Seb Berthe redpoints La Rambla (9a+) at Siurana

29-year-old Sébastien Berthe made his 20-year-old dream come true last Friday with his redpoint of the über-classic Siurana testpiece La Rambla. In the news just the other day for the third female ascent at the hands of America's Michaela Kiersch, this benchmark 9a+ located at the El Pati sector was first ascended back in 1994 by Alexander Huber to a pocket at 3/4 height and extended to the top of the crag by Ramón Julián Puigblanque in 2003.

Berthe explained "I spent 3 weeks in Siurana trying hard on that route (had 14 sessions and about 25 tries in total on it). In the first few sessions, I was destroyed by the long effort the route required and I could barely do two tries in one day. I would end the session exhausted with multiple holes on my skin. I could not even support two days in a row.

However, I improved really fast on the route. Day after day, I was feeling better and better and kept falling higher and higher. After a few sessions, I could arrive at the final boulder, but it is where everything starts on this route. The mental battle started there as well: for a week, I kept falling at the very same spot, on the same move again and again. I could not hold that pocket and always fell with the feeling of being fresh and not having fought enough. On the victory go though, I gave it all, held the pocket power-screaming! Things were not over: there are still a few hard moves to go to the chain. With the pressure and sun at that time of the day, I took the wrong foothold and almost fell on the very last hard move.

I also took advantage of my good shape to climb La Reina Mora 9a and Chikane 8c+. Super happy with this as well! It was also really nice to share the project with Michaela Kirsch who just sent the route as well."

The Belgian is famous above all for his swift repeats of difficult multi-pitches across the globe, with highlights including The Nose in 2019, the Alpine Trilogy in 2020 and an extremely impressive attempt at the Dawn Wall in 2022, and la Rambla is now Berthe's second 9a+ after his repeat of Super-Crackinette at Saint-Léger-du-Ventoux in France in 2020.

Berthe thanks: Petzl, SCARPA

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, Poland
2019 - Dave Graham, USA
2019 - Gonzalo Larrocha, Spain
2019 - Cédric Lachat, Switzerland
2021 - Jorge Díaz-Rullo, ESP
2022 - Chaehyun Seo, ROK
2023 - Michaela Kiersch, USA
2023 - Sébastien Berthe, BEL