Tom Randall cruises across his Autobahn in Berlin

British climber Tom Randall has taken urban offwidth crack climbing to the next level with his first ascent of a 60m horizontal crack that runs on the undeside of a bridge above a canal in northern Berlin, Germany. Described as the "best longest and hardest offwidth" crack climb he will probably ever do, the splitter accepts hand-fist and is climbed wide pony style all the way.

In 2011 Randall and Pete Whittaker made the first ascent of Century Crack in America's Canyonlands, a never-ending roof crack graded 8c and, as such, the hardest offwidth in the world back then. While Randall has kept his run of form in the ensuing years, this latest project inspired him like none other; after being shown the Berlin project a year ago he committed fully and carefully reenacted his 2009-2011 training regime that had proved so successful on Century Crack. Randall did big volume sessions in his cellar at home and even moved to the German capital on a short-term basis, but he soon came to understand that physical fitness was only one part of the equation and that a fresh approach would be needed.

Indeed, on realising that he would never have the endurance to carry enough #5 Friends to adequately protect him, he opted for new tactic he'd never tried before: climb without a rope and, instead, with just 2 cams a 6mm cord and "basically go free solo." Whenever he felt he'd need a bathang rest, he'd place the cam to ensure he could recover in relative safety, before removing it and continuing for the next 5 - 10m. He reasoned he'd be fairly safe when over the water, but admitted "it’s deffo a bit nerve wracking on the intro and outro 15m sections."

In the end this ingenious tactic wasn't necessary as he climbed the entire roof in a single go yesterday, pushing himself to the absolute limit. After his ascent he commented "... as always, the right mindset can take you that extra bit and I wobbled onto the ground on the other side in a sweaty, cobwebby, dusty heap. Really satisfied to have climbed my absolute best (for me) and that the hard work paid off."

Autobahn has been tentatively graded soft 8c+, or hard 8c. Given its unique characteristics it is, much like Randall's The Great Rift below a motorway bridge in the UK, unlikely to receive many repeats in the near future.