Piotr Oleszczuk ticks Petrichor (8C)

Piotr Oleszczuk has been on a trip to Rocklands sending 23 boulders 8A and harder including Petrichor (8C) ”Second 8C of the trip. Feels surreal. Had to fight through the pain since this one gave me one of the worst splits of my life (5 of them to be exact). Super cool moves which fit my style really well.”

Can you tell us more about the trip and your hardest sends?
Heey, So, this year I decided to return to Rocklands for another month-long trip, just like last year. Going into the season, I had four main projects in mind: Book Club (8B+), Reverse Cowgirl (8B+), G-Master (8C) and Petrichor (8C). I also hoped to tick off some classics I left behind last year. Since I had already done quite a few of those classics, it was easier to stay in project mode this time around.

The first thing I tried was Book Club, but I got shut down on it pretty quickly, so I decided to move on. Next up was Reverse Cowgirl (8B+), which might be the coolest boulder I climbed in Rocklands this year. It’s a powerful roof climb - exactly the kind of style I enjoy the most. It went down quite fast, in just three sessions.

After that, I wanted to try something harder, so I went straight to G-Master. This one suited me really well: power endurance on small crimps. On the first day, I managed to send both Master Key and Guest List, and I started working out the moves on G-Master. Two days later, I came back focused on unlocking the tricky rose move in the middle. I found my own beta pretty quickly and got through it consistently. After a few good tries, I managed to send it.

The last major climb I tried is Petrichor. It was my final big project of the trip and consists of just five moves - on some of the smallest holds I’ve ever grabbed in Rocklands. I actually came super close to sending it in one session, but in the end it took me four more days, battling through probably the worst splits and fingertip flappers I’ve ever had. Outside of projecting, I also had a blast climbing some awesome dynos. Saifa (8B) and Into the Void (8A+) were definitely the highlights in that category and included one of the coolest moves I've ever done in rock.

All in all, this trip turned out to be even more successful than last year’s, which I’m especially happy about - mainly because I trained way less this season. I was finishing my bachelor's degree (I actually defended my thesis remotely halfway through the trip 😅) and was also dealing with a pretty nasty knee issue.