Matteo Marobin ticks Jungle Boogie (9a+)

Matteo Marobin, with two 9a+’ under his belt, has completed Jungle Boogie (9a+) in Céüse. The 21-year-old sent his first 9a at age 17.

Can you give us the full story of the ascent?
After sending Three Degrees of Separation at the end of summer 2024, I wanted more: a harder, more beautiful, more iconic route. I'd become addicted to the process of working a route and to the happiness felt after the send. Living in Toulouse (3h30 from Oliana) and being quite a fan of Chris Sharma, Fight or Flight seemed like an obvious choice in my mind. I won't lie, I was immediately won over. To my eyes it’s the holy grail, but I knew it was going to be a long-term project: only 6 ascents since Chris Sharma freed it in 2011, and no ascent since 2018. Stefano Ghisolfi even concluded that, in his eyes, it was the hardest 9b in the world.

So when I went back to Céüse in June 2025, my goal was to send Biographie within 3 months before going back to university in September, but I very quickly realized I wasn't strong enough on two-finger pockets. On top of that there were already 4 people trying it, which I'm not a fan of. Conversely, I love being the only one trying a route because it's in those moments that I feel like I can build a connection with it.

So I went to check out Jungle Boogie. It's true it destroys your skin — I've never climbed anything so brutal on the skin — but I realized it was 90% crimps, that the moves were really cool, and that the effort suited me well: 35 moves all at the same intensity. Pure power endurance! And the cherry on the cake, I was completely alone on it! The story could finally begin. What's more, when I looked at who had sent the route (Adam Ondra, Sachi Amma, Stefano Ghisolfi, Stefano Carnati, Alex Megos, Nico Pelorson, Jonathan Siegrist, and Min Young Lee), it made me dream. I really wanted to add my name alongside those climbing legends.

I quickly found beta that worked well for me. The hardest part was definitely managing my skin: I had to limit myself to two attempts a day, take more rest days than usual, and do only short trips so my skin could heal. Since I quickly felt good on the route, I thought it would come together fairly fast (and I probably wasn't the only one to think so, since one day someone climbing a 7b to the left told me he was going home the next day and couldn't wait to see the news on 8a.nu). Well, it ended up taking a bit longer than expected. From mid-July to mid-August, I kept falling at the same move and started thinking I simply wasn't strong enough to do it from the ground. It took Yannick Flohé coming to belay me to finally get past that move.

On the last day of my last trip of the 2025 season, hopes were high. The only dark cloud was that a storm was forecast for the end of the day. I needed to time my attempt just before the storm to take advantage of the wind, but not too late either, so as not to get caught in the rain. I put in my run 5 minutes too late, and the attempt ended in a win for the weather — even though I'd finally managed to get past that last hard move. I climbed back down from the cliff in the rain, drove back to Toulouse overnight, and by the time I arrived for class the next morning I found out it had been moved to 4pm. In short, I really needed a vacation.

Back in Céüse in early June, I took a few days to rework the sections and improve some beta; the feel for it came back very quickly. I reached a point where there was no randomness left in the route at all. When I put in runs, I could control 100% of the parameters, and it's the first time I've reached that level of mastery. I knew it was just a matter of time.

This Saturday, July 4th, I finally managed to line everything up and put in the right run. I did have a small scare though, since my brother, who was filming, accidentally put his foot on the foothold I needed to reach the final jug. Fortunately, a "your foot" was enough for him to understand I needed that hold. I gave it everything and managed to stop myself in the final jug. The 7b slab that follows went well, although with only 3 bolts over 25 meters of climbing it doesn't exactly inspire confidence about falling.

Afterwards, we went to celebrate the send at the Crux with all the climbers from the cliff, and we finally drank the 1.5L bottle of Justerini & Brooks I'd bought the year before, in reference to the route's initials (JB).