The Elder Statesman 9a by Kim Marschner

Kim Marschner has done his first 9a, The Elder Statesman in Frankenjura and it just took him four tries over two days. "I had no plans or expectations going into the Frankenjura. I just wanted to try something hard. So I looked at that route an thought oh ja that looks pretty cool."

Interestingly is that Kim has been an active competition climber for several years but only once reached the semi out of 18 WC's. Last year he did not do any routes outdoors and his previous best was an 8c. (c) Nici Schall

It seems you are a more talented outdoor climber compared to comps?
Haha, yes but I think if I stop competing I won’t train that hard anymore and get weak. I‘m not in the best shape at the moment because I was a bit lazy the last months without any comps so I have no expectations.