Ina Plassoux Djiga does La théorie des cordes (8c)

Ina Plassoux Djiga, who last month won the European Cup in Bologna, has sent La théorie des cordes (8c) in Saint Léger. The 25-year-old made her debut in the World Cup only four years ago.

Can you tell us more doing your first 8c?
The most beautiful route I’ve done so far. This route is divided into three parts: a first part on very physical tufas, a second part which is more an endurance one with a big arm lock as the last move, and finally as a reward, a great slab that must be worth 7c, where you still have to stay focused.

For me, the difficulty of the route was mainly in the lower crux, which I find very difficult. In January, when I returned to the route after a year away due to injuries and then competitions, I completely changed my methods to try to optimize this section as much as possible.

I had promised myself that if I made it past the first section, I wouldn’t fall at the crux of the second one. Since I didn’t use my knees after the bottom section, I was a little worried about making it to the end of the second part. In the end, it worked, and I kept my word, falling only once...on the move right after the crux.

The morning I topped the route, it was raining so hard that we didn’t even think about climbing. In the end, I managed to squeeze through the drops to the top at the end of the day. I’d planned several weekends in Saint Léger between October and November to climb the route. Even though the conditions weren’t optimal, the tufas at the bottom were still completely dry, which was super important for me to be able to do the route.

I’m very happy to have done this route and I’m looking forward to discovering other great lines in this sector in this grade this winter!