In 2006 I asked Jordi Pastor from the excellent Spanish magazine ESCALAR about the many 9a’s that are being climbed in Spain: „Do you know what 9a (or up?) routes in Spain are natural (not manufactured)? It doesn’t seem to be an issue in Spain, but here (in Germany) people find that interesting!“
While things have progressed quite a bit since than, the essence of Jordi’s answer still holds true. The days of fully manufactured routes are gone, still, steep limestone needs re-enforcement here and there:
„About the 9a that have been redpointed in Spain, I think that there isn’t too much that were complely natural. I can tell you that El intento (Cuenca) and Orujo (Málaga) are surely manufactured. This thing are a bit complicated, because here, and specially in this types of routes, the rock usually needs some reinforcements. Sometimes, some holds like crimps or flakes loose needs Sikadur glue to not break. But if you not consider that as manufactured (like Dani Andrada, for example), La Rambla would be natural (only some sikadur glueds. Tas-tas, in Baltzola cave (9a with a new extension, not redpointed yet) have this type of holds. Iñi Ameriketan and Il Domani (in Baltzola too) are natural (only some sika), but Mendeku (Eguino, Vasque Country too, 9a by Iker pou) are purely natural. The new 9a routes of Dani Andrada in Santa Linya (Seleccio natural, that Ramon Julian said would be 8c+, and Novena enmienda) have sikadur reinforcements, so would be natural too. And Chilam Balam, 9b+ as a proyect, but not confirmed (no repetitions), would be natural too (maybe only sika adds in some holes for not break).
I hope this info will be good for you. Now, I don’t remember more routes in this grade here.“
Regards.
Jordi
{gallery}Spain Highend/LLamps I trons:148:148:0{/gallery}
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