Alex Ventajas ticks The Famous Gem (9a)

Alex Ventajas, with close to 20 routes 9a and beyound under his belt, has sent The famous gem (9a) in La Saume. (c) Crimp Films

Can you tell us more about the ascent?
A couple of weeks ago, I visited La Saume for the first time. After sending Beginning (9a+) in Arco a few months ago, I suffered a minor finger injury that lingered longer than expected. These days in La Saume marked the first time I truly felt the finger recovering — getting stronger again.

I didn’t have a clear plan, but my attention was quickly drawn to the hardest line in the sector: The Famous Gem. Since it was my first time in the area and everything was new, I decided to keep things open — mixing easier climbs with projecting each day.

The Famous Gem is a link-up of two existing routes: the 8c Marcellus Wallace and the 8c+ Pastis. I began by working them individually. The climbing style is quite bouldery, which doesn’t naturally suit me, so I needed a few sessions just to adapt to the wall. It was definitely a bit of a fight at first, with plenty of ups and downs. Each boulder section felt tough initially, but once I figured out the moves, I started to really enjoy the process. In the end, I sent both routes pretty quickly.

After ticking those off, linking them into the full 9a felt like a whole new challenge. You arrive at the same two small crimps as in Pastis, but from a completely different position after climbing Marcellus Wallace, which makes the crux feel entirely different. At first, it seemed extremely hard. But the next day, a few small adjustments — body position, heel placement — changed everything. I went from having no idea how to do the crux move to sticking it consistently, and finally clipped the chain.

The key to the send was really the focus on precision. Even small shifts in body tension or footwork made a huge difference, and I had to dial that in carefully. In total, it took me around 6–7 climbing days to send the full line, including time spent working the individual routes. Maybe it’s not a solid 9a, but I’m really happy to have done it fairly quickly — and more importantly, to finally feel like I’m getting back into shape.

What I’ll remember most is the atmosphere at La Saume — the energy, the people, and the strong sense of climbing community that made the experience so memorable.