28 March 2017

La Rambla is 9a+ by today's standards

In 1994, Alex Huber made the FA of La Rambla 8c+ to the first anchor, some eight meters under the original anchor. In 2003, Ramon Julian Puigblanque did the FA of La Rambla original 9a+ by traversing into the neighboring bolted route and continuing to the original La Rambla anchor. Ramonet did try to stay as close to Huber's original line as possible, meaning he eliminated a very good jug further out to the right. Until now, La Rambla original has been repeated 15 times, making it the most repeated 9a+ in the world. Everyone has used the jug to the very right of the traverse but Adam Ondra, who commented, "without the resting hold, although it is nonsense to consider it as prohibited. Ramonet has said that his 9a+ grade was based on doing the route without using the resting hold. Noteworthy is also that in 2008, Ramonet did the FA also of the neighboring route and gave it 8c. It has later been upgraded and nowadays, in fact, most even think it's 9a. La Rambla original is today a well confirmed 9a+. At the same time, both Huber and some repeaters have said that the extension does not add that much difficulty so his FA from 1994 should have been 9a by today's grade standard. By using the same grade devaluation logic, some ten years ago, La Rambla original was probably just a hard 9a if you used Ramonet's eliminated jug. Greg Mionske
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