20 March 2018

The Big Island sit, the world's greatest project

The Big Island in Fontainebleau is the most confirmed 8C in the world with 17 ascents, including Any Gullsten yesterday, and everyone on 8a has given it three stars. It was put up with as a stand start by Vincent Pochon in 2010 after Dave Graham had made a two moves in FA, The Island, two years earlier. Over the years, many boulderers have checked out the sit start where Jan Hojer and James Webb have done some good linking. As it is so steep and climbs diagonally into the starting position, the sit start in itself, could be considered a boulder possibly around 8C. Adding the equally long, The Big Island 8C on top of this, with absolutely, no rest might be that we are talking about the another 9A? James Webb: "The sit start is an incredible project. For me personally the bottom is at least 8B+ and maybe even harder than The Big Island itself. The intro (10 moves for my method) is very powerful, yet technical with a tricky kneebar that links you through to the stand. Once you’re there you just have to take a deep breath and with absolutely no rest climb the Big Island. It’s a mega line! I would say that it is is somewhat a serious project for me. I've tried it now for about three seasons. I just made a trip there in Jan/Feb but the weather only allowed me to have thee sessions on it in total which was quite frustrating. It's a mega line though and I'm excited to return next year for another round of attempts! I had a good try this season where I entered the stand start and stuck the big right hand move to the sloper. After that you stuff the left heel and go to the crimp and this is where I fell. Seems close! Though the next few moves require a lot of tension and from the bottom you're exhausted. So its definitely not over!" On the picture, James is doing the move out to the start of The Big Island. The sit starts all the way down straight below his right foot. So have you have in fact linked the whole sit start to like 3-4 moves into the stand? Yup. Many times actually.
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