Matilda Söderlund sends Spomin, 8c multipitch on Anića Kuk at Paklenica

Sweden's Matilda Söderlund has made the first female ascent of Spomin, the 8c multipitch on the north face of Anica Kuk in the Paklenica National Park in Croatia.

First ascended with some points of aid in 1984 by two Slovenian climbing legends, Silvo Karo and Janez Jeglič, the 350m outing was finally freed in 2017 by Luka Krajnc with difficulties up to 8c. Adam Ondra confirmed the grade a year later when he nailed the first onsight, a feat which he described at the time as "possibly one of my best performances ever on a multi-pitch climb."

While the route features an 8c crux, what makes it even more demanding is that it has many hard pitches one after the other: 6c, 6c, 8a+, 8c, 8b+, 8a+, 7a, 7b+, 6a, 5.

Söderlund first tried the climb in 2023 and sent all the pitches individually. She returned in November with Tina Johnsen Hafsaas, worked the route for a couple of weeks and then led every pitch free. During her push she fell only once, on the last 8a+, while all other pitches were send first go.

After her ascent she commented: "It took us 14 hours car to car, so we weren’t fast. But climbing the last couple of pitches in the dark with no wind was a really cool mix of calmness and epic. Standing on the summit of Anica Kuk, completely exhausted, together is a memory I will cherish forever - and ’Spomin’ actually means memory. It’s been an amazing process and experience to return to this project, feeling so much progress in my climbing since I was here in 2023. The climbing that felt uncomfortable and a bit intimidating last time, now felt interesting and fun to climb. I felt really good on the wall and felt so much joy climbing."

Söderlund has climbed 9a, bouldered up to 8B and has previously sent various hard multipitches such as Parzival (8b, 150m, Westliche Dreifaltigkeit, Switzerland) Rayu (8c, 600m, Picos de Europa Spain) and Air Madagascar (8a+, 450m, Tsaranoro, Madagascar).

Link: FB Matilda Söderlund, La Sportiva, Petzl

 

 

 

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