Seb Berthe & Hugo Parmentier climb 100 Fontainebleau 7A's in a single day

On Sunday 14 May Hugo Parmentier and I completed our Mega-circuit project, one of our biggest projects of the year so far: sending 100 differents 7A boulders in Fontainebleau in a day linking them by fair means (biking or running). A huge circuit in the whole forest, starting north in Rocher Canon and finishing south in Nemours. This was such an incredible day and intense experience!

The idea came about from a discussion between roommates and grew from the experience of our local Font friends. Initially, to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the first 7A of Fontainebleau, aka "La Joker", we wanted to complete "only" 70x7a, adding some bonus problems in case we were fast enough to climb some more…

After a month and a half of discussion, deciding on our ethics, our itinerary and the best boulders among the thousands of blocks in the forest, we woke up with the early lights on the 14th of May to give our Mega-Circuit a try.

The idea was to climb only during daylight as it is forbidden to climb at night in the forest. From waking up at 4:30 am, starting climbing at 5:30 to finally reaching home at midnight, we biked 70 km, climbed and ran our way through the deepest and most well known parts of the legendary forest of Fontainebleau.

We succeeded in climbing our selection of the most delicate, stunning and classic boulders of the 7a/+ range. In the middle of the day since things were going good and as we were ahead of our schedule, we decided to go hard and add the bonus boulders we had on our list to reach the 100 mark!

We laughed, screamed, sweated (a lot), struggled and shared an ultra intense journey. A week later, we are still struggling with fatigue and skin... We hope this "multipitch" sort of adventure will inspire other climbers to try their own low-CO2-emission projects close to home.

The whole day and every boulder we climbed was documented by an amazing crew. A film will be produced by Mountains on stage and directed by Jérôme Tanon. of course, all the filming and extra shots were made using fair means as well. Stay tuned, a whole film about this adventure will come soon!

In the meantime, thanks to all the people involved in the project: Soline and Tess, the Mountains on stage and shooting crew, our sponsors and partners of the project, Nicolas for his amazing and personalized "Boolder app", our local friends for the boulders/itinerary ideas, Bleaumeteo for the annual forecast of the forest. Special thanks to Jerome and Cyril, Elise, Zoé and Hélène who followed us all day long by bike to get some sick shots of the project.

by Sébastien Berthe

Berthe thanks: SCARPA