Vertical-Life
Huber talks history and old-school-grading
Interview with legend Alex Huber - official website
Old interview with maybe the best allround climber in the world
What is the biggest change on the climbing scene since you started?
Alex Huber - Wikipedia & Facebook
It was back in 1985, when I got the chance to visit Buoux for the first time. In those days, Buoux was one of the places to be! You could say that it was the Mekka of the new sport climbing world. So, the chance to meet one of the big stars of the sport climbing scene was not only high; we could see all the stars climbing. The Menestrels, Tribout, Raboutou, Güllich, Moon, Moffat... Compared to today, the scene was ways smaller and the quantity of popular places was quite limited, so it was natural that the people came together. It was a kind of a family like it had been in the mountaineering scene in all the years before and the community in the campsites of Buoux and Verdon was very, very similar to the English Camp in Chamonix.
The number of climbers in this community grew enormously in a very short time span, not only due to the free climbing trend but because young climbers were fascinated by and attracted to the lifestyle. "Climbing" and "Easy going" were key words in this new lifestyle and you could well say that the climbers were like a group of bohemians who made a career out of climbing rocks and wasting time. Even the best climbers wouldnt have been thinking about money or sponsors professional climbers still didnt exist in those days. To visit places like Buoux meant for us nothing else then getting our ticket to glory, meaning we could brag about our accomplishments to the few fanatic sport climbers on earth who cared.
Most of the climbers at that time were students, dawdlers, and for many of the outside world simply scapegraces, as they usually had almost no money but a tent, a sleeping bag and a rope, and the scene was characterized by an enormous atmosphere of departure. We came to visit the Mekka, to see whats going on, in order to come back home afterwards and spread out the new spirit.
If I compare the atmosphere of those days to what you can experience on the popular climbing areas today, I clearly see how much our sport has evolved over the last 30 years. 100%-indoor-climbers, plaisir-climbers, fanatic boulder freaks, trad climbers, drytoolers, sport climbers, alpine climbers and speed climbers
Today the climbing community is a big and versatile family, and only in a few occasions would there e.g. be a chance that boulder freaks would meet alpine climbers. But its not only the variety of activities, which has enormously increased, but also the training conditions; thousands of climbing gyms and boulder palaces allow another level of fitness of the climbers. In the 80´s the grade 8a was mythical and it was considered to be close to the limit of what is climbable. Today, the most talented kids climb this mythical grade just after a few months of climbing and training. Training became professional and is accessible for a broad basis, for almost anybody. The result is that today the elite consists not only of a few super heroes but exists on a much larger scale.
2. What have been good and bad development?
In those days, the climbing community was much smaller and so was the number of super-strong climbers. Naturally, the first pioneers of sport climbing had a prominent position and without exception they had outstanding personalities. Jerry Moffat, Wolfgang Güllich and Ben Moon were some of these strong characters that gave the guidelines for what sport climbing is. With their activities and ascents they set a good example and their highly ethical approach became the code of practice.
It was a big loss for the climbing community when Wolfgang Güllich died in 1992. Without any doubt he had been the most charismatic figure of the modern sport climbing. He had been a strong opinion leader who wouldnt hold back his opinion when something in the climbing world was wrong. Naturally, Ben Moon became the logical successor and yes, it was important for the climbing community. I well remember the news that Juray Recka clamed to have climbed Chantier, Ben Moons mega-project in Buoux. Juray Recka had no convincing evidence to prove the ascent and the missing track record eroded his credibility. Thanks to the powerful leadership of Ben Moon, the public never approved this fake.
Very interesting is also the leadership-role of Güllich and Moon in terms of grading. These two climbers gave the foundation to what today is considered as the old-school-grading. Güllich was consistently pushing the grades from 8a+ to 8c when Moon became the first person to climb the grade 8c+. Today, his route Hubble is considered to be an upper-end 8c+. When Güllich finally climbed his most famous route in 1991, Action Directe, he gave his creation the grade XI as it was significantly harder than his previous hardest route Wallstreet (XI-). Naturally, Action Directe was considered to be 8c+.
And it was up to 1995 that Action Directe was considered to be 8c+. After that grading became confuse, mainly because people already started talking about the grade 9b. Ben Moon was still there and he tried to convince the community that the proposal of the grade 9b was destructive as there hadnt been even a confirmed 9a in the world. But the discipline was lost with a long lasting effect. Consequently, from the year 1995 and on, the grading became softer, and softer, and softer
and it slowly began with the change of the grade of Action Directe from 8c+ to 9a. Today, Action Directe is the most famous of all the 9a-routes and therefore it is the reference for that grade. The funny thing is that today Action Directe, which had been 8c+ originally, is one of the hardest 9a-routes in the world! It just shows, how far the overgrading went over the years I guess that 90% of the modern high-end-routes are heavily overgraded if you compare them with the benchmark-route Action Directe.
Regarding my personal climbing track record, the grade-softening had some effects; most of my first ascents of the years got upgraded, among others Weiße Rose from 8c+ to 9a/9a+ and Open Air from 9a to 9a+. Thanks to todays softer grading, Open Air or maybe even Weiße Rose were the first confirmed routes of the grade 9a+.
Many years have passed since then and without any doubt, the level of the top-climbers has increased dramatically. This is very much visible through the almost uncountable number of 9a-route-ascents. This made it possible that finally a new horizon emerged. Undoubtedly, Chris Sharma is the first who made a real step forward with the successful climb of his mega-project Jumbo Love. Still, Chris seems to be the most visionary climber and his climbing skills are apparently simply said: phenomenal! And the young Adam Ondra seems to be currently the climber with the biggest potential and the one with the broadest vision for climbing of all sport climbers.
But its a shame that the uniqueness of the extraordinary achievements by Sharma and Ondra are impaired by the dubious achievements by other climbers. If any one wants to claim that they are as good as Sharma or Ondra they need to show these skills not just in one hit wonder-routes, but demonstrate their abilities in many, many other occasions
Judging by the media, Jumbo Love is considered to be the most difficult sport climb today. And well, this assumption is reasonable! We know the skills of Sharma, which he demonstrated with ascents such as Realisation, La Rambla, Es Pontas, Golpe del Estado and Neanderthal. The funny thing is that, when I look through all the magazines, the routes Chilam Balam and Akira are still registered as harder than Jumbo Love!? As if the performance of Sharma would be kindergarden-like! Just consider how long the road for Chris Sharma was to get into position to climb a route like Jumbo Love. And how strong Sharma is compared to others! He created his credibility by the demonstration of his skills through countless ascents and this is absolutely imperative in the climbing community, as we dont want to have judges approving ascents! And Chris Sharma well deserves this credibility. He worked hard in order to get it! In contrast, others are not willing to be open and transparent enough in order for us to believe them. As we do not have referees and judges, climbing has to come along with transparency and credibility.
To trust blindly the word of humans is stupid we should have learned this from history. Climbing is a sport with no judges, no referees, no independent body governing setting the rules and controlling that we follow them. Climbing works on the basis of trust and credibility. I would wish that the future of climbing again saw such strong characters and opinion leaders, as in the days of Wolfgang Güllich and Ben Moon. It would be very, very beneficial for our small climbing world. For this reason Im happy to see Adam Ondra who is not only a super-strong climber but has a broader vision for climbing that others - he may well be leading climbing into a promising future.