Young Frenchman, Sébastien has made the 2nd ascent of Gérôme Pouvreau's La Madone, 9a+, in the Lubéron region of southern France.

The route, which was first climbed last June, is basically two hard 8c+'s, the first of which begins with an 8A boulder sequence, back to back with a good rest in between. In total it's around 50 meters in length.

Sébastien needed eleven sessions of work, but says he was very close already from the seventh. Eventually he found a small knee scum that saved the day and enabled him to make it all the way to the top.

This was his 6th 9a-or-harder.

Source: Kairn