Jabee Kim completes La Révolutionnaire (8C+)

Jabee Kim, older brother to one of the world’s most successful female competition climbers, Jain Kim, has climbed La Révolutionnaire (8C+) in Fontainebleau after projecting it for nine sessions during a month batteling bad conditions.

Can you tell us more about the ascent?
After my ascent of Monkey Wedding (8C) in Rocklands last year, I was looking for a new hard project. In Korea, we have some good strong climbers like Jongwon Chon and Dohyun Lee but they always focus on the Olympics. Other Korean competition climbers also only focus on competition, so Korean climbers have never climbed an 8C+ boulder route and this became my goal.

Somehow, I saw a video where Ryohei Kameyama sent La Révolutionnaire and there were some crimps on the roof. At that moment, I thought 'OK, this is it.'

I spent three sessions of the first week on each move but it was hard. Not only for the climbing but also for the weather as it was raining a lot. The second week it wasn't raining but I had to wait for the holds to dry up. On the third week, I tried to link the moves, but it was so hard. I spent three more sessions linking the moves but it never happened. I changed beta before the last crux and it fitted me better. After two more sessions, the weather was perfect, my body condition was perfect, and everything was so good. I tried the blind dyno for warm-up and it worked easily. In the first three attempts I fell on the middle part, and in my 4th attempt, every move was so smooth, somehow I was on top of the boulder. In total, I spent nine sessions and one whole month on this hard project. I never regret that. It was the most valuable time for personal growth.