05 / 03 / 2024
Imagine you´re scrambling through the undergrowth for a while than you turn around a big boulder which seems to be like any other one (and there are thousands) and there it is! What looks like just another high quality boulder, which is not that untypical for this area, turns straightforward into one of my favorite boulder problems of all time. Basically the whole setting of the problem is just overwhelming. The boulder is surrounded by high mountains with snow on there peaks and lies between many other rocks which are thrown together in a narrow valley. Nobody would expect such a perfect landing in this chaotic block field, but it is like that. It´s sand like in Font! At first sight you think it´s a smaller boulder problem until you start to check out the moves and now you realize that it´s bigger than it looks. The holds are perfect and exactly at the right position.
It´s a phenomenon that´s not only with this problem, but for me on Heritage it´s obvious. If there would be one single hold less or the angle of some crucial holds would be slightly changed than the boulder problem wouldn´t exist or it would be easy. Heritage´s character is powerfull. The first moves are a kind of fingery and hard for the body tension until you catch a pinch (of course a perfect pinch). The crux is to get this pinch at the right position which is needed to do a long move to a slopy edge.
After checking out the first part i was very confident to climb the problem fast because of the second part where the holds become bigger and bigger until the top. Miscalculation! A friend of mine and myself named the second part "Heartbreaker". You reach the biggest hold you could imagine on a problem of that grade and yes, there it is, the hardest move on the problem. A long and exhausting reach to a good three finger edge. Both feed a very high and you have to fight for every single millimeter. Once i felt at this point, i´ve been frozen one millimeter bevore the finish line. It was like slow motion. You feel like your own spactator and you can´t believe what´s happening right now. Damn, did you gave 150 %, or did you just skiped the chance to do it? This was the moment i swore to myself, if i ever get another chance to fight for Heritage, i´ll definitely gonna do it! Next go same day. The remaining power wasn´t that good after failing at the last move but somehow i made my way througt the first part until the Heartbreaker. No mistakes this time! 150 %!
Thank you Carlo, Heritage is for sure a great and outstandig problem. It was a pleasure to try and to send!