Reykyavik low

Phuuuuaaa... the FA of „Reykyavik low“ is getting close!!

But let’s start at the beginning of the whole story.

day 1     When I started to work on “Reykyavik, 8A+/8B” I was very close to an ascent already on the very first day.

day 2     The second day then it looked completely different, despite of a good feeling after the promising first day. I wasn’t able to do any of the moves again. O.k… some moves worked, but I had no chance to climb sequences.

day 3     On the third day the success, with the ascent of Reykyavik. The same evening we (Martin and me) started to try a possible low start with two additional moves. But we were not able to find a solution for them (seemed to be pretty hard and we were already too tired).

day 4     The next climbing day then another success. Despite of I tried already Martins new line “Kein Scheehäschen, 8B/8B+”, I went down to Reykyavik and gave the low start some more attempts. AND… I found a solution pretty fast and was able to climb a whole sequence up to the second last hard move of the original line.  

day 5     NO CHANCE!! I tried the start moves for about two dozen times, but was NOT ABLE to repeat them. Even the first one was almost impossible. It’s crazy… but at the moment it’s an up and down. One day it looks super and the next day I’m simply not able to climb anything.

day 6     Was yesterday evening. After my arrival and warm-up it started to rain. And not just a bit!! Everything was completely wet and the boulder seeped like a waterfall. Despite of that I gave the low start some tries. Because of the steepness of the boulder at least the first moves were possible and dry. It looked BAD… like the day before. It felt at least a bit better and I was able to do the first move several times, but the ULTRAHARD foot-change afterwards was simply not possible. Something I had to change… I really needed a new beta for that start. With the current solution it was possible that I would try that start for another 10 days without any success. Somehow it felt almost impossible and I wondered how I once was able to do this foot-change.

                O.k… one more time a little change in the beta with a huge effect. Firstly the very first move felt much harder with the new beta and I was not able to do it. But after some attempts it went better and after a while I sticked the hold. It seemed that the body knew the movement then and got used to the physical strain.

                In the meantime the rain stopped and the sky went blue. I already tried the moves for about an hour or so and with the new solution now I was able to do the first part at almost every try. So I took a break and hoped that it will give a few last good tries this evening.

                Just one hard move lacked in the end…! Sure… the line is not finished there, but the last moves should work. I was extremely close, but lost the hook and went down to the pad. I had several good tries yesterday, but was too tired in the end to finish it up.

                What a pity! But nothing to worry about . I was happy that I found MY perfect solution and with good conditions and enough recreation I should be able to complete it the next climbing day. YESSS!! Can’t wait…

starting position of "Reykyavik low"... SD, but that's self-evident.

starting position of the original "Reykyavik, 8A+/8B"... SD too.

cheers