Edu Marin has climbed his long-term project in the cave of Getu, China. His aim was to establish a route from the bottom to the top of the cave, which boasts 304m of roof climbing and is described as 'the largest roof in the world.' The route is 14 pitches long and its hardest pitch is 9a+, making it one of the hardest multi-pitches in the world.
Marin has spent six months living in Getu, Guizhou province. Equipping the route took him more than 50 days and he placed roughly 300 bolts. He returned to Getu in November with his father to work the route.
Here's a film of Marin climbing pitch 5 - Odyn's Crack 9a+:
Marin freed all the individual pitches earlier in the year and then aimed to climb the route in one continuous push. On 3rd March he broke a hold on the 12 pitch after climbing for over 10 hours. He returned a few weeks later and climbed the route in roughly 9 hours.
The route's difficulty breaks down as follows: 7b+, 7a, 8a+, 7c+, 9a+, 8b+, 8a, 8c+, 8a+. 8b. 8a+, 8c+, 8a+, 8a+.
Marin wrote on his Instagram: 'TODAY, WE HAVE CLIMBED VALHALLA! We climbed the largest roof in the world! At last, after many, many months of struggling, effort and thousands of adversities, we've done it. We've fulfilled a dream that started two years ago.
Waking up early, 983 stairs up, 150 meters of Juma ascent and start climbing at -5ºC has been our routine during these months. To be honest I've been tempted to give up sometimes. Endurance, discipline, perseverance and lots of motivation to release every single pitch!
⠀
4am with a special feeling: sunshine, wind, no expectations nor pressure, just training. But today was the day. I knew I couldn't fail! So I've climbed the whole line in just 9 hours.'
Comments
Doing a multi-pitch in a roof is never going to be on my agenda, but I'm sort of curious about how you manage an outing like that. I know Edu's dad is a strong climber, but I doubt he followed all the pitches, and you can't exactly jug up the lead rope through a roof. Any ideas as to how they managed that?
How does the second lower out when the rope runs through all the draws?
Awesome looking route.
Seconding a bolted roof would be an effort, but ultimately not too hard - fall /jump off, jug up to the next bolt, unclip it, repeat.
Imagine the difficulty of putting the bolts in to start with!
A mere 300 or so
A bit astounding really - wow!
Chris