18th March 2025 @ Blackstone Edge, 7A
No beta. Saw a video on Instagram *after* sending though, which I can no longer locate. You are watching the first time I sent, which should be fairly obvious!
Out of all the boulders I did in 2025, Patiopia gave me the best experience. I remember first approaching this rock four years ago, and being completely unable to hold anything on it. But over the years I kept going back, and noticed that things were starting to seem possible, eventually progressing through the 6Bs Nibble My Grit and Hand Holed. At the end of 2024, I managed to do Home Improvements on the same block (6C+ in the guide, but my height allowed me to skip a difficult small hold with a fairly technical dyno) and started to think about whether I’d be able to do the traverse.
In early 2025, I found I could easily repeat Home Improvements and decided to give this a go. I found early on I could hold most positions on it, and over a couple of sessions figured out some beta that might work for me. Getting the send in the video took me 5 sessions (I think), with me improving slowly but surely each session. On the fourth session I managed the easier variant which exits via the good pocket on Hand Holed.
I think the send in the film was the second go on the fifth session. I mess up in a couple of places.
- In the big swing left my flagging right foot slips. It doesn’t cost much, but it was a little unnerving as it hadn’t happened before.
- I then forget where the small hold for the right hand is. This is easily done.
From here I tense up. You can see my right leg shaking. It’s partially drop-knee’d with the inside of my big toe pressing into the foothold. I don’t see this specific technique outlined much, and it certainly doesn’t come up much for me, but I’ve found it to be really effective where it works. Kind of a half-toe-hook drop knee. Fortunately, I make the next big hand move and am able to just about sort my feet out before I’m off. I can then relax my shoulders and try to recover a bit for the exit.
I just about manage to get through the bunched exit shakily, and finish with a slightly overzealous celebration. My hand hurt, but it was worth it!
Keen viewers may notice the lack of any matting until the end. Over the sessions I just got more and more solid on the opening moves. For the bit where it gets tricky, and where I started making mistakes, I might fall, but it was always well under control. So the mat was just used to protect against falling against a big rock towards the end, which saved me a few times!
