| Polish climber Kinga Ociepka (Five Ten) repeated Geminis and has joined the elite group of women who have redpointed an 8c. See also Kinga Ociepka repeats 8c!!! |
Wspinanie.pl: So far you seemed to prefer onsighting to redpointing. What encouraged you to start working such an extreme route?
Kinga: Already in Poland I made a resolution that this year I would like to try a route much harder than anything that I had ever done abroad. Until that moment, I hadn't tried any really hard routes outside Poland. All the routes I ticked were usually fast repeats - no more than 3 attempts.
Was it your intention to repeat 8c?
When I was leaving Poland, my initial plan was to tick an 8b route. Yet, when I tried the first route of this grade - Gladiator - I did it second try. So my trainer - Maciek Oczko - encouraged me to check out a harder route called Geminis.
Kinga Ociepka (Five Ten) redpointing Geminis 8c (photo Maciek Oczko - Marmot Team/wspinanie.pl)
How did you evaluate your chances?
Surprisingly, the route felt easier than I had thought. On my second try, I managed to do the moves of the crux in the middle of the route. On my third go, I did the crux and got higher, to some hard moves on tufas, which I considered a second bouldery section of the route. I fell off on the final reachy moves because I hadn't got them practiced well enough.
Kinga Ociepka (Five Ten) redpointing Geminis 8c (photo Maciek Oczko - Marmot Team/wspinanie.pl)
So the route suited you well.
I fell in love with Geminis at first glance - I'm a great fan of endurance routes. The 40-meter route starts with a relatively easy, technical passage on tufas, then you get to hard boulder moves on small pinches, and the rest of the route is a stamina struggle, not harder than 8a+. For guys the difficulties of the route actually end with the first crux but for me it was a challenge until the very top. Three times I fell off while reaching for the top jug.
Kinga Ociepka (Five Ten) redpointing Geminis 8c (photo Maciek Oczko - Marmot Team/wspinanie.pl)
But finally you did it. How long did it take you all together?
After my best, and at the same time the most annoying, attempt (I fell off from the final jug), I decided to take a break from the route. The following two days I spent climbing in another sector - Las Ventatas. I onsighted there A Crabita - my third 8a onsight. Meanwhile I also started working some 8bs. After a rest day, we returned to Grand Boveda together with my boyfriend Antoine from France (who nicknames me "Pricessa"). Already when warming up, I knew that I was in good shape but still felt a little apprehensive about Geminis. That's why I decided to ask Antoine to try Geminis first, which turned out to be a splendid idea, because he figured out a different method of doing the final moves. Moreover, Antoine succeeded in leading the route at that attempt, which was very motivating for me. I put on my shoes and took a deep breath. Antoine shouted the words of encouragement: "Venga Princessa!" and I answered him with the local mantra: "A muerte!!!"
On the boulder moves I felt as strong as never and while resting on jugs in the middle of the route, I decided that this time I would fight until the end. When I got through the moves that stopped me on the previous attempt, I knew that the route was mine. The moment I clipped into the chain and I started screaming out of pure joy. I heard loud cheering from other climbers watching my efforts. The news of our success spread round the canyon in five minutes and in the evening we threw a big celebration at the local Refugio. Earlier I didn't think about devoting too much energy to a single route - because I don't have too many opportunities for climbing in the south of Europe, I thought it was a waste of time. But the satisfaction I got from this climb convinced me that sometimes it is worth trying a hard redpoint.
Kinga Ociepka (Five Ten) redpointing Geminis 8c (photo Maciek Oczko - Marmot Team/wspinanie.pl)
Antoine, 20 - Kinga's French boyfriend - apart from Geminis 8c RP (in the photo), he has also onsighted a few 8b routes (photo Maciek Oczko - Marmot Team/wspinanie.pl)
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