23 November 2015

The 9th grade - 150 years of climbing aka the Bible

The 310-page book about the full climbing history by David Chambre could be named the new climbing Bible. Each of the almost A4 size pages are just full of nice stories and great pictures. Having spent about four hours reading it in fascination, I understood that there are many more interesting hours to follow. What a great book! From the 8a visitor perspective, we get more insight of some of the historical grades, indicating that it might be better to start calling Fred Rouhling's Akira a 9a+. Chris Sharma's Es Pontas was given a 9a+ even if 9b is mostly used for it. In general there are many comments that go in line with what 8a.nu has been saying for many years like Action Directe was originally an 8c+/9a but actually slash grades are not used in the Bible. It seems that everything is included in the Bible but Flatanger and from my point of view, also Santa Linya, Ashima Shiraishi and Alex Megos' 9a onsight, should have gained greater focus. On the other hand, 8a.nu and the impact it has on the climbing scene is mentioned on almost one page. "Hence the brilliant but slightly perverse idea of the scorecard, attributing points for each performance and placing climbers in classification enabling them to dream and exploits to improve their position." All in all, paying 49 Euro including free shipping, seems to be the perfect bargain for a very nice Christmas gift.
1 comment
Sort by:
Date
Reply
Most commented
Jernej Kruder sends Martin Krpan (9a) sans knee pads

Jernej Kruder, who won the Boulder World Cup in 2018, has done Martin Krpan (9a) in Mišja Peč. “I would like to expose something here: I spent many tries on t…

Welcome to Vertical-Life Web

Six years after partnering with 8a.nu, we’re excited to announce the unification of the 8a.nu website and the Vertical-Life app into a single platform: Vertical…

Will Bosi repeats Return of the Sleepwalker (9A)

William Bosi has made the second ascent of Daniel Woods’ Return of the Sleepwalker (9A) in Black Velvet Canyon, after projecting it for 12 sessions. This was th…

Favorites
Katie Lamb makes history

Katie Lamb has become the first woman to climb 8C+ by completing Box Therapy (8C) in RMNP. Daniel Woods made the FA back in 2018, and only Drew Ruana and Sean B…

"It was dramatic to the very end." On the 8a finish of Project Big in Flatanger, Jakob Schubert explains that a horn broke and he was close to falling. The last three minutes of the video show just how much this climb means to him."This horn could have ended my career... This was the biggest mental …

Will Bosi repeats Return of the Sleepwalker (9A)

William Bosi has made the second ascent of Daniel Woods’ Return of the Sleepwalker (9A) in Black Velvet Canyon, after projecting it for 12 sessions. This was th…