Retour d'aventure à Rockland (ft. Antoine Girard)

Return from Adventure in Rockland (ft. Antoine Girard)

This trip to Rocklands was an opportunity for me to work on and climb the boulder of my dreams. The Finnish Line is a boulder opened in 2016 by Nalle Hukkataival and is considered by many people to be one of the most beautiful hard boulders on the planet. It was in 2019, during my first trip to Rocklands, that I saw Finish Line for the first time. I found the line incredible; it was without a doubt the most beautiful boulder I had ever seen. When I left South Africa, I promised myself that I would come back and try this boulder the day I reached the level I needed.

In August 2022, I arrived at Rocklands with the sole objective of climbing The Finnish Line, so I put everything in place to make this dream come true. I organized all my climbing sessions around this project, trying not to invest too much in other hard boulders in order to keep my skin and strength. I then spent 9 sessions in the boulder spread over a little over 3 weeks. It's a boulder that requires really significant logistics. Falling is almost forbidden on the last two meters of the boulder, so I started all my sessions by repeating the end of the boulder over and over again, which must be around 7B. I then put attempts in the crux (always with the rope) and I finished my session by putting 4 or 5 attempts from the bottom.

On the day of the chaining, I managed to pass the crux on the second attempt of the day by perfectly grabbing the finish clamp with my left hand. It was the perfect attempt to top the boulder and not fall a sixth time after the crux. The end of the boulder went pretty well after that, my 40 roped ascents of the last 8 moves allowed me to move forward with confidence despite the good shot of adrenaline that made me tremble on all the holds.

In addition to this legendary boulder, I also took advantage of my 5 weeks in South Africa to climb many other Rocklands classics, each one as cool and impressive as the next. If you'd like to see some footage of this trip, there's a video on YouTube: Rocklands, The Movie / The Finnish Line 8C
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