Jana Svecova reports from her one month trip to Brione where she sent Pamplemousse (8A) , Forever More sit (8A+) and Supertussi Low (8B+). In the VL ranking game she is #4, including having done one 8C boulder.
”From my last visit of Brione, there was one boulder I had started working on but couldn’t complete due to a pulley injury that prevented me from pulling properly. That boulder was Pamplemousse, originally graded 8A but now more commonly settled at 7C+. I managed to send it on my first day in Brione on my third attempt, and I couldn’t have asked for a better start to the trip.
The next boulder I chose as a "warm-up" to get familiar with the local rock was Forever More. I sent this one surprisingly quickly—in about 1.5 hours—so the trip continued really well! 🚀
Feeling confident after such a strong start, I dove straight into my main project: Supertussi Low (8B+). Low, because I started from two lowest holds possible and other guys sat under the boulder and started from where they can reach so they skipped one move.
I took a rest day before tackling it, as I had already spent three sessions on this boulder during my last visit to Brione. This year, I felt much stronger and thought the process would be quicker—but the reality was quite different.
I ended up spending almost my entire trip on this boulder, but the experience taught me so much. For example, if I can do the move but it feels hard and uncomfortable during the projecting process, keep seeking different beta until you figure out every detail and the moves feel easy/doable even if you add the moves before. Or how can I motivate myself again to finish a boulder when I’m frustrated that I can’t try any other boulder, especially since I thought I’d complete it in a maximum of three sessions on this trip.
Once I regained my motivation, it took just two more sessions to send the boulder—an amazing moment!
Later the 27-year-old did,
Graceland (8B+) in Allgäu, giving it a personal 8B grade.
”So the boulder Graceland you do the first move with your right hand and you go to quite a good hold. From there you do very stretchy move, with your left hand, to a lower hole and bump again to higher one and with your right hand again to the lower hole from where you continue up the boulder. I couldn 't these stretchy moves so I figured our my own beta where from the starting holds I do a cross into kinda okey hold, then grab a small, sharp crimp and I go to the lower hole with my right hand and with left to the higher one and I am in the same position as the guys that could reach those moves above. With my "short person" beta probably 8B?”