UKC

Meiose, ~9b first ascent by Pirmin Bertle

© Pirmin Bertle

Pirmin Bertle taking the mono that marks the end of the hard climbing on Meiose, 9b, Charmey, Switzerland  © Pirmin Bertle
Pirmin Bertle taking the mono that marks the end of the hard climbing on Meiose, 9b, Charmey, Switzerland
© Pirmin Bertle
Pirmin Bertle has made the first ascent of Meiose at La Tribune, Charmey. He calls it his hardest route ever and suggests a whopping 9b.

Yesterday there we posted a video of Pirmin Bertle climbing an ~8C+ boulder, today we report about the first ascent of a ~9b.

One day before embarking on a nine month trip to Argentina, after 300 days of work, two days after the "last attempt", much to his own surprise, Pirmin managed to link 25 moves of the back to back 8B boulder cruxes and create Meiose, 9b.

If confirmed, it's the most difficult route in Switzerland.

Does this sound too good to be true? Could this route really be 9b?

Well, of course it's impossible to know. Most of the hard routes Pirmin has done have been first ascents. He has repeated several routes in the ~9a range, and made the first ascents of four 9a's, two 9a+'s and now a 9b.

As far as I know, only two of these routes have been repeated, both by Adam Ondra: Chromosome Y, 9a, flash, and Torture Physique 2.0, 8c+/9a, onsight. Adam confirmed the grades.

Meiose climbs the cruxes of Chromosome X and Chromosome Y and is, according to Pirmin, the line he wanted to climb from the very beginning. Linking the two 8B cruxes proved too difficult though, so instead, the Chromosome-routes got half of the crux each. Now, after 300 days, or so, of work, he has succeeded in what he intended to do from the start.

Whether this is 9b or not, as always, remains to be seen.

You can read all about the ascent and Pirmin's grading on his website

is sponsored by: Maiday


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29 Nov, 2015
It's a very good and interesting point and I think there's a lot to this issue. Certainly not the first time this comes up in climbing. I think humans have a tribal nature. If you're part of the tribe then what you say can be trusted. But if you're an outsider you are less trustworthy. What you say should be regarded with skeptism. There's also more freedom to attack an outsider with no risk of damage to the tribe.
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