Šimon Potůček, Underground 8c+/9a
I'd had my eye on this legendary line for a long time. It's a pure sport route in Arco, Italy, in the Massone sector – Pueblo II. Around 2000 it was one of the hardest routes in the world and a benchmark for sport climbing.
It's essentially a full-on roof, an artificial line created by quarrying, with the typical "shelves." Despite how it looks at first glance, it's surprisingly technical and offers complex, intricate sequences.
The route starts with an easier intro on big shelves, roughly 7b, leading into the most physical boulder problem of the route, around 7C. There are loads of possible beta options here, and you really have to pick the one that suits you best and that you can repeat consistently. After that come a few easier moves and a technical boulder with a specific heel hook and a long reach into the next rest. You can recover fairly well there, but by then you're already feeling the pump in your body, so you can't fully reset. The final hard section is a sustained, endurance-style sequence on holds with poor friction and tiny footholds all the way to the top, and it's the real crux of the whole route.
I tried it a few years ago, but back then I probably wasn't there yet technically or strength-wise, so I had to set it aside for a while. I came back to it this year after the European Championships, before the semester started. At first I was again surprised by how hard it was, and also by the fact that the style didn't really suit me. The first few days I struggled a bit with the temperatures, but I was making pretty decent progress. The send came on day five in heavy rain, which made the atmosphere of the ascent perfect. It was also a bit more humid, which actually worked for me on the slick limestone, and I ticked the 4th Czech ascent in history.
I was absolutely stoked. It's amazing to climb one of the routes that shaped what sport climbing is today. The ascent also means a lot to me personally, because at Vertikon we have a photo of this route hanging right above the door, and seeing it for years always kept me motivated to train.
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