Jernej Kruder sends Martin Krpan (9a) sans knee pads

Jernej Kruder, who won the Boulder World Cup in 2018, has done Martin Krpan (9a) in Mišja Peč. “I would like to expose something here: I spent many tries on this one, because my endurance is pretty bad, but I chose not to use kneepads since I respect the first ascent. Using kneepads would help me rest just before the crux. This would make grading equal to Konec Mira (8c/c+). Kneepad would also make me rest after the crux, where I was mostly falling. This would make the route even easier. So people, if you decide to disrespect the first ascentionist with using kneepads, then at least be true with yourself by not calling it 9a!”

Can you elaborate a bit more?
We live in society where we only think about sending. I'm not completely against kneepads, but some things went too far. We all want to speed up the process of sending, and that's where all the greed comes out. Some people have too much work, some are too short, some are just simply too weak, but they still want to grab something that's above their limits. How can you say I can't do the moves in FRFM and still call it the 9b with the kneepad? Obviously you can't do the moves. Now call it 9a or face the fact you can't climb on such level.

Second story: you're against kneepads, but your trip is about to end and your project is wet. There's an option to use a kneepad to avoid the crux and you don't want to wait for another year to come back. So you're gonna use it anyway, because you can't face the fact of coming back next year. Oops I dabbed...I don't have time to try it again, I'll just call [claim it]

Another story. A guy climbs 9a with a kneepad and says, oh, but it still feels 9a to me! Hmm, so I'll just go around the globe, start choosing the 9a's that are obviously not 9a with a kneepads, and I'm gonna collect 10 9a's in a year. Sounds great for my sponsors! No one really cares anymore if I've done it with knee pads... I'm Jernej Kruder and everyone will believe me and give me kudos for that. Unacceptable! I can stay true to myself and I won't be sad if I need to leave my project far away from my home, even if I'm never coming back. At least I gave it all at the time I had and if I want to finish it, training is my only "cheating" way of doing it.

What could be the solution and what is the responsibility for the media?
It's quite impossible since this truth would hurt too many climbers.

The 34-year-old has previously done ten routes 9a to 9a+, including the DWS Es Pontas. He has been an active IFSC competition climber for almost 20 years. Last year, he was #6 in the European Championship which he won in 2020. The Slovenian is known for not training indoors but instead mainly preparing for the comps outdoors also by doing multi-pitches.