I mean if it's possible, I'm always interested in trying to on-sight a route and of course the harder the better
But I've always been in
especially interested in trying to on-sight
the old-school hard classics
a route that there was climb many years ago
Maybe climbed even many times
Not necessarily climb many times but a group that that was there for many years and have never being climbed
on your first try
In general these old school hard classics are pretty tough to be on-sighted because they're usually
vertical very fingery sometimes even boulderly
Usually kind of climbing that is not very easy to on-sight at all
That it's hard to see the holds hard to see the food holds and
That kind of makes it even more interesting, you know
And
Definitely. It's a kind of climbing where you have to go into some kind of risks
You can't really get all the necessary information from the ground because you're just staring on
Blank looking wall and you have to make so many fast decisions right at that moment
Just like here. You're just holding two really bad crimps
You just look around
you can't really see much and you only see the next hold and you just have to commit to it and hope that it's
Good enough
Hopefully it was good enough I didn't fall that was a good relief
But in general in any kind of on-sight climbing
You have to be willing to commit you have to be willing to
Go into the move which is low percentage and don't really hesitate for too long
Let's say if I'm on sighting an 8c+ I know that there is not enough
Margin in terms of power then
I can't really be hanging around for 10 seconds and trying to always find the best possible method
But sometimes I get to the point where my intuition tells me oh
You can't really see much but you see the next hold and
Theoretically it could be possible, you know, just go for it
And if my intuition tells me well, it's good enough to go there even a little bit. Dynamically. I just go for it
You can take a look at it that it might be a risk
but only by making all these risks you actually at least have a chance of
Doing the route
because as I said, I don't really have the margin to
Climb it with too much hesitation with in my point of view too many mistakes
and if I make a certain
risks then I at least have a chance
If those risk are gonna work out
Of course, sometimes it means that I fall unexpectedly even in the easier sequences
But in my point of view at least for me
I'm not strong enough to climb an 8c+ with too much hesitation
There's always this little bit of risk involved
When I started climbing on this route just do it which is super famous
8c+ 5.14c and Smith Rock. It's actually the first 8c+ in USA
first ascended bright by a French guy jean-baptiste rebou in
1992
But it was first bolted by Alan Watts a local guy in
1989 and it's really iconic and it's been a dream of mine to try this route on-sight for
For quite a while. I think I've seen a picture of this route
Maybe I when I was 8 years old for the first time ever
And of course I was excited we stayed in
Smith Rock for a couple of days I would get used to this local climbing style and
Then I thought this could be the day
Well, I was looking at the weather forecast today
It was pretty obvious that it would be cold and windy maybe perfect conditions to climb in the Sun
But no really perfect conditions to climb in this north-facing
super windy wall
Even some of the local guys were I think trying to discourage me that these are no really descending conditions
But I was just too excited
You know, I just wanted to give it a try. I just couldn't wait to
to touch those holds
I was just too curious and that is the good moment actually because that
reduces the pressure that I always feel before
Any hard on-sight or any
Try in a route, which is very important for me in general
It was pretty good because as I was climbing through the lower section, I was not really that nervous
but
I could definitely feel that it was pretty cold and I was constantly struggling with
Not really numb fingers, but lil cold
Here I'm entering the second hard part of the first section
It's not necessarily super hard but really low percentage and and not really obvious
There's this bad pocket. It's kind of a mono the next hold looks really far
There's not that many options
fortunately a to dis mare and
committed
well, the hold was little worse than I expected almost kind of fell off because I was expecting little
Better holds luckily it worked
And I was in the game
The next section the next
Kind of five meters of climbing they're not very hard
But in general no matter if you're on-sighting or red pointing, it's always very important to climb
Well, even those parts which are not necessarily that hard
Because of course it it does depend how hard you try in the real crux
But often you just get through cracks just being too tired
Because maybe you have wasted way too much power in the easier section
And I think that's a mistake which which many climbers do that
They are not really focused on climbing the easier sections in the best style and the most efficient style possible
So here I'm approaching the rest
Kind of in the middle of the route
After this first part of the route, which by itself could be around 8b 8b+
I was expecting that on this kind of Jackie rail
I would be able to make a no hand rest to release my hands
Take almost complete rest
It was obvious that it was not possible
It was pretty much just like a hanging rest. Well, the holds were quite good the feet were quite good as well. But
The fact that I was expecting a no hand rest
Got me little bit of out of comfort zone
well, but then I quickly forgot about it tried to
Recover as much as possible
And of course also trying to warm up my hand my fingers as much as possible
In this jug it was pretty difficult mentally because I was trying to recover as much as possible in
My arms and my forearms while at the same time. I knew I had to warm up my fingers because
Already in the lower section. There were some holds that I couldn't really feel properly
But of course if you're trying to recover
Your forearms while at the same time using up my energy to warm up my fingers
Then the recovery is maybe not that that efficient as it as it could be
Usually I never really climb in sweatshirt
I hate it because I feel kind of too heavy when I climb. I was considering taking my sweatshirt off
At the bottom of the route, but the brutal wind
Convinced me that it was not a good idea, but I was planning to take my sweatshirt off at this jug
then I got there and I was pretty happy that I still had my sweatshirt on and
I was pretty sure that I was not going to take off my sweatshirt off
Even even in this jug because it was simply just too cold
So after this jug the wall gets much steeper
But still I was not very worried about the next five meters. They looked quite alright
They looked quite alright from the ground and they looked quite alright
Already, even from this kind of a jug
So in this jug, I was more just focusing really on warming both my hands. That was the number one priority
The second priority was recovering
Even though I was pretty happy that
With the way I climbed the first section. I didn't get very tired. Of course the more you can recover the better it is
And I started climbing slowly again
my fingers were definitely not 100% but
They felt little warmer than a couple of minutes ago
So it was time to continue
In these kind of routes which are long
demanding with
Some rests in between. It's it's always pretty difficult
to
deal with this
Mental mode which is like on when you fight when you have to focus and
then off mode when you get to rest and you need to focus on
recovery
so
Sometimes you leave the rest and
you don't really feel like you're ready to give it 100% you have because
Only a couple of seconds before you were just hanging in a nice hold and trying to recover as much as possible
In this section. I was not really that happy with the way I was climbing
But I was still hoping that I would find another rest a little higher
Fortunately, this this section is quite all right, and yes, this hold was was pretty much as good as I expected
It was very welcomed because I could warm up my fingers
Take some more rest to get into the resting mode again
But then it was really important to know the focus on
the fact that as soon as I would start climbing from this jug again,
I would really be hundred percent in the zone because here the wall gets even steeper
and it was obvious that that the business would would already start here and
I would have to be hundred percent ready
The wind was was
Relentless, it's it just did not want to stop it
I just really wanted to recover but I was just annoyed by the wind
I could ignore the wind only when I was in the hard sections
But I was not really able to ignore it when I was resting in the jugs
From here
it kind of looked that it would be like pretty continuous climbing all the way to the top and
I thought that this would be the very last rest
So I was warming up my hands as much as possible
Last shake outs
And then I knew I just couldn't make any more mistakes
So a little scream to motivate myself
This is the kind of a trick that I make for my mind to kind of like get this alert. All right
the rest is
Coming closely to the end and now it's time to focus
These two holes are quite alright
little hesitation, but
It was alright, of course skipping this quick draw
Here's getting really crimpy and the hope the moves are even furred
longer
This is a hard move
Very small and sharp in cut
This left-hand hold was actually much better than I expected
And I was surprised myself to find another small rest
Which was very good because I actually thought no my fingers were almost numb and
for these small holds, it would be much better to to warm up my fingers a
little more
While I was resting I was looking up
What was above me
And I had some kind of sequence already from the ground. I just wanted to double-check if
It looks the same like from the ground
I thought yes
And I would make one more shake
And
Then I thought I would go for it. Well this right hand hold
Surprised me quite a bit because I was definitely expecting a crimp. It was really weird to finger pocket
I was not really sure which fingers I would put inside
So I retreated composed myself and
Then I know there's absolutely no more time to waste
And I would go for it
Crux move number one
Crux move number two
I was really on the limit
Here it's getting really easier but it's continuous and I feel pumped
It still keeps going
I thought I would just jump into this jug, but then I hesitated a little bit to retreat it back
All of a sudden I got really pumped
Sticking this jug fell just surreal.
Ah so good.
I mean I still wasn't at the belay, but I just had a feeling I wasn't going to fall
I rested a little more I would take a deep breath
And I knew I had to finish it
It was intense
A dream came true. That was for sure
It's really nice because there was also Alan Watts the guy who bolted the climb and worked on it
And
Accordingly he said that
many years ago that he didn't think that
somebody would ever on-sight this route
and
I was pretty happy that I proved him wrong and I think he was very very happy, too
