Amazonie 8b+ (9a) by Patrik Aufdenblatten

Patrick Aufdenblatten reports on Insta that he has done the first repeat of Francois Nicole's Amazonie in Saint-Triphon suggesting a personal downgrade to 8b+. He has also suggested down grades for another four easier routes he did in Saint-Triphon as well as doing the 9a+ open project thinking it is 8c or 8c+. "I‘m strong in crimps and jumps and pockets. In May I tried two 8c's in Frankenjura where I wasn‘t able to do the moves. For 8b+ I had 7 days... I was in Frankenjura again and all over 8b is really hard. Ten times harder then in St Triphon." Fred Moix, one of the leading climbing photographers from the last 20 years, says he is not at all surprised and says this is a classical Emperor new clothes grading. "Considering all that I can only support Patrik being honest about the grading! I suggested almost 15 years ago that the first jump was more like 7A+ boulder in the Peak District and not 7C. At the time it felt a bit like a sacrilege, haha. The 2nd jump was done rather quickly by a climber and this resulted the following week in a red ribbon to reserve the at the time project of “Amazonie”. Pretty unusual in our area, never seen that on a route here around. I think Patrik is quite brave to dare to talk about the Emperor’s new clothes..."