Autoengaño 9a by Alex Ventajas

Alex Ventajas has done his third 9a in 2021, Autoengaño in Rodellar. (c) Pablo Toco

"I tried the route for five or six days. I think 13 attempts in all. Achieve this goal on time it’s great satisfaction and it means a lot to me. I tried the route from the first day we arrived, there were some friends that gave me some betas and at the first attempt I managed to do all the moves, but it was hard to put them all together because my body wasn’t trained enough for such physic climb. I knew it would be a great challenge because I had just two weeks to try it. The hardest part was to manage the pressure of this deadline and to organize well the rest days. Furthermore, I procured a really painful skin injury at one leg with a kneebar I had to use in the first crux and I had to stop trying the route for a couple of days. Trying different lines help me disconnect a little and gain some endurance. Finally, I managed to do that crux with a different beta that allowed me to use less the right knee and the next day, after two falls, I sent it."

You did three 8c+' in 2018 but then just 8c's until 2021 when you have done three 9a's. Why is that?
Unfortunately I didn’t have the possibility to try new hard routes because I had already done almost every route in the climbing sectors I could reach from my home. I didn’t have a car and I didn’t have the possibility to travel. That wasn’t a good period for me. I couldn’t improve and I couldn’t try something motivating. Since I moved to Italy things changed, I had thousands of new routes around and I progressively regained shape and motivation.

Why did you move to Italy?
It wasn’t something I planned. My girlfriend is from Italy. In the beginning, she should have moved to Spain, but with the covid situation things changed: she started working in Italy and I decided to follow her and I found a job there. She supports me more than everyone and thanks to that I have the opportunity I didn’t have before.