UKC

Midtbø climbs 9b

© Magnus Midtboe

After three weeks in the Ali Baba cave at Rodellar, success came for Magnus Midtbø in the form of Ali Hulk extension sit start, Dani Andrada's 85 move upside down wrestling match of a 9b.

The route can be divided into two parts. The first is 8c+ or 9a in it's own right and takes you to a knee-bar. This part can be climbed without a rope. From there you got ~15m of 8c+ to the chains.

There aren't that many 9b's in the world, only eight or so, and this is the 2nd one, after Chris Sharma's Golpe de estado, repeated by Ondra, to see a second ascent.

In style, it's rather similar to the First route to be given this grade, Fred Rouhling's legendary/infamous Akira. This route also climbs out a cave and is protectable with pads for the first half.

The routes given 9b or harder are:

Akira, Fred Rouhling

Chilam balam (9b+), Barnabé Fernandéz

Ali Hulk extension sit start, Dani Andrada

Delicuente natural extension, Andrada

Salamandre, Fred Rouhling

Golpe de estado, Chris Sharma

Jumbo love, Sharma

Neandertal, Sharma

Sources: Magnus' blog/Kairn

photo
Magnus is the one to the right
© Magnus Midtboe

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Magnus Midtbø is a Norwegian rock climber and YouTuber. He retired from competitive climbing in 2017.

Magnus's Athlete Page 10 posts 4 videos



30 Aug, 2010
Why not, a large part of the first section of the route can be reached from the ground, a sit start is a lot less arbitrary than any other one in this case.
30 Aug, 2010
does sound like a bit of a joke!
30 Aug, 2010
The UKC community can be so depressing sometimes. Harmless scandinavian strong guy travels across Europe with the goal of ticking one of the world's hardest climbing testpieces, ticks it in reasonably short time, and two of the three comments so far are critical. At least one of you is no stranger to reasonably hard climbing, and the concept of setting a goal and working a project. So why the criticism? I'll concede that the Ali Hulk cave is not the most inspiring of venues, and I shan't be rushing back there, but is it really worth wasting your time knocking somebody elses achievement? Come to think of it, is it really worth my time flaming you?! Probably not, but I'll click Submit anyway... :S
30 Aug, 2010
Wasn't the very start supposed to be a boulder problem anyway that got extended by andrada along the roof? And the whole Ali-Hulk Extn. just evolved from linking more and more of the cave and then out and over the lip? Anyway awesome effort from Magnus, did he give his opinion on the grade?
30 Aug, 2010
It doesn't claim to be the most aesthetic piece of climbing in the world, it claims to be properly bastard hard. Can't really see what's wrong with that nor why you feel the need to whinge about it.
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