A Trip to Font and Fundraising for CAC

Easter wouldn’t be the same without a trip to Fontainebleau! Because of the dreadful snow we nearly had a last minute change of destination with my dad trying to book flights to Mallorca instead. Me and Celt wanted to go bouldering and to the usual campsite in Fontainebleau, even if it was cold (good for friction!). We both got our persuasive skills out, so we could stick with our original plans and go to Font again. After a family discussion we made our choice, me and Celt won; we were off to Fontainebleau! J

Fontainebleau is a great bouldering place and is 90km south from Paris. There are many different unique boulder problems and fun circuits. I remember when I was younger and we were doing the kiddie circuit and now we have moved on to red circuits and doing some white problems, I think this is pretty good progress. I enjoyed going round circuits as it brings you to problems you wouldn’t usually do. We have been to Font 6 times as a family because it is great fun and there’s something there for everyone. I have been to font for Halloween when all the colours of the leaves look stunning with chestnuts falling to the ground. It’s good fun at Halloween when we go trick or treating around the campsite, however me and Celt tend to prefer Easter. At Easter we get mini Easter eggs after doing problems which is yummy and also motivates us.

     

While we were out there we went to some bouldering circuits which we all enjoyed and I surprised myself when I did a problem and nobody else in the family could. We went to some new circuits that we hadn’t been to before. We went to Gorge du chat, Bas Cuvier, La Elephant, Apremont, Restant du long Rocher and Franchard Cuisinere. I was fond of all the circuits we did as they were all different to each other. On the last day Celt and I did this V5 technical slab, with even some adults not managing to do it! J I hope we go to Font again next Easter or October and maybe move on to do some white circuits.

Have you heard of CAC? It is this new charity that climbers from around the world are supporting and it stands for Climbers Against Cancer. It was set up by John Ellison who is a keen climber and is suffering from advanced secondary cancer. The aim of CAC is to help others in the future by raising awareness and funds to further research into finally finding a cure for cancer. Each and every donation goes towards International cancer research charities from each of the five continents. I decided I wanted to raise money for CAC and help out. So I’m saying no to electronic gadgets and yes to CAC! My challenge is to go through the whole month of April without using my electronic gadgets, this includes:
         

IPod mini

IPod touch

Smart phone

Laptop (except for school work!!!!)

T.V.

Kindle touch   

No computer games, text, emails, face time, Skype, films, YouTube etc.....etc...

FOR A WHOLE MONTH!!!!!! J  So far I have raised over £300 in sponsor money for CAC!! J

I am looking forward to the summer holidays as my family and I are going to Canada for three weeks! We are going Squamish and we are going to be staying in a yurt which should be a laugh. Out in Canada we will be bouldering, sport climbing, trad climbing, walking and I am hoping on joining a summer ski class. I shall keep you guys up to date with my Canadian adventures!!! J

KEEP CALM AND CLIMB UP!!!!

Tesni Lloyd-Jones (13)

We have just come back from France bouldering in Fontainebleau and it was awesome! We like to go to Font every Easter but the snow nearly stopped us going this year, which would have been horrible as Easter without a trip to Font is like an Easter without Easter eggs! 

I’ve been bouldering in Fontainebleau since I was 5; I started climbing on the junior circuits which at the time would have felt really massive and quite hard! Over the years I’ve worked myself up through the yellow, orange and blue circuits. On this trip we had a go at the red circuits which shows I’ve improved a bit over the last few years J I did a V5 technical and thin slab, I kept on working and working on it and it was really hard!! That’s my hardest boulder problem ever J  I also tried ‘Marie Rose’ and ‘Science Friction’, they are on my ‘got to do’ list. I was one hold away from the top on Science Friction and on Marie Rose it was just a massive reach for me but I kept on trying and trying but next year I will get it!!

I am going to Squamish in Canada for 3 weeks in the summer holidays, I’ve seen some photos of some amazing climbing and bouldering there and I can’t wait J  I hope to see some Bears in Canada but not when we are bouldering and I want to try some harder routes and boulder problems and try some trad climbing JJJJ

I hope to get my red point project done before we go to Canada, Scheherazade is a F7a+, it’s a technical slate slab which I’ve already top roped clean. I also hope to get some new routes done before the summer.     

Celt Lloyd-Jones (10)