Patxi Usobiaga repeats Action Directe F9a

by Jack Geldard – Editor – UKC Patxi Usobiaga has climbed the legendary sport route Action Directe (F9a) in the Frankenjura, Germany. Patxi succeeded on the route on Friday the 24th of October, 17 years after the first ascent by rock star Wolfgang Gullich. Action Directe was the first route in the world to be graded F9a and stands as a test-piece for today´s cutting-edge climbers. It has had 10 repeats, includingby super-strong Brit; Rich Simpson back in October 2005 (UKC News). The route is extremely steep, and as is typical of the Frankenjura, has wild moves on one-finger pockets. Rich explained his training technique after his ascent: "I did some campus boarding on one and two fingers: on one finger I could do 1-4-7 and two fingers 1-5-8." Patxi Usobiaga was born in 1980 and is a previous World Cup winner (2006/2007). He has ticked many hard routes such as La Rambla (F9a+) and La Novena Enmienda (F9a/+). The Basque climber is perhaps best known for his amazing run of form earlier this year when he onsighted several routes at F8b+ of harder, including Home Sweet Home (F8c/+) and Bizi Euskaraz (F8c+) making him the world leader in Sport on-sight climbing. For more info visit Patxi´s Website Watch a video of Dai Koyamada climbing Action Directe:

QuelleUKClimbing