Lucile Saurel does Zima Blue (8B)

Lucile Saurel, who placed in the top 20 at both of her World Cups this year, has completed Zima Blue (8B) in Fionnay. (c) Aurele Bremond

Can you tell us more about sending your first 8B?
I came to Fionnay last year for three days and tried this boulder during one session. At the time, I felt very far from sending it. The moves seemed doable in themselves but very hard! Overall, I just wasn’t strong enough!

This year, I came back for five days to this beautiful place. I needed one session to figure out the moves again. I was really feeling great, strong in my fingers and with good sensations! So I took a proper rest day, and then the next day, after a good warm-up, it only took me three goes to send this boulder. It's quite long but really suited to my style: pretty physical on a steep overhang, and very finger-intensive! I really liked the effort it required, there were three pretty hard moves at the start, then a few easier ones in the middle, and a final hard move where I had to stay fully focused until the end! So that’s it, Zima Blue is done, and now I’m planning to start even lower to try Compass North (8B+).