Font 8c Link-up Falls In Fontainebleau

by Kevin Avery 21 year old Remy Bergasse of Romans in France has completed the first ascent of Quoi De Neuf in Le Toit d´Orsay, Fontainebleau and proposed a grade of Font 8c.The line is a link-up of two established problems; a 15 move Font 7c+ added to an already beefy Font 8b/+. It first rose to fame as French master Jacky Godoffe´s project, but despite falling from the last move Godoffe never managed to complete the problem. Bergasse first climbed Quoi De Neuf Acte 2 in May this year (see a video HERE) and was inspired to try the full line. Bergasse is no stranger to hard climbing having red-pointedroutes of F8c. The new problem is some 25 moves long and verges on route status, requiring hugepower-endurance for success.Can a problem such as this be compared to a short Font 8c bloc or would it be better to give long link-ups like these a route grade, as has been proposed for some of the long links in Hollow Mountain Cave in the Grampians, Australia? The grade debate will rage on, and yes we need a benchmark, but grading is not an exact science and just as one person´s proposed 8c is no consensus, neither is a first repeater´s downgrade to 8b+.Remy Bergasse is sponsored by Five-Ten, Beal and Expression Holds. Sources: 8a.nu, bleau.info

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