Piccolruaz, Užnik and Firnenburg send The Smile (8C)

Michael Piccolruaz, Nicolai Užnik and David Firnenburg have sent The smile (8C) in Rocklands. Giuliano Cameroni made the FA in 2018 and the high ball stood unrepeated until last year. (c) Daniel Gajda

Can you tell us more about the trip and The Smile?
Michael:[pictured] We've been on the trip for two weeks now. I came out with Nicolai and his girlfriend Sofya and then we met up here with a couple more friends. It's Nicolai's and Sofya's first time here so I've been showing them around a bit on all the amazing classics, while I've climbed some lines I hadn't done during my previous trips. I'm really looking for the good lines and I'm especially keen on some that are a little spicy in terms of height, so The Smile is just the perfect climb that fits all I'm looking for! Unbelievable line, crazy beautiful, the rock is out of this world and the moves are insane. The final jump to the lip makes the whole climb mentally quite challenging but I think I have a good head in such moments so I was confident that I would have a good chance of sending the boulder if I should get up there. When I finally did the move to the right eye of the smile, I just kept going, shut off my brain and jumped.

Nicolai: Definitely one of the coolest and also scariest boulders I’ve done. Since the last move is very committing I had to jump down twice after doing the actual crux move because I was not able to jump off / commit. I did in on the next attempt though so in total I had one session working on it and then did it the next. Probably low end 8C and if it was not for the height I think 8B+ would fit better.

David: So pretty and high wall. Can’t get any better than this! Emotionally challenging, although rationally you know that falling on the top move isn‘t too bad. Once I committed like 80% on the last big move to the lip and landed nicely, I broke my mental barrier. The climbing didn‘t feel like a proper 8C to me but maybe it is due to its height. Undoubtedly it influenced my climbing. Anyways, legendary bloc! 2 sessions.