Blind Climber Nicolas Moineau Sends 5.13b

French climber Nicolas Moineau has climbed his first 5.13b with a repeat of Los Tacos de los dos rigolos at Saint-Géry. In 2012, he was the world champion in the category of Visual Impairment B1. In 2022, he climbed his first 5.13a.

The 46-year-old spent a year projecting the 40-metre route, memorising the 87 move sequence. He spent months working on the cruxy lower half before giving it redpoing burns in September. “The hard movement of the first section, just above the fourth quickdraw,” Moineau told Fanatic Climbing. “Place the feet on the micro-rails and let go of the right hand to do a large, somewhat dynamic cross to a good jug. It took me a while to put this together, I struggled with an insecure method for months, it drove me crazy at the time.”

He would tick the feet he found so his belayer could let him know when he was on the proper features. “The things specific to my blindness here were tickmarks in the first section up to the 4th QD precisely,” Mouineau said. “I marked three micro-feet for the belayer/guide. I ended up finding them almost without help but it reassured me that someone could tell me I was really putting my foot in the right place.”

Mouineau said that he doesn’t have any other 5.13 projects at the moment, “What reassures me about my mental health is that boulderers spend several months adjusting two movements on extreme lines. You can always find someone more neurotic than you in the end.”