French climber Charles Albert has made the primary ascent of his long-term venture, L’Ombre du Voyageur V17 (9A) in Salève, France. The ten-metre line works its means throughout the steep ceiling of a limestone cave, following a skinny crack. In his typical fashion, Albert climbed the issue with out sneakers or knee pads, a alternative that seems to have made the issue harder.
As reported by Grimper, Albert believes L’Ombre du Voyageur is nearer to V18 (9A+) when climbed barefoot and with out kneepads. Recognizing that climbing sneakers and kneepads would tame the chew of the issue, nevertheless, he settled on a grade of V17. There may be at the moment solely a small handful of issues in world graded V17. The grade V18 doesn’t but exist for any current drawback.
In 2019, Albert famously established No Kpote Solely in Fontainbleau, climbing the bloc with out sneakers and grading it V17. Subsequent ascensionists have lowered its grade. Ryohei Kameyama prompt V16/17 and Nico Pelorson thought it was a contact simpler, suggesting V15/16. Discovering new beta, Illya Bakhmet-Smolenskyi believed the issue to be V15.
Albert despatched L’Ombre du Voyageur – The Traveler’s Shadow in English – in late October, working sections of the boulder over the previous few years. In 2019, he made the primary ascent of the top portion of the roof crack, naming it Voyageur Face à la Mer de Nuage and grading it V13 (8B). Time will inform what the grade of L’Ombre du Voyageur will probably be when utilizing fashionable climbing sneakers and maybe kneepads. Albert is on the very pinnacle of exhausting barefoot climbing, so it would doubtless be a very long time earlier than we see one other shoeless ship of the road.
Charles Albert projecting L’Ombre du Voyageur V17
