In the summer of 2006 I traveled to Fontainebleau with my good friend Bryan Boyko. Both of us had qualified to compete in the speed competition at youth worlds. We decided we could justify traveling to speed climb if we could go climbing outside in Europe too. Another good friend had an apartment in Paris and offered to let us stay there for a week. Each day we would wake up, ride our rented bikes to Gare de Lyon, throw them in the train and take the 30 minute ride to Fontainebleau, get off and ride our bikes, crash pads on our backs, to whatever bouldering area we chose. Sometimes the rides were mellow, such as to Bas Cuvier (a great system of trails and dirt roads exists through the forest that bikes can use) and other rides, such as to Cul de Chien, would turn into multi-hour sufferfests, riding into the wind with a sail of foam on our backs. We got about as good of weather as we could have asked for in August and got to climb on some amazing boulders. My obsession with climbing had grown significantly since my trip to Switzerland the previous summer and I was excited to take in as much climbing history as possible.
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