Dave Graham rules La Rambla at Siurana

A fortnight ago Dave Graham got to grips with his long-term project La Rambla in Siurana in Spain. The most famous sport climb of the crag was established by Germany’s Alexander Huber in 1994, then extended to the top in 2003 by Spain’s Ramón Julián Puigblanque.

Important moments in sport climbing have unfolded on this 45m stamina fest: after the first repeats in 2006 by Edu Marin and Chris Sharma, in 2007 Patxi Usobiaga sent the route in an astounding 9 attempts, while a year later 15-year-old Adam Ondra upped the ante and sent in in 5 attempts spread out over 2 days. In 2013 Alexander Megos sent the climb second go after failing on his flash attempt, and it’s obviously on this route that in February 2017 America’s Margo Hayes became the first woman in the world to climb 9a+. These are just a handful of the world-class repeats and it would be true to say that ever since its outset, this sheet of overhanging limestone has proven to be irresistible to the best climbers in the world.

Graham's recent repeat - just a few days before Spaniard Gonzalo Larrocha - shows how important this line is even nowadays. For two decades the 37-year-old American has been recognised as one of the strongest climbers of his generation and although in recent times he’s concentrated mainly on bouldering - his 2005 8C first ascent of The Story Of Two Worlds at Cresciano Switzerland stands out - at the start of the new millennium Graham pulled off some early repeats of historical testpieces such as Action Directe in Frankenjura (2001, 4th ascent) and Biographie at Ceuse (2007, 4th ascent). Coup de Grace in Val Bavona is one of Graham’s many first ascents and is widely considered one of the most beautiful 9a’s in the world.

Graham was in Siurana in 2003 when Puigblanque sent La Rambla, and belayed Sharma on his repeat in 2006, so adding this climb to his collection of legendary benchmarks very much represents the closing of a circle. And Graham, being Graham, his already set his sights on the next level: the nearby 9b La Capella ....

TOPO: Siurana, Spain

La Rambla
First ascent: Alexander Huber, 1994
Extension: Ramón Julián Puigblanque 2003
2006 - Edu Marín Garcia, Spain
2006 - Chris Sharma, USA
2007 - Andreas Bindhammer, Germany
2007 - Patxi Usobiaga, Spain
2008 - Adam Ondra, Czech Republic, aged 15
2011 - Enzo Oddo, France
2013 - Sachi Amma, Japan
2013 - Felix Neumärker, Germany
2013 - Sangwon Son, South Korea
2013 - Alexander Megos, Germany, second attempt
2014 - Daniel Jung, Germany
2015 - Jonathan Siegrist, USA
2017 - Matty Hong, USA
2017 - Margo Hayes, USA, first female 9a+
2017 - Stefano Ghisolfi, Italy
2017 - Jacopo Larcher, Italy
2017 - Klemen Bečan, Slovenia
2017 - Sébastian Bouin, France
2018 - Tomás Ravanal, Chile
2018 - Jon Cardwell, USA
2019 - Piotr Schab, POL
2019 - Dave Graham, USA
2019 - Gonzalo Larrocha, ESP

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Two weeks ago I climbed the legendary La Rambla [9a+] here in Siurana After spending the majority of my time in the boulders over the last ten years its hard to describe how awesome it feels to climb a long hard route again It was real meditative which was particularly intriguing, and got me super inspired climb more routes in this style!!! After a couple weeks of unseasonably hot weather which produced some rather dismal attempts, that magic Siurana wind returned, and I unexpectedly found myself climbing through the final crux Stay tuned for a some more pictures and the raw Iphone send footy, as well as some proper story telling about the ascent Time to stay focused on La Capella [9b] and my other rogue projects in the sector Only ten days left @fiveten_official @petzl_official @adidasterrex @climb_up_officiel @frictionlabs @sendclimbing @climbskinspain @alizee_dufraisse

A post shared by Dave Graham (@dave_graham_) on Mar 18, 2019 at 1:28pm PDT