Font post match analysis part two.

Font….a lot of people are into it, and with good reason. It really is bloody marvellous, in all ways. The rock is great, the lines are great, the setting is great, the landings are usually great, the sheer amount of choice is great, and the climbing is great. Simple as that. I’m usually a cynic about popular, hyped, areas, but in this case, on my first visit, on my first day, I realised everyone is right and it really is all it’s cracked up to be.

(Though it is worth noting that two other of the “World’s Best Bouldering Venues”, Castle Hill and Rocklands, are very nearly equally marvellous and utterly bloody inspiring).

So, I’ve been a few times now. And I’ve found My Way of doing things out there: A blend of running around like a dog with seven dicks just finding the most beautiful lines at a reasonably doable but thankfully vague standard (all thanks to the circuit colours), and of going along with other peoples’ plans, inspirations and suggestions. I don’t go out with goals and I don’t go out with ticklists. I just look, listen, and climb. This suits me fine: I climb lots of great problems and a few hard problems and some hard and great problems, and usually I don’t know names and grades (which are complete random toss anyway!!), just the quality which is self-evident.

This time I did 3 days of that and mostly had great fun (apart from Elephant, which still doesn’t inspire me - where are the sodding LINES there??). On the last day I went off on my own with the intention of ticking things. I blame the Eagles for that, his bad influence is rubbing off. So, I followed a guide and followed a grade that should be doable but a good challenge and a good “tick”.

Hmmmm….

Well I did a couple of nice things but rapidly became jaded. Looking at grades instead of lines - *shakes head*. The tail wagged the dog and the dog put it’s tail between it’s legs. Oh I suppose tiredness from 3 days on, sore skin, warm conditions, and swarming hordes of tedious English students with bad haircuts, matching t-shirts and a f*cking guitar didn’t help the vibe. Nevertheless I realised a bit too late that I’d been….well to continue the theme, barking up the wrong tree a bit. By then it was time to go home anyway.

But it was another confirmation (I’ve had many, both ways) of the importance of doing what is True To Oneself (and generally I think it’s good if what that is comes from the deeper pleasures in climbing). Although it did get me thinking about bouldering and what it all could mean - more on that later.

So next time I’ll go to Font, I’ll stick to what is inspiring. I have thought though, it might be useful to know my way around a bit….but equally to still not know too many names and grades. I think what I’d like is a collection of just maps to Font, showing parking, approaches, boulder locations, and rough circuit directions. I suspect the only way to do that will be photocopying and printing though.