Le Carnage | 7B+ Boulder problem at Bas Cuvier

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The first 7B in Fontainebleau. Climbed in 1977, key holds were manufactured by Jérôme Jean-Charles, who believed that the possibilities for hard climbing on natural rock had been exhausted and the only way to progress would be to add holds to 'unclimbable' rock.

Topo Bleau summarises the paradox:

But Cuvier is also the massif of all the wrong turns, given how much the rock has been altered. Nowhere else are there so many manufactured holds, so many holds patched with cement. In a way, that was the price of progress.

But let’s not throw our hammers at the heads of those who came before. In the spirit of the time, they weren’t violating any ethical principle, because it hadn’t yet been recognised that chipping actually limits the standard. In other words, it unconsciously avoided engaging with the rock itself. It took 17 years to go from 7a to 7b, and only 7 years from 7b to 8a. [1]

In 2001 the problem was vandalised by a disgruntled local climber, who attempted to chip off the starting hold, making the problem harder. [2] Despite its manufactured nature, the problem is one of the most popular in Fontainebleau and a milestone for any aspiring Bleausard.

Bart van Raaij:

When I started climbing in the 80s I saw the people who could really climb, the bleausards, and they all started at that boulder. They did Carnage to test if they were fit because Carnage is a power boulder, they did L'Abbé Résina to see how the conditions are because it's a friction-dependent balance boulder...then they decide where to go. [3]

References

[1] https://sites.google.com/site/topobleau/escalades-bleau/Foret-domaniale-de-Fontainebleau/Les-Cuviers?authuser=0

[2] On The Edge issue 110, page 10

[3] https://open.spotify.com/episode/7C0PzcrI3pspRdauot61tx