This summer I had one big wish and that was climbing my first 8A.
This page is dedicated to my adventure and struggle in a magnificent
boulder.
I spend 4 weeks of my 2016 summer holiday in the beautiful bouldering
area Rocklands in South Africa. It is full with great boulders and full with
8A's. I tried Witness the Sickness in the first half of my holiday once
and the moves did not feel impossible. From that moment on this beautiful
problem was in the back of my mind all the time and I decided that this problem
would be the one to go for. Witness is not the easiest 8A in Rocklands but by
many considered to be the most beautiful in the grade. The second half of my
holiday was dedicated to working in this problem. During the first two evening
sessions I made a lot of progress and was able to do all the moves except for
the one hard move from the second sloper to the edge. After another two
sessions I managed to do that move once but not all the way from the start.
Being able to do all the moves gave me a lot of confidence that the boulder was
within my reach.
I had another two morning sessions in Witness that went quite well. The
first part to the last sloper went smoother every session and I could dream all
the steps. I could also finish the boulder starting from the edge but was still
not able to link all the moves. The move from the second sloper to the edge was
really the crux move for me and I could do it but only in 1 out of 10 tries.
Time started to run out and with only 4 days left I decided to do an
evening session on the same day of the last morning session. That was a bad
idea, I couldn’t do the lower part anymore, all the moves felt really hard and
I started to lose confidence. I clearly needed a full rest day and leave the
problem for the last two days of our stay.
The weather forecast for the next days was deteriorating humidity wise
which made the prospect of sending even slimmer. Contrary to the weather
forecast the conditions on the next day felt quite good a bit humid but quite a
strong breeze. At the end of my rest day I decided to walk over to the boulder just
to give it a small test burn. Immediately the first go felt amazing and I was
able to link all the moves including almost sticking the move to the edge.
After a few minutes a couple of Americans arrived who started to work the
problem using a kneepad and I asked if I could try the pad. The move to the
edge felt a lot more solid using the kneepad, thanks guys! I was so surprised
that being able to stick the hardest move felt so easy that I fell on the next
move. I repeated this mistake once more. I took a good rest and finally linked
all the moves. It felt really great to stand on top of this beautiful problem.
It was a though struggle which meant that I was not able to do other nice
problems in Rocklands but for me it was worth the sacrifice. The risk of coming
home empty handed was surely there and this might happen to me on future
occasions but I learned a lot and got stronger working in this problem both
physically and mentally.
Below is a movie that illustrates my struggle, frustration, perseverance
and finally a happy smile and success.