28 January 2008

The Unrepeated

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l'Autre Côté de la ciél  Photo: Tim Kemple

OM.jpg
Huber on OM Photo: Huberbuam
Weisse Rose.jpg
Weisse Rose Photo: Huberbuam

Open air.jpg

 
ORUJO.jpg
Orújo Photo: Barnabé Fernandéz
NORTHERN LIGHT.jpg
Open air Photo: Huberbuam
Northern light Photo: K. Sharples

Malvasia.jpg
U Perko on Malvasia Photo: F. Palma

The unrepeated

As the number of routes in the 9th grade increases rapidly, it's easy to forget the old, unrepeated ones. Many of those were put up by pioneers dedicating huge amounts of time and effort to their projects. As the 9th grade was much less settled a decade back and 9a still represented the cutting edge, the very limit to what was believed to be humanly possible. Who knows, some of the "old school" 9a's might very well be 9a+. Here's just a sample of all the routes that are still awaiting a 2nd ascent and confirmation. They're all given 9a or harder, but there are plenty of old 8c's and 8c+'s waiting to be repeated as well. Perhaps some of these could squeeze through into the magic 9th grade?

The 9a's and up

Akira, 9b, -95, Grotte de Vilhonneur, Charente, Fra, ~20m
When Fred Rouhling made the FA of this spectacular cave route, proposing the mind-boggling grade of 9b, the climbing world was stunned and flabbergasted. If Fred was to be believed, this route was two letter grades harder than anything else at the time! Fred was heavily critizised and the Akira was dismissed as a hoax by most. Time, however, seems to have proven him right. Particularly Dani Andrada, no stranger to hard routes has put a lot of time and effort into this route. So far success has illuded the Spanish King Louie.

L'autre côté de la ciél, 9a, -97, Les Eaux-Claires, Fra, ~20m
Once again a Rouhling creation (this time in a very litteral sense of the word) that, inspite of its accessability, cool line and relatively humane difficulty, still hasn't seen a 2nd ascent. The main reason is probably that this route really works Fred's speciality i.e. extremely athletic climbing with huge reaches between monos and bidoigts (two-finger pockets) in steep terrain.

Om, 9a, -92,  Triangel, Aus, A. Huber, ~20m (45m incl first pitch)
Om, climbed by Alexander Huber, was the 2nd route, after Action direct, to be given 9a. In fact, one could argue that it was the first, as AD was given 8c+/9a by Güllich only to be upgraded by the media, but then again, Om was also given 8c+ at the time... This power-endurance route features an extremely difficult boulder sequence that took Huber ages to solve. As always when it comes to Huber, he worked the route to perfection over several months. A rumour about a broken hold, allegedly making the route impossible, has been dismissed by Huber"No, no "key hold" has broken. The only thing is that… Let me explain: On the crux, you have to make a really long move from an undercling pocket to a sloping edge. Having caught the edge, you must get your foot into that same pocket, first you have to get your fingers out, of course. When I did this highstep, to keep my balance, I used not really a hold, more of a really tiny knob. Anyway this non-hold has now broken, but there are similar knobs you can use instead, and crux is not really to get your foot in, it's rather the really long lock-off that follows. "

Weisse Rose, 9a, 1994, Schleierwasserfall, Aus, A. Huber, ~22m(~35m)
Weisse Rose was, as Om, originally given 8c+ by (a relatively inexperienced?) Huber. After an "easy" (8a+) first part, the business begins with steep difficult endurance climbing, leading up to a brutal dyno near the top.

Open air, 9a, -96, Schleierwasserfall, Aus, Alex Huber, ~22m(~35m)
Open air is Alex Huber's sport-climbing legacy, the hardest route he ever climbed, and that should tell you something considering his track-record. This long endurance route, with a vicious crux close to the top, should very much be a contender for an upgrade, and is, in fact, already called 9a/+ in the Tyrol Routebook. The reason for different heights for the route is that you have to climb an 8a+ to reach the start of  the route. At least that's my interpretation.

Im Reich des Shogun, 9a, -00, Tüfleten, Sui, E. Talmadge, ~19m
This is very much a contender for an upgrade. The orginal route, Shogun part 1, was climbed by Eric back in 1992 and was then given 8b+, but it took a full ten years until anyone (Fred Nicole) managed to repeat even the crux (~8A) and a further five years before Johannes Pohl made the first repeat of the whole route (although it should be mentioned that Fred simply didn't bother to turn right for the chains of Part 1, gunning for the 9a instead). It took Eric eight more years before he could clip the chains and look for something else. In total, he worked thirteen years for this 19 meter route. You do the maths.

Orújo, 9a+, -98, Archidona, Spa, Barnabé Fernandéz, ~45m
This endurance monster of a route was first climbed in 1997 and given 9a. This first version included four bolt on holds(!). Three of these were then removed to produce Orújo, 9a+. Dani Andrada tried this route quite a few years back, concluding that it was probably "only" 8c+, but then again, he never sent it. Or´huo is of course a short power route in comparission with Fernandéz' 80 meter master piece "Chilam balam", 9b+, but that's a different story. Photo: Barnabé Fernandéz

The big bang, 9a, -96, Lower Pen Trwyn, UK, Neil Carson
This line, on a sea cliff at the Lower Pen Trwyn in Wales, was dismissed by Jerry Moffat as being "impossible" before the "walking muscle", Neil Carson, tied in and proved him wrong. OK, it wasn't that easy. Apparently, he had to move house in order to succeed. Anyway, "It's there to be down graded", he declared. That was twelve years ago, and I think it's safe to say the chances of that happening are slim...

Mutation, 9a, -98, Raven Tor, UK, Steve McClure
Steve McClure's first 9a is an extension of Jerry Moffat's "Evolution", 8c/+. Steve worked the extension on and off over two years before success, and just the extension took him longer to figure out than the original route.

Northern light, 9a, -98, Kilsney, UK, Steve McClure, ~22m
This was originally Ben Moon's project. Attempting to climb the line straight-up, he had it down to two over-lapping sections, but never managed the redpoint. According to Ben, almost every single move was 7A or harder. Along came Steve McClure and stole the show, "cheating" by opting for a zig-zagging line on small crimpers in weird positions between the bolts instead. The result was "only" a 9a. Or was it? It still awaits a 2nd ascent.

Other routes that deserve to be mentioned in this context are Il mattino dei maghi and Malvasia, both from the time when lycra was in style, the 80s. Il mattino... was climbed by Maurizio "Manolo" Zanolla way back in 1981, and although it's in a famous crag, Totoga, no one but the magician himself has been able to repeat it. And here it is: it's only 7c+... If you're going for it, you should know that it's a scary route with very spaced protection.
Maurizio "Manolo" Zanolla made the first ascent of Malvasia at Dvigrad, Croatia, 20 years ago, giving it 8b+. Remember that, at the time, 8b+ was very much cutting edge as the first 8c, Wallstreet, was climbed by Güllich the year before. In retrospect, this may very well have been the hardest route in the world at the time. So far it has repelled all attempts.

Francois Legrand's Roby in the sky, in the Calanques, France, and Tomasz Oleksy's Tysiac Kotletow, at Rosnow, Poland, were both put up in -00 and have yet to see repeats.

This is of course only the tip of the ice-berg. Throughout the world, there must be hundreds or even thousands of old hard routes that are slowly but surely drifting into obscurity due to lack of traffic. So, use the comments field to tell the world about the  forgotten test-pieces in your area. If we upgrade them they would not be forgotten...


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