Andreas Bindhammer, who did a week ago the first repetition of the route Abysse 9a (set by Alex Chabot), thinks it should be 9a/a+, because during the attempting he broke two important footholds.

According to him it is the most difficult route he has ever climbed, harder then two 9as he climbed before.

Andreas sais it in the news item on his website and also in the article which Andreas´ Czech girlfriend Katerina Prazakova translated to the Czech version of CzechClimbing.com (Lezec.cz):

On October 26, 2006 Andreas Bindhammer made the second ascent of Abysse (9a) in Déversé (Gorges du Loup, Nice, France). The redpoint came after working the route for 16 days over six weeks — he struggled with wet holds and broken footholds… The 20 metres Abysse climbs a severely overhanging (45 degree to 60 degree) section of limestone "balls" and tufas for 40 moves without rest, with intense pinching and intricate footwork. Abysse is a completely natural route. Alex Chabot made the first ascent of Abysse on July 28, 2006.




"With the two footholds I broke that are now missing, my feeling is that it's a really hard 9a, I would say 9a/a+," Bindhammer says. "But, it's really hard for me to suggest, because I have never done a route with this resistant style. Both [9a´s] I did before are routes with a rest point in the middle. On the other hand I think that I'm really strong on pinch holds, and the route [Abysse] nearly consists only of pinch holds and felt really hard to me."



Video from the Andreas ascent, filmed by Marc Cotto.

Download video 320x240 (10,7 MB, 3 min 20 s)

The complete video and many others will be published on the DVD of 9d video coming out 2007
Others films by Marc Cotto: http://www.tvmountain.com/cotto/9dvideo.htm)

Photos from the ascent are on the site of photographer Philippe Maurel as well as beta about the area: www.nice-climb.com

The basic source:
www.masterrange.de