Black Diamond athlete Adam Ondra has recently focused his energies to the world of bouldering, and the results have been stunning. This December, fresh off his second ascent of Gioia in Italy (at 8C+, one of the hardest boulder problems in the world), Adam set off for his first-ever visit to the iconic boulders of Fontainebleau, France.
"We went to Bas Cuvier parking where we had a meeting with the man of the forest: Jacky Godoffe. It was very inspiring to see him bouldering, being as psyched as ever even after so many years in the forest. I wanted to do some real classic and that is definitely La Merveille (8A). This is amazing prow with the high, but safe crux on the top. Jacky gave me some good beta and I flashed it! Funny thing was that when I latched the lip, I got just slopper a couple centimeters below the real jug and hung there for a second, having no clue what to do or if I was about to fall. From the ground, I might have seemed pretty relaxed and I heard Jacky as a spotter saying OK and going away. In that moment I squealed a desperate “No!“ and I felt that my spotter returned and I could stabilize myself again to do a final bump into the real jug. The end of the day was spent by trying C'etait Demain, the first 8A in the forest in 1984 and also established by Jacky. This was a hard one, and I spent about 20 tries on it, trying and trying again and getting desperately close to doing these two crux moves. Jacky tried with me and we had a plenty of fun, laughing at the precision and coordination this problem requires. In the end, I made it up this blank overhanging wall." Adam Ondra 12/2011
One last day. My goal for the season was to flash an 8B+, but within autumn having too many projects, I abandoned this idea and gave it up for the year. But one problem came on my mind, Gecko. My friend Andrej Chrastina told me about it 5 years ago, when I did bouldering very rarely. Andrej was persuading me to go to Font to try this problem, saying that it would fit my style very well. A last day of climbing of 2011... why not give it a try to fulfill my goal of the year? All the other goals for the year I had already managed to fulfill (excluding competitions).
The day didn't start in the best way: after cleaning the gite and getting lost and searching for the bloc in the wood from a different parking, we arrived in the sector a little while after noon, already tired after the beginning of the day and after the climbing the previous day. I took some warm up, not feeling very well, but having a lot of psych thanks to cold conditions. I tried to remember the video from the previous night, asked my friends to clean the holds that I couldn't reach from the pads and I set off. First two moves were OK, then it was very hard to move left heel to the left. I was very close to falling, feeling that I was loosing a balance for a moment, but somehow I stayed on the rock. There is a one thing that I really love in climbing: heel hooking. And the rest of the problem is about awkward heelhooks and I felt pretty solid. The last hard movement I shrieked, but I was almost sure I would do it. I felt unstoppable at that very moment.
Font is an incredible place and the beauty of climbing there was even better than I had hoped. It is definitely, the best bouldering area I have ever visited."
