Soudain Seul (aka The Big Island sit) 9A (?)

This winter, I really wanted to dedicate myself a bit more seriously to bouldering, and obviously, I was thinking about which 9A/V17 could fit my style the best. Fontainebleau is a bouldering place where I climbed very little in the past and I almost feel ashamed about it, considering its relevance for our sport. On top of that, it is the bouldering place where I had enjoyed climbing the most. So Soudain Seul 9A was an obvious goal for this winter.

First session I absolutely loved the line! But I was overwhelmed by all the possible betas and I felt pretty lost. But second session I found my beta and sent the stand start Big Island. The lower part with kneebars did not make much trouble for me, but it is still making the problem waaay harder. Not only for the physical part, but mostly for the friction part in the crux. 4th session I was already making good tries and I knew I was close.

5th session I felt perfect. It was cloudy and windy day and the rock felt very sticky. I was close on my first two tries, but not enough. On my 3rd try of the day I put up some of the most memorable fights and made it to the top.

I feel very happy and proud about this send, it means particularly a lot to me especially after the last few seasons when I always felt very close to doing some relevant ascents, but it never really quite happened. Sending this in 5th session is the icing on the cake! But I know very lucky with perfect conditions every day, with beta videos available from many different climbers and most importantly Lucien Martinez who was sessioning with me on Big Island who insisted that I should keep trying with "squeezing with the feet" beta. Watching him doing the moves with this beta (as we are the same height and arm-span) made me believe that it could be good beta for me too. Also having the sessions spread into different trips with very good training sessions in between helped me a lot too.

About the grade, I don't feel like I am an expert when it comes to high-end bouldering grades. Most of the hard boulders 8C/V15 or harder I did at my homecrag and most of them are first ascents. It feels like the hardest problem I have ever done. I honestly feel strong at the moment, the problem fits my style perfectly. And it still feels harder than my 8C+ first ascents at my homecrag (Terranova, Brutal Rider, Ledoborec). Soudain Seul is definitely power endurance boulderproblem and that is why it fits a sport climber like me. So my suggestion is that it feels harder than 8C+, but if it is 8C+/9A or soft 9A, I really don't know. It is also difficult with grade proposition as the boulder has a lot different moves where you need a lot of different skills and also size of the climber is important. And none of the skills has to be on the "9A boulder level", but it is rare to have everything. Plus, the start is definitely morphological, while the top has many different betas that unlock the problem for short climbers too.

To finish, I did it with no book in the kneepad (I don't need it as I am tall enough, but I find the invention of Simon absolutely genius and don't find it controversial at all). But I did it with a fan pointing straight into the crux sloper (like Simon and Camille. Nico has very dry skin and did not need it). That is very game-changing for me and much more controversial, in my opinion.

The very next day, I flashed Ubik Assis 8B and also flashed La Ligne de Bête 8B+.
These days also find me in a very happy place, being very grateful to find a balance to be a professional climber but also a father to Hugo and husband to my wife Iva. Forever grateful for their support.

The full video of this awesome boulder will be soon uploaded on my YouTube channel. 

Cool photos by Petr Chodura.