Jabee Kim ticks Monkey Wedding along with an 8A+ (B) flash!

Jabee Kim, big brother to one of the world’s most succesfull female competition climber, Jain Kim, has done Monkey Wedding (8C) and flashed Fragile Steps (8A+) in Rocklands.

Can you tell us more about your background and doing your first 8C?
I'm Jabee Kim from Korea. I'm 36 years old, and I started competition climbing from 1999 until 2022 (I retired from competition but still climbing on outdoor). I used to compete IFSC world cup with my brother and sister (Jaha and Jain Kim). My first worldcup was 2003 and last worldcup was 2019 but actually I wasn't good at the world cup. After retyreing I enjoy rock climbing, mostly bouldering. I flashed several 8A boulders, 8A+ and 8B in Korea and I always had a dream about doing an 8C boulder someday.

This is my first bouldering rock trip since I start climbing in 1997. In 2020, I climbed one of 8B+ boulder in Korea and it was my best grade so far. I thought I'm not strong enough for 8C. When I'm planning this trip to Rocklands, I'm not sure that I can climbed 8C and also unluckily I got serious injury on my ankle on Aplil but I searched 8C routes anyway. Finally I found one of my style 8C route, and that was Monkey Wedding. But I had only 2 weeks in Rocklands so I thought it is not enough time for send this mega classic hard route. So I set other goals on the list but there was one and only Monkey wedding in my head.

On the second day of the trip, 9th of July, I tried Monkey wedding for a first time but I was stuck on the crux bump move.

After three days, 12th of July on my second session, I got serious skin problem from trying Oral Office (8A+) after I flashed Pendragon (8A) for warm up. Anyhow, I decided to continue to try Monkey wedding but I was stuck on same move like first day, so I thought 'Maybe I should give up, I'm not strong enough bla bla' but I changed my left hands grip to another way and it worked. After several tries, I managed the first bump move from start for the first time! But the second session was over because of the skin issue. And 15th of July, on a my third session I felt so confidence. I changed the second bump move to a toe hook move like Alex Khazanov did and it was better for me. Finally, third go of third day, I climbed Monkey Wedding. I still can't believe that I climbed 8C boulder. My dream came true and it's time to another dream start.

Can you also tell us more about your hardest flash?
I think flash attempt is most valueable because everyone has only one chance for flash every each boulder route. So I give my everything on the every flash attempt, no matter how route is easy or not. When I first saw videos of 'Fragile steps', I thought I should flashe it because it seems so easy on the videos. So yesterday me and my girl friend went to fragile steps for take a look. It is really different what I saw. The hold was broken so I have to find another beta and I found a left undercling so I make my own beta but there was a little boulder in the left side so I had to be careful about dab. On the same time, I used all of my power on 'The Vice(8B)' which I couldn't send yet. So I wasn’t sure that I can or not. I took a deep breath and start climbing. The beta was perfect which I found before try so I flashed the most unique line in Rocklands. Somebody says it’s 8A+ and some says it's 8B but I have no idea about the grade. I'm just happy that I flashed 'Fragile Steps'.