Leo Vail has, after 19 sessions, completed Trip tik tonik (9a) in Gorges du Loup. Since May 2023, the 25-year-old climber from Marseille has been based in Paris for a route-setting academy. After over a year away from the cliffs, he relocated to Nice two months ago. Passionate and more motivated than ever, he started his big 9a project although having just done one 8c. (c) Nicolas Vaillant

“I did my first 8c before my year in Paris. I shared my climbing time between Fontainebleau and training indoors. It was a good opportunity to progress. I felt stronger when I came back, so I decided to work a big big project. TTT was a dream line near house and in my perfect style. It was the first time I worked I route as this. I didn't expect it to happen like this.”

Paul Zauner has, after some 50 sessions, done Hades (9a) in Götterwandl. In 2020 he logged it as a project in his scorecard and commented, ”Life goal to climb this route. Moves are pretty doable but there are no good rests and its damn overhanging.” (c) Luigi Dellarole

Can you tell us more sending your ”life goal” route?
I actually got a lot to tell😁 For most people this is just another young dude who sends another randome 9a, for me it means that i accomplish my main life goal.

Climbing 9a was obviously always a dream but it felt so far away that I never thought its even possible for someone like me. The first time I stumbled across Hades was when I was 16 and my incredible strong friend Gundi climbed this route. I have never been at the crag before but from that day on I was very curious about the "Götterwandl" (Gods-wall).

Beeing 19 years old, I moved to Innsbruck, which is just an hour drive away from Hades and has one of the best Gyms in the world. After doing most of the classics I couldn't hold myself back and gave Hades a try. This was 4 years ago and I could surprisingly do almost all the single moves. That day I fell in love. I was by far not strong enough but the sequences are so enjoyable that I came back over and over again.

As said, the single moves are not the problem but it's consistent ~30° overhanging and there are a lot of hard moves without a rest. The route starts with some physical ~8a+ meters into a rest which is not really a rest but we call it like that because you can clip a draw and chalk up😅 Then you go straight into a 10 move 7C/+ boulder problem with the hardest move at the end so you want to arrive there with no pump whatsoever...

The first time that I arrived at this last heartbreaking move was last spring and I was so surprised getting there that I forgot what to do. Getting there and sticking the move is a whole different story tho, a year ago I sometimes couldn't even do the single move isolated.
This year, for the first time in my life a started with some training as my roommate luckily forced me to go on the spray wall with him once a week. This really helped me to build the missing body tension and I started feeling stronger than ever. About a month ago I felt ready to send bodywise. I knew its possible if the perfect conditions arrive. I just needed to be prepared at every time! I checked the forecast multiple times a day, hoping for temperatures between 13-15° and humidity under 50%, finally last sunday looked promising!

I already knew it a week before and tried to be as ready as possible, making sure to have a climbing partner, doing rest days, getting sleep, eating well, not hurting myself.

It rained a lot the days before and I was worried of some holds getting wet but everything was just perfect. I did my warm up routes as always, and got super psyched while two friends tried the route too. Then it was my time to climb, I knew I had possibly two tries this day if I fell early but i wanted to have it done. I felt ready and you only get condis like this a few days a year. After around 50 sessions I had the moves dialed I just needed to do them without the tiniest mistake. The crux felt so solid, arriving at that last hard move i knew I could do it, that was the best feeling.

For the first time in a hundred tries I felt strong enough to dominate the route. There are still some sketchy dynamic moves and a slab with tiny crimps at the end but I knew I could do it. My mind was going crazy at this last few meters, it just felt sureal to be up there without a fall, after so many days coming here, only trying this one route... doing the last moves in disbelief, trying to focus as u can definitely still mess it up! No idea what to do now, having my life goal done at age 23...😂 onto the next one I guess.