Jakob Schubert makes first repeat of Neanderthal, Chris Sharma 9b at Santa Linya

There is a thick thread that links Chris Sharma to many of the best climbers in the world: the sheer quantity and quality of high end climbs that the American has freed in recent years at Oliana, Santa Linya, Margalef and other crags dotted throughout Catalonia that serve as important winter testing grounds for the world’s elite.

Jakob Schubert is up among the very best and at the start of December 2018 he checked in with the first repeat of El Bon Combat, Chris Sharma's testpiece at Cova de Ocell that Schubert considers 9a+. Now the Austrian climbing machine has homed in on Neanderthal, a "115 (!) move monster" put up by Sharma in 2009 and, until yesterday, unrepeated.

In confirming his extraordinary form, the 27-year-old from Innsbruck claimed the second ascent after putting in just six days of effort. This is now his fourth 9b after Fight or Flight at Oliana (2014), La planta de Shiva at Villanueva del Rosario (2016) and Stoking the Fire at Santa Linya (2018). Given his speed on Neanderthal, maybe it's time to seriously raise the bar on a different king line ...

Link: FB Jakob Schubert, Instagram Jakob Schubert, La Sportiva, Mammut

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I stuck the dyno!! 2nd ascent of Neanderthal [9b] in Santa Linya A king line opened by @chris_sharma in 2009 On my first day working this 115 moves (!!) monster I thought it will take a while to be able to send. But I quickly made a lot of progress and today (my 6th day on the route) I stuck the crux move and kept it together until the top. Such a sick route!! Long routes like this take a lot of psychological effort but make the feeling of reaching the victory jug even more rewarding I have to add that I used one kneepad for my ascent, actually the first time I ever send something hard with such a thing on, but it felt really useful. I did two knee bars on the route both would be more painful without it so I decided it‘s time.. • Video by @catalunyaclimb during my ascent. Thanks for the cheering @georgparma @michael.piccolruaz @alexandra.ladurner @hugoparmentier @gazparry and everyone else • #rockclimbing #send #whataday #climbingvideo #9b #sopsyched

A post shared by Jakob Schubert (@jakob.schubert) on Dec 28, 2018 at 12:22pm PST