Boulder problems

Listed as 8B+ (8B) in 2016 guide.

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

Sit start as for Fatman (assis), climb up through the roof, traversing right to join Gourmandise, and finish directly.

Previously tried by Daniel Woods before Shawn Raboutou made the first ascent. Also tried extensively by Drew Ruana who, at the time of writing, had put 75 sessions in to it.

Drew Ruana:

To me it breaks down into a 8 move v15/16 that’s on nasty crimps and underclings that feel like they’re gonna rip your pulley. There’s one right hand throw move to where the 14 starts that’s one of the hardest moves I’ve ever done and you basically have to climb v13/14 into a hard v12+ single move. Then do a bunch of foot moves and weird cut to establish on the 14. From there the 14 stand is guarding the top- you’ve already done a fucked up hard boulder (took me more days to link the sit than any other v15 and most v16s have taken me) into a nasty series undercling thrutches with bad feet. The 14 is wireable but having the energy to own those underclings at the end of basically climbing v17 is hard. To me this felt like a solid step up from rotsw [Return of the Sleepwalker], if rotsw had 1-2 more crux moves it’d be comparable I think. [1]

The problem was discovered by Chad Greedy. He gave it the working name partly after his pet chameleon, Megatron, who died shortly after he found the problem. [4]

References

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/climbing/comments/yw2uct/comment/iwi7mfx/

Tahoe, CA

One of the earliest problems to get the 8B+ grade.