Jennifer Wood Climbs Her Sixth 5.14b

Jennifer Wood sent Pixam 5.14b at Kalymnos for her sixth route of the grade. Here's her chat with 8a.nu.

Can you tell us more about the send and your kneepad thinking? I tried Pixam at the end of my last trip in May and surprised myself by actually getting really close. First go this trip I couldn’t believe how much easier the moves felt so confidently set off on Redpoint. Got a bit shut down aha, the humidity was tough and I was faffing with a tricky clip and I was powering out.

A couple of days later and I’d lost my initial optimism but stuck with it, but everything went wrong on the send go aha. I fumbled a clip about 6 times, ripped a massive flapper in my tip but just dug deep on the crux and somehow pulled it off. After a reasonable rest the top wall is an amazing bit of climbing, maybe 8a+ ish so felt great to hold it together :) “

I actually did wear a knee pad in the end! Was a bit stubborn last trip because I don’t like climbing in them, but this season plus time with the experts in Hvar has helped me get to grips with them.

How can you best explain your continuous great progress the last few years? I think the main reason I’ve been able to improve quite a lot this year is just spending sooo much more time on rock ! Comps are not so good for that I feel like I’ve been learning a lot technically as well as just getting better at projecting tactics. Oh and I have rest days on trips now , annoyingly that helps a lot too.