The French Lucien Martinez succeeds in ascent of the Fontainebleau classic The Big Island (8c). However, Lucien suggests 8b + as a rating.
Lucien Martinez actually belongs to the clear species of rope climbers. His heart beats for rope climbing. But he can also be found again and again on the blocks, which is no wonder, because he lives in the French bouldering paradise Fontainebleau. It is there that he has now undertaken a larger project: The Big Island.
The Big Island is an extended version of the Dave Graham The Island line first started in 2008. The first ascent of the new version, i.e. The Big Island, rated 8c, was successful Vincent Pochon. Lucien Martinez repeated this boulder - but gave 8b + as the first repeater.
The boulder has everything it needs to be a classic. The movements are magical, the block dries quickly and the rating is extremely soft at 8c.
Lucy Martinez
This devaluation is quite astonishing because of the fourteen up bleau.info registered repeaters, 92% stated 8c as the degree of difficulty. And among the repeaters are great names like Giuliano Cameroni, Chris Schulte, Jan Hojer or Nicolas Pelorson.
Either lies Lucy Martinez completely wrong with the assessment of his own fitness or the matter has to do with the fact that high levels of difficulty are simply accepted uncritically because it is good for the image. This, of course, is reminiscent of the words and criticism of Alexander Megos. from December 2020. More on this in the following article.
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Credits: Cover picture Stephen Denis and Quote Fanatic Climbing