitis (Tennis Elbow) now because I didn't ease myself in. I had to take Ibuprofen to numb the pain when I climbed - It worked but I didn't do as many climbs as I would have liked, just because of the sheer dull agony you have with inflamed tendons.

4: Go camping prepared. I didn't have eating utensils, cooking utensils, drinking utensils. I didn't have any utensils. I'm going to do a whole post about what you will need when you go camping. It's all really really obvious stuff and I took absolutely none of it, fool that I am.

I've taken quite a few pics from this trip and I've got some pics stored that I want to use. I'll hopefully go through the blog and trim the fat and add pictures of things I've been talking about soon. I just have to find the motivation after work. Either way, watch this space.

Rick