Assassin, monkey and man

"Assassin, monkey and man" is the story of a romantic relationship between a piece of rock and his 36-year old challenger. After a two year boulder-break Toni, in the past the
"raging bull of kochel" is double handicapped: slower in dynos and idealess in finding hard boulder-projects. Around christmas he gets the awareness, that "Bokassa's Fridge", the hardest boulder-problem of Kochel would only be completed with a sit-
start and a highball-finish. Toni is mobilicing all his friends, heaps of crashpads and spotters to try the new project „Assassin" with before unknown power-resources:

 
After completing the highball-finish "There's something in my bedroom", Fb 8A+ (V12) in January, I started to work the lower part. Soon I found out, that the crux would be to get as fresh as possible into the hard part of "Bokassa's Fridge", Fb 8C (V15) after doing 6 moves more before. As the weeks passed, I tried the sequences again and again, until I could do the whole boulder problem with 2-3 rests beginning of march. Another 4 weeks of trying and changing methods, after a total of 36 days of trying and working the 8m long prow, I got the big chance. On a perfect-like day, with a strong wind to improve the grip on the frictionless limestone, I started in the already diminished daylight to make a last try – with success: By the assistance of 4 (head-)lamps, 6 crashpads and the dry, stormlike conditions I finished the climb and did the first ascent of "Assassin, monkey and man" in the evening of April the 9th.

Facts: „Assassin, monkey and man" is an 8m long prow on the base of a climbing cliff (Altantiswand) in Kochel, South of Germany. The overhanging and polished limestone allows the climber to show all his skills from blind-folded dynos over sloper-compression to
tricky heel- and toe-hook-work. After 6 "easy", but athletic moves on the sit-start follows the 7 moves long crux part. Leaving the hardest moves you slap up the top part of the prow with another 12 body-eating and desperate moves, until you reach a big jug and easier ground. 25 moves in total combine an 8B+ (V14)- with an 8A+ (V12)-part to an ultimate body-tension festival, which guarantees a full-body workout and a highpurple head-color. I already looked at the complete line back in 2006, but first ascented the "smaller" version "Bokassa's Fridge" –  named after the German Independent-Punk-Band. "Assassin, monkey and man" is their
second released album.

 

Gradings from a personal point of view:
To describe the effort put into an ascent like that, there could be used sentences like „This is the hardest climb, that I know" or "My hardest boulder" with true correctness, but used and heard to many times. So what to do? Grade it 8A, 8B, 8C or more? No grade at all? Or a  description instead like "Please try it, its good and doesn't bite at all", "Crazy stuff" combined
with a personal guided tour for good friends?
I would call it harder than the other boulders in Kochel, but does that mean it can be meassured with all the other hard stuff out there, that I haven't even seen nor touched?
In respect of certain really strong guys that haven't graded harder than Fb 8C (V15) to stop the inflation of the grades, there would be no way to call it harder than Fb 8C (V15) anyway. To call it less would mean to downgrade other problems I did in the past and frustrate others.

I simply take the easiest solution and call it "Hard"… . The exact number after this four letter word should be filled by more experienced boulders in the future, that are welcomed to try it anytime!
More important is that "Assassin, monkey and man" - even without an exact number – marks a new step for me, that I only could reach by copying the desperate motivation of the young generation. So thanks a lot to all the energy-loaded folks out there, who made this possible!!!