Women's Bouldering Festival
We’re proud to have been part of the 2022 Women’s Bouldering Festival in Fontainebleau. A little over 3 days of workshops, mentorship, and talks dedicated to women climbers and underrepresented groups in climbing.
The event kicked off with a Routesetting Masterclass by Jack Godoffe at Karma Climbing on Friday. It was amazing to see how modern routesetting has changed. The level of professionalism and creativity on display at Jacky’s routesetting lab in Karma is simply unprecedented.
Clean Climber was present on Friday as well and we helped clean up the parking area around Croix Saint Jerome, then headed into the forest to do some much needed brushing. This summer has been truly dry and many boulders were covered with a thick layer of chalk. #brushyourholds
Saturday promised bad weather but in the end all participants were able to get in plenty of climbing in small groups with mentors like @TibaVroom and @ nora.caterin.born at the Franchard Cuisiniere area.
One cool little trend we joined in on is barefoot climbing. I spent most of the weekend climbing barefoot myself and was amazed at how hard you can actually climb without shoes. And yes, I tried chalk on my toes, I think it helps. But above all it’s a completely new technique: you use totally different parts of your feet compared to shoes.
For us this was the biggest sponsorship of an event so far. We were co-sponsor together with Patagonia, so I’d say we were in good company. We handed out over 100 CHALK REBELS Kits to participants and offered a couple of T-shirts for the raffle. The event was actually the first coming out for the redesigned CHALK REBELS Kit, so anyone who participated can know they received a unique item! We also helped the Routesetting Masterclass happen by sponsoring 3 tickets.
Overall a wonderful weekend and a great way help close the sport’s growing mentorship gap for women and underrepresented groups. The Women’s Bouldering Festival promotes outdoor conservation, best practices in the Forest of Fontainebleau, and climbing sustainably. And that’s what we are all about at CHALK REBELS too.