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

Return of adventure to Rockland (ft. Antoine Girard)

This trip to Rocklands was an opportunity for me to work and complete the boulder of my dreams. The Finnish Line is a boulder opened in 2016 by Nalle Hukkataival which is considered by many people to be one of the most beautiful hard boulders on this 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 block I had ever seen. When I left South Africa I made a promise to myself that I would come back and try this bouldering the day I had the skill.

In August 2022, I arrived in Rocklands with the sole goal 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 get too involved in other hard boulders in order to keep skin and strength. I then spent 9 sessions in the block spread over a little over 3 weeks. It’s a block that requires really significant logistics. Falling is almost prohibited on the last two meters of the boulder, so I started all my sessions by repeating over and over again the end of the boulder which must be worth around 7B. I then put tests in the crux (always with the rope) and I finished my session by putting 4 or 5 tests from the bottom.

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

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