
Received this report from Dave Mason, MOON UK's man in Font:
We have arrived in Fontainebleau!! And true to form a thick damp fog has been clinging to the landscape making most of the boulders wet. However our psyche had us to venturing out today in search of dry rock. Cuvier Rempart came through! Now, most of you will have read Tyler's blogs last year and hopefully seen 'Between the Trees', what he did in Font is phenomenal and with what seemed like so much ease as well! Unfortunately my posts will not be quite that spectacular or headline-grabbing but day one ended on a high and kicked off the trip nicely!
After warming up I had a few goes on Hypothese, made famous by The Real Thing film. The starting hold of this was chipped a few years ago and now is very sharp and unforgiving upon the skin! A few throws at the first move left me with a very thin right tip, the Nikes went back on and I decided not to try this again. However a friend had the bright idea of trying the problem minus the first move and therefore not having to lose too much skin! Dragons back on and to the top first go! Back down off the slippery boulder, I cleaned my boots and managed to stick the first move and carry on to the top!! Very happy: A Real Thing tick, a Font classic, and I never have to pull on that crimp again!
Next, we headed up to Rempart. Ned sent Big Boss on the quick time and after a few more goes I followed suit with a thrutchy rendition, leaving me thoroughly drained! I pronounced the climbing day over. However, Tom was psyched to try T-Rex. I tried this last year very briefly but my shoulder did not feel strong enough for all that squeezing. Tom's psyche rubbed off on me and I decided to have a go. I pulled on, got through the first few moves and realized that I was still going. With Ned and Tom shouting beta at me I managed to squeeze enough juice out of the rock to end up atop the boulder!
A very good day. God, I love Fontainebleau!
-Dave Mason

