One of the drums I’ve been banging over the past few years concerns the way in which our social-media-centered ecosystem has numbed us to the genuine excitement, awe, and curiosity that might otherwise follow upon hearing that the limits of climbing difficulty have been advanced. The news all unfolds by flicking through tiny Instagram squares on a phone screen—one amazing picture after another, each one gone from both the screen and one’s mind with the flick of a thumb. It’s entirely possible that climbers today may see more amazing climbing pictures in an hour of scrolling through their feeds than climbers of the ’90s may have seen throughout that entire decade. Is more better? In some ways, perhaps. But it feels easy to go astray in that mind-numbing medium, and to find yourself not paying attention to what’s important because you’re instead paying attention to what isn’t.

A few days ago, we got the exciting news that Sébastien (Seb) Bouin, the young French climber who has been nipping at the heels of Adam Ondra in repeating some of Adam’s hardest routes, completed his longstanding project. The route is called DNA, and it is located at La Ramirole, a 45-degree wall of bone-white limestone with gorgeous streaks and a gem of a cliff tucked away in the Verdon Gorge. Seb humbly offered up the grade of 9c (5.15d), which would mean that this is the second route of that grade in the world after Ondra’s Silence at Flatanger. (Alex Megos’ Bibliographie at Ceuse was rated 9c, but subsequent, fast repeats dropped the grade to 9b+).

Seb defended his decision to grade DNA 9c like so:

“If I compare DNA with other routes I’ve done or that I’ve tried, it’s really a step above. If I compare it with Move (9b/+), or if I compare it with Bibliographie (9b+), I have the feeling that this route is just harder.The time spent working on the route is also an indicator of the difficulty. I spent at least 150 days on DNA (I think it’s closer to 200, but since I’m not sure, let’s stay at 150). I spent about 40 days on Bibliographie, and … 40 days on Move (9b/+). DNA is clearly the route I’ve spent the most time on.”

Seb Bouin: Close to Home

Seb Bouin grew up in southern France and started climbing with his mom when he was 12. Obviously, there couldn’t be a better place to become a sport climber than southern France, and Seb took advantage.

I’ve been a huge fan of Seb ever since I met him at Flatanger a few years back, watching him try Move. His Vintage Rock Tour video series on exploring the history of climbing signals a deep respect for the sport, and has highlighted a fascinating history that shouldn’t be forgotten. The dude’s the man!

La Ramirole is a stunning cliff, perhaps stacked with the most difficulty of any cliff in the world. There is an adjacent 6-pitch cliff of overhanging 5.13-and-harder routes, but the single-pitch crag at the base of the towering wall is chock full of really hard climbs, with more than half of the 70-some routes harder than 5.14.

Seb Bouin has been slamming in hard new routes at Ramirole for years, and the hardest of them are all unrepeated. Some of these routes include: Pajarito (9a / 5.14d) in 2014; A Muerte Bilou (9a / 5.14d) in 2015; L’homme demain (9a+ / 5.15a) in 2016; La côte d’usure (9a+ / 5.15a) in 2018; and La rage d’Adam (9b/+ / 5.15b/c) in 2019.

DNA is now the culmination of a decade of effort put into this cliff. It breaks down like so: The first five quickdraws are 8c / 5.14b and lead to a rest. Next is a V11 straight out of a modern climbing competition: you have to throw your right foot out and generate enough power to reach a tufa in a very low-percentage move. Next up is a friction-dependent V12 involving a left-hand pinch and a miserable undercling. Finally, the route finishes on a stretch of enduro 8c+ / 5.14c climbing.

Not Playing it Safe Anymore

The fact that this route is in Seb’s style, and on his home turf, should be considered, Seb asserts, in justifying the 9c grade:

“La Ramirole is the cliff that suits me best, as I’ve been climbing this style for more than 10 years. If I consider the fact that this route perfectly suits me, the fact that I put a lot more investment in it than in the other routes, and that I feel this route is harder, the 9c would seem appropriate. However, I still have big doubts. Would this route be the same difficulty as Silence? Didn’t I spend all this time partly because of the first ascent process? Choosing 9b+ would be the safe bet. I’ve been playing it safe since 2014 at this crag by offering tight grades. And in the end, nobody has repeated one of these routes yet (in France, I’ve done more than 20 first ascents between 9a and 9b/+ that have never been repeated).”

Who Cares?

It was good to see Seb Bouin’s Instagram post receive so many likes and comments from virtually every big name in climbing. So I don’t mean to suggest that no one cares about Seb’s grand achievement.

However, I couldn’t help but feel as if the excitement about the route dissipated rather quickly. The climbing-news factories churned out the usual intern-written drivel, which was promptly demoted off the home pages by streams of training clickbait. I looked at the climbing forum on Reddit to see if there was any buzz about DNA, and found that the main post sharing the news received over 300 upvotes, which might seem like a lot until you scroll down one post and realize that an entry that’s literally just showing someone’s pile of junky-ass climbing gear strewn across their floor received over 1100 upvotes.

It goes to show you that what’s popular on the Internet should not be conflated with what’s valuable or important.

I do hope that Seb gets the attention he deserves and that climbers who are fan-boys like me take a moment to pause, to slow down, and let the inspiration penetrate your psyche. It’s not often that limits of human performance are pushed. As grades get harder, these moments are only going to get rarer.

Seb, on the experience of sending:

“At the start of the route, I felt like I was flying, with no fatigue. I was on autopilot, climbing without thinking, like a robot doing the same task hundreds of times. I arrived at the crux and stuck the holds. Incredible. But at the same time, I had to stay lucid and not fall on the last 8c+ section.

When I got to the top of the last hard part, I didn’t quite understand, I had so many doubts, I was so afraid of the last moves for fear of falling. I was there, the DNA project was done. It’s still hard to realize.”