Nieuwenhuijsen and Reuser send La Révolutionnaire (8C+)

Michiel Nieuwenhuijsen, who previously has done five 8C's, has sent La Révolutionnaire (8C+) in Fontainebleau, wearing only one shoe. ”On to the next one!” Here is the Insta. Michiel projected it together with Tim Reuser who has also completed it, Insta video.

Can you tell us more about doing your first 8C+?
In January I went on a quick ‘recon mission’ with my friend Tim Reuser, both of us did all the moves on the first session. That made me really motivated to go for this one. The hard part of la Révolutionnare consists of 11 handmoves and about the same number of footmoves. So doing all single moves is great, but it’s still far away from sending. Having a project for motivation is great, but having the same project as your training buddy is even better! With full on motivation Tim and I tried to up our game, great sessions in the gym!

In March I went back to Font with La Revolutionnaire in my mind. Owww man, I was close! With just a few days more I think it could have worked out. The conditions where just amazing and the learning curve was steeper than expected. My goal of this trip was to make some good links, but I thought I would not be ready yet to do full on send tries. I exceeded my expectations and could do multiple send tries, even coming all the way to the end. Also shout out to my buddy Tim for sending, pure motivation there!

Now I went back for just 2 (climbing) days. Fully focussed on the send. It happened on the last day just before I had to go back home. Just before the send I had my best go, falling on the last move. I thought it was it, the tank was empty. But somehow it all worked out and I got the send. This little trip was a gamble with the weather, all paid off perfectly.

Why did you opt for just one climbing shoe?
This was the first time I used the barefoot technique. At first, I tried it with 2 climbing shoes and with different beta. Double toe hook into bicycle. But this transition was super hard for me. I am not so comfortable with toe hooks and I was afraid that I would suffer a lot from slipping toe hooks with this beta. Then I saw a video of the Charles of the FA. He (obviously) does i full barefoot and this gave me new ideas. The next time I was trying I was again suffering from slipping toehooks, so I tried some different things. This resulted in trying with just one shoe, that way you can squeeze your big toe in a pocket. And instead of a double toehook into a bicycle I can get this bicycle from the beginning. That way I can rely more on core tension and not solely on toehook power.

With the new beta, I felt way better in the section, which gave me a lot of confidence. But I had to find a new way for the beginning because I used to do that with a right toe hook and that would be super painful. I found a new way with a kind of heel toe cam. Luckily the rest of the footholds didn't give any problems.

How can you explain having progressed for so many years like a late bloomer?
Still not peaking 😉. Maybe in a few years. Hard to tell. I guess I am still hungry for more and it helps a lot I train with a young and strong crew. Training together is always a huge part in my progress. Spraywalling a muerte together.

What do you mean by, ”On to the next?”
The plans to late a look at Big Island assis together with Tim is already there...Let's see, why not? As I said, this is not my peak yet ;-)