Rachel Goldman ticks The Thrilla in Manila (8B)

Rachal Goldman, who previously has completed a dozen 8A to 8A+ graded boulder problems, has done The Thrilla in Manila (8B) in Hueco Tanks (TX), after trying it a handfull sessions. (c) Joe Kinder

Can you tell us more about the ascent?
Very excited about that one, my first 😃 I first tried it with Maya Ene and her family, which was so fun. We both knew very quickly we could do it - in fact Maya did it the same day (her last!) and that was really inspiring. For me it was perfect test of training. But I had to come back a few more times, cut my toe really badly and had some trouble pressing on the foot for a while, then some dry fires, and so on - started to get worried, season in Hueco was ending and it was getting warm.

The climb is a thuggy roof to a decent rest and then a hard crimpy traverse, big foot cut & a little hero jump at the end. It all came down to getting really stretched out on a heel toe cam that wants to pop and keeping tight enough to be ready for the enormous swing!

Day of the send my partner Blake carried ALL the pads out for me which was very nice. For the send go I finally put on a new shoe (comp solution) for the silly slippy heel toe - and it worked. Love this rock climb!