Martina Demmel onsights Stiqueul man (8a+/b)

Martina Demmel has onsighted Stiquel man (8a+/b) in Saint Léger. ”Maybe being very limited with my right knee due to a recent injury helps me commit faster... stoked that I fully took the risk to fail. (c) Felix Bub

The 22-year-old competition climber onsighted her first 8b, out of ten, four years ago when she had only been climbing for three years. In the 8a ranking game she is #7 in the onsight ranking, all men included.

Can you tell us more about your injury and how it made you climb faster?
In qualis in Wujiang, we had a pretty aggressive heel-toe-jam where my calf dislocated for a short moment and injured the capsule. It's not as bad as it sounds because it completely heals by itself in about 6 weeks but now for the first few weeks, I'm very limited with the use of my right leg (no heel-hooks, dropknees, twisting, high steps, pushing, pulling with the toes - so standing on it frontally is ok).

I guess while trying a hard onsight especially in steep bouldery terrain, there isn't plenty of time to choose the ideal footholds. Not having several options for the use of my right leg helped me decide quicker, hesitate less and just commit to the obvious beta right away by taking more risks. I hope to apply this more even after my knee is healed again. I definitely feel my upper body getting much more tired than usual...