November 16, 2004
Fred Rouhling has completed his fourth new route rated 9a or harder. Mandallaz Drive (9a) is the first extremely difficult

new route by Rouhling in eight years. The climb is at d’Allonzier la Caille, near Rouhling’s new home in Haute-Savoie, south of Geneva.

Rouhling made the news in the early 1990s because his first 5.14-plus new route, Hugh, was so blatantly chipped — and because of the monstrous, all-points-off dyno the climb requires. But he really became a center of controversy when he gave the unprecedented grade of 9b (5.15b) to his climb Akira in southwestern France. Established in 1995, Akira is unrepeated, and nearly a decade later no one has graded another climb 9b.
Along www.8a.nu