El Osteopata 9a FA by Alex Ventajas

Alex Ventajas, who in the last 18 months has done ten routes 9a and harder, has made the FA of El Osteopata 9a in Mula.

Can you tell us more about the first ascent?
I can’t imagine a better way to start the new year. The route is a project bolted in 2014-2015 by my friends Rafi and Oscar. I gave it a try back then, but it seemed too hard for me. For the Christmas holidays, I went back to Murcia to visit my family and I felt motivated again after seeing some videos of other local climbers trying the route.

It’s a quite “old school” line: a technical roof climbing, with chipped pockets, very small feet, and a lot of body tension. There’s no place for mistakes and saving as much energy as possible in every section is crucial. Even if it’s not a natural line, all the boulder problems are great climbing and I enjoyed refining every detail to find the perfect sequence to send the route! I went to the cave for four days and I finally managed to send it on my ninth attempt. About the grade, I think it’s 9a. I hope other climbers will repeat it soon and give their opinion too! After the Santuario sector was shut down, this could be the region’s first 9a.