Maël Musson ticks Little Badder (9a)

Maël Musson, who did his first 9a last year at age 17, has repeated Seb Bouin's Little Badder (9a) in Flatanger. (c) Christelle Lafont

Can you tell us more about the ascent?
Little Badder is a 55m route that can be split into 3 parts. The first is a 25m 8b approach to a big rest. It's from here that the route really begins, with a series of 3 cruxes. The first is the most unpleasant of the route: a 6C+ boulder crack, not very hard but very painful to climb with very bad feet. From there, we move straight on to the hardest crux of the route: a 7B+ boulder with lots of small, important wedges. We then relax a little on one knee before arriving on the last crux. This is the most physical part of the route, with great movement and swinging on good holds. All that remains is a 10m 7c in a ceiling to reach the belay.

Originally, my trip to Flatanger was intended to try Thor's hamer, another 9a in the cave, for a month. But when I arrived, I couldn't resist starting on some of the easier 8b/c routes, which seemed so incredible. After ten days, I decided it was time for a more serious project and, without really knowing why, I went for Little Badder instead of Thor's Hamer. On my third day on the route I managed to link up the whole end, so all I had to do was add the 8b approach.

During the next 3 sessions I fell into the main crux and almost abandoned the route after falling once into the first small crack crux (which is very frustrating knowing that you already have to climb 30m of 8b and change rope in the middle to avoid the pull). But by persisting, the crux finally passed. It was very motivating for the rest of the process, but the route wasn't finished yet. It took me another 4 days to get through the last physical section to the top.