Tereza Širůčková does Aitzol (8b+/c) and onsights 8a+

Tereza Širůčková has been on a trip to Margalef where she redpointed Aitzol 8b+/c and onsighted El Fustigador (8a+). Last year, the 22-year-old opened the World Cup season with 14th- and 16-place finishes, and over the summer she sent her second 8c+.

Can you tell us more about the trip and the routes you tried?
I went to Margalef for my first time with a pretty clear plan – I wanted to push my grade on rock. I really like pockets, it was clear to me that this place could suit me well. I was really excited. I worked out the moves on my 9a project quite quickly and went for the first attempt thinking I might just try some good links. But suddenly I realized I was only two moves away from the top. Total surprise. Huge motivation, but also that classic feeling of “wow, that was really close.”

Then the weather got worse. And that’s when the sentence was born that followed me for the rest of the trip: “It will be dry in two days.” In the end, I didn’t come back to the project, and choosing routes started to look something like this: “Hey, this one is dry… so maybe we’ll try this.”

Eventually, I managed to climb my first 8a+ onsight. I have to say I was pretty lucky there. I read the route well, everything came together, and suddenly I was clipping the chains. Then came Aitzol. That was a different story. I didn’t have that much luck there. The route wasn’t in condition at all and was quite damp. When I climbed through the main boulder and reached the “rest,” I realized the headwall was more like a stream of water. At that moment, I thought it was unclimbable.

But I tried anyway. I catch the first pocket, which was more like a pool than a hold. Luckily, two slightly better ones followed, where it didn’t bother me as much that they were wet. From there, I chalked up the footholds properly so I could at least stand on them, and just hoped I wouldn’t slip. And somehow, it worked. Honestly, in those conditions the route felt insanely hard, and I feel like I probably had more luck than sense.