Transition

Headed out for the final morning at Magic Wood and manged to piece together the link on that Kalorienmonster thing. Its not the best climb ive ever done but it gave me something to aim for, to at least feel a small level of accomplishment, after a pretty naff week in the Wood.

A couple more shots below. The first Sofa Surfer in a dry state with me matching on the slopey rail which marks the end. of the crux really. That was to be my high point on this trip.

The second, Sofa Surfer dripping on the first few days and me trying to use tissues to dry it out (we have been here before with Jack's)...

So with snow clouds beginning to form we made haste from the Alps. Not sure when ill be back here now on the granite, perhaps spring next year, we will see. Font was the final destination but we broke up the journey with a stopover night in Basel. Strange place really. Some locals speak German, some French, the road signs are in German but most other things like shop names etc are in French, but most confusing of all theres a massive Irish bar there playing NFL games all day where everyone speaks English and you feel like your back in the US celebrating Halloween.

At one point a clear Basel local started chatting the barmaid up in German, when he got no obvious response he tried French and when that also failed to get her going he tried drunken English. Even the local guys are confused here it seems.

So now we are in Font. Ive never been here in November before I dont think but its meant to be a wet month for the forest and its certainly living up to that so far. I have managed two days of decent climbing; one day I sought out the classic 7c roof problem of Symbiose at 95.2. It really deserves the reputation I thought it was great. I also got up to Apremont and did a few 7's there including the classic mantel problem Hyperplomb. Aside from that ive floundered about on a 7b+ compression thing at Isatis that Neil H pointed me at that ill need to get back on and the 7c/+ prow of Madarine that feels pretty darn hard to be fair. I think compression strength is something that has flagged a little in me since being here in spring which isnt going to help with many of the problems here being of that style.

Right now im resting as my split from Magic Wood is still not really healed properly and I need to sort that out. Hoping to get out tomorrow, I still do not really have a defintive tick list but to be fair with the weather so volatile perhaps its best not to and to just go with the flow depending on conditions. I only have 3 weeks left now so not a huge amount of time full stop either when you think about it. I really need to try and put Appartenance away, thats it really, that would be great and anything more than that a bonus. More soon...