100 x Font 7A in a single day by Berthe and Parmentier

EDITORIAL

26 May 2023

"Last week, hugo parmentier and I [Seb Berthe] completed our Mega-circuit project, one of our biggest projects of this year so far: sending 100 different 7A boulder in Fontainebleau in a day linking them by fair means (biking or running), a huge circuit in the whole forest starting north in Rocher Canon and finishing south in Nemours. This was such an incredible day and intense experience!

The idea is born from a discussion between roommates and was fed by the experience of our Font locals friends. Initially, to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the first 7A of Fontainebleau, aka “La Joker”, we wanted to complete “only” 70x7a, keeping some bonus in case we would be fast enough to climb some more… After a month and a half of discussion, setting our ethic, our itinerary and the best boulders among the thousands blocks in the forest, we woke up with the early lights on the 14th of May to give a try to our Mega-Circuit.

The idea was to climb only during the daylight as it is forbidden to climb at night in the forest. From waking up at 4h30, starting climbing at 5h30 to finally reaching home at midnight, we biked (70 km), climbed and ran our way through the deepest and most well known parts of the legendary forest of Fontainebleau. Climbing our selection of the most delicate, stunning and classic boulders of the 7a/+ range. In the middle of the day as things were going well and as we were in advance in our schedule, we decided to go hard and add the bonus boulders we had in our list to reach the 100! We laughed, screamed, sweated (a lot), struggled and shared an ultra intense journey. A week later, we are still struggling with fatigue and skin... We hope this “multipich” sort of adventure will give ideas to other climbers to try their own low-CO2-emission projects (close to home)." (c) Jerome Tanon - Montagne en Scène

List of boulders and the time they were sent.

What was most challenging?
The biggest challenge was for sure managing the timing as we wanted to climb exclusively during the daylight (it’s forbidden to climb the night in Font). So we had something like 17h to complete it. As we only pre-checked half of the circuit/boulders it was a bit of a run at the base of the boulders we were discovering for the first time.

How did you feel the next day?
Our bodies were totally wrecked (Hugo couldn’t walk the next day ahah and Seb being an ultra-trailer was totally fine Lol). We can add that the fatigue was deep enough to let us low in energy for around 10 days. But we can now say that we survived!!

Any new ”crazy” ideas that you hope to try?
We have our own projects and goals in our mind for the next months but we already have joked about some other cool endurancy/eco (secret ;-) ) challenges to make together. We do think climbing can be a cool plateform to change the way we approch life in a more sustainable way. Climate is changing fast, we need to act now 🤘
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