Siara Fabbri does Kingda Ka (8B)

Siara Fabbri has sent Kingda Ka (8B) in Gottardo / Gotthardpass. Last November, the antimatter researcher did her first 8B+ and we followed up with an interview. (c) Simone Tentori

Can you tell us more about Kingda Ka?
I had a few sessions on this boulder last year and figured out the beta that worked for me. It is a really unique climb because it is a tall granite slab/almost vert wall at a hard grade, and you have to pull on these pebbles and in my beta I need to use my thumbs a lot to either pull/press on tiny pebbles or grabbing an undercling. The pebbles can be really painful and both recent sessions I had to tape my thumb because it was bleeding. The real crux is doing around 5 movements in the middle off of a slopey small pebble for a foot.

Here I struggled a lot because one of my weaknesses that I feel holds me back is fear of falling in a weird way, like on mantles for example. Weighting the bad foot, I have to reach the undercling in an almost fully-stretched position and I can only get it with my thumb, staying close to the wall, and then do some hand moves and go into basically an upside down gaston - in these positions I felt pretty vulnerable and afraid to fall in a bad way.

First sess back from the ground I built my way up cm by cm, trusting the foot more and more, and each time that built my confidence and it felt really good. If I hesitated or was afraid, my hips would come out a tiny and my foot would pop or I would fall, so it was really this all or nothing attitude to do the boulder, and the journey to finding that attitude was the best part. I came back 2 weeks later and got a high point first go, then after a few tries sent. It was amazing to feel the movements so fresh and smooth, and overall this is one of my favorite boulders and such a joy to do!