How-to boulder in Fontainebleau

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Bouldering is the art of climbing a single rock; no ropes, just you, your shoes, and a crashpad. In Fontainebleau, there are thousands of sandstone boulders waiting to be climbed. You can create your own route up the rock or repeat a line someone else has already figured out.

These classic lines, called boulder problems, are listed in printed guidebooks and online platforms like bleau.info. Most of them have a grade set by the climber who opened the line. If you’re trying to repeat a specific problem, it’s necessary to respect the original style and intention of the climb.

Over time, however, some problems become easier than originally intended. This can happen for several reasons:

• Climbing an alternative line that’s maybe more intuitive but strays from the original route.
• Incorrect start positions, such as starting higher than intended, using other startholds or skipping the sit start.

Finding the correct start of a boulder can be tricky. In Fontainebleau, you’ll find all kinds of starts: standing, sitting (assis), lying down, or even jump starts. For a true sit start, your butt must leave the ground last, sometimes even removing the crashpad to avoid starting too high.

The boulders in Fontainebleau finish on top of the boulder. This means a proper ascent ends with topping out and standing or sitting securely on the summit.

Back in the day, figuring out how to climb a problem could take many sessions. These days, you can often find videos online within seconds. Bleau.info reviews all videos before publishing them, so you can be fairly confident that what you see matches the line and the grade as it's currently recognized.

Curious whether you climbed a boulder the "right" way?

We’ll leave you with the wise words of Bart van Raaij, author of the 5+6 and 7+8 guidebooks and creator of bleau.info: