Action Directe 9a by Philipp Gaßner

Philipp Gaßner has done Action Directe in Frankenjura which was put up by Wolfgang Gullich in 1990 and generally considered to be the first 9a in the world. In total, it has been repeated 27 times and interestingly, during the last 2.5 years, it had only been done twice, including Melissa Le Neve doing the first female ascent last year. (c) Basti Scheibel

"Psyched to have finally climbed that one. I’ve wanted to do it for a long time but somehow I’ve only spent there a couple of days over the past few years. This spring I was super excited to give it a serious go. And on the fourth day of this season, I did it with great support from my friends. There is not much left to say about the route. This thing is just absolutely iconic and it‘s still a difficult test piece. Looking forward to moving on to the next projects!"

What was hardest for you redpointing it?
The hardest was to be that certain mental state to be able to climb the route because I knew I was strong enough to do so. Just focusing on the very next move and not trying to calculate if I can send it or not. And even though there was a little mistake during the send go I did not let go.

The first time Philipp made 8a headlines was in 2014, being 14-years-old doing his first 8c+, Reality Check. In total, the German has now done 15 routes 8c+ and 9a. This year, he has also done his first 8C boulder.