Climbing - The Red Bull Font&Bleau, seen from the inside!
A look back at the Red Bull Font&Bleau, a bouldering competition held on 23 June in Fontainebleau
On Saturday 23 June, the Manawa Blog team was on deck for a major event! Our special correspondent Nicolas Arquin attended the final of the Red Bull Font&Bleau, a bouldering competition (in teams of three) bringing together 93 climbers on a mythical spot, the forest of Fontainebleau. A colourful event, with overexcited athletes who came first and foremost to have fun... Here is our report of this fantastic final!
What is bouldering?
Not knowing much about bouldering before this Saturday 23 June, Nicolas did his job as a journalist by going hunting for information, notably by interviewing climbers present on the spot. And bouldering is rather easy to understand when it is explained by Baptiste Dherbilly. This 25 year old from Haut-Savoie, member of Team Millet (favourite of the Red Bull Font&Bleau) sums things up well: " Bouldering is climbing on a surface that varies in height but which is not very high (4-5 metres on average), without any specific equipment (no rope or harness), apart from our shoes and mats to cushion our fall. Physically, it requires a very varied movement and strength. The effort is short and intense, you can compare it to a 100m race!
Jérémy Bonder, sports director of the Red Bull Font&Bleau, explains: " Bouldering requires few movements, 6 to 10 maximum, whereas on the cliffs, you'll do dozens of them...
A discipline that is accessible and trendy as long as you don't skimp on training, and which has managed to seduce the French: the qualifying phases of the Red Bull Font&Bleau (contested by teams) have, for example, brought together 1,000 climbers, 10% of whom qualified for the grand final on 23 June. A final contested on a mythical spot: the forest of Fontainebleau, 70 km from Paris. Enough to give the bouldering enthusiasts present that day a few shivers.
"Bleau", THE spot for bouldering
" Bleau is the Mecca of climbing in France ", says Thomas "Tito" Caleyron, one of the best French climbers with several Boulder World Cups won. "The density of boulders is exceptional, there are thousands of boulders of a crazy quality that are difficult to find elsewhere. His compere Etienne Seppecher, 28 years old, is even more complimentary: " Bleau is the most classy bouldering spot in France, you can't hope for a better competition! The number of boulders is amazing, it's an infinite playground. You can come back every day for 10 years and still have the whole forest to discover... The Red Bull Font&Bleau is an event not to be missed!
The Red Bull Font&Bleau, a 100% fun event!
Pleasure. If we had to retain one word from the ten or so interviews conducted before the launch of the competition, it would undoubtedly be this. The participants of this 3rd edition of the Red Bull Font&Bleau all have the ambition to give the best of themselves, but above all to have fun, to have fun with friends, in short to enjoy the moment! Like Margot, Jérôme and Clément, from the Bleau'Out Team: " Fontainebleau is fun! We're here to enjoy ourselves, to appreciate nature and to get the most out of it", says the girl from the group.
Héloise, the girl from Team 41, is on the same wavelength: "We are not the strongest, we know it. We are here to have fun, for the pleasure of climbing outside.
A spectacular competition
Once the final is launched, at 11:30 am precisely, the climbers go into overcoming mode. Fun yes, but everyone wants to get through the 30 boulders proposed by the organisers (in 3 hours), on this spot dear to Jacky Godoffe, climbing master and one of the event's sports directors. But in fact, what qualities do you need to be a good climber? "You need to have climbed a lot, to have solid experience and to have acquired a good repertoire of movements, as Patrick Edlinger would say (a climbing legend, who died in an accident in 2012, ed. note). The second quality to have is holding the holds, to avoid falling", says Etienne Seppecher. Jérémy Bonder, who has been climbing for 20 years, also has an opinion on the matter. " It's better to be flexible, technical and have good physical abilities, even if you can make up for any shortcomings with a few hours of training. In the forest, it is better to be very technical and the Fontainebleau Forest is known for this technical side, which is very rarely found in other outdoor sectors ", argues the sports director of the Red Bull Font&Bleau.
And indeed, overcoming the 30 natural boulders, colour-coded according to their degree of difficulty (3a to 7c+), will be no picnic for the athletes gathered in Fontainebleau, in the Buthiers sector. " Slap your hand, hard! " Put your foot up! " " The falls are numerous, but the climbers present on Saturday 23 June are the persevering type, ready to suffer to push their limits to the maximum, and come to the end of the various routes proposed. Reading the rock, analysing, feeling and being at one with the wall are all essential notions to master in order to go far in this 3rd edition of the Red Bull Font&Bleau final. Where solidarity and mutual aid are not empty words...
A memorable final!
After 3 hours of effort, the 31 teams present (including a 100% girls' team from Cergy) were then grouped together by Jérémy Bonder and Jacky Godoffe. Three teams will participate in the grand final, on 7m high boulders rated 7b+ to 7c. Not an easy task, but the nine climbers put on a show, and in particular one man: Thomas Perreac, the only one to complete the three routes in less than 10 minutes!
The Macs du Cuvier won this third edition of the Red Bull Font&Bleau, ahead of Team Millet and Team Degré Plus Ponthierry. A competition that our special correspondent will remember for a long time!
Front page photo: Little Shao / Red Bull Content Pool
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