Has Jakob Schubert Talked Himself Out Of The 9b Counter? | Climbing Daily Ep.1308

Hello and welcome to the Climbing Daily Wednesday news show. I sound like I've smoked 40 a day all my life. It sounds sexy. I think. Yeah. I'm enjoying the huskiness in your voice. Yeah. That's very. So we have got a packed show full of sends this week, really. And we're going to kick off. Well, you said it, you said it last week. You were like, it's going to start sending. It's here, send season is here, it's now. And Sean Raboutou is going to kick things off with his new 8c plus line. Which means it's going to be the hardest boulder problem in Switzerland. Sean has climbed a sit start to the famous problem off the wagon, which starts off the landowner's farming wagon, which is parked underneath the boulder. Sean's variant adds one very hard starting move, which some of the world's best boulders have failed to do over the years. So two things about that. He's on a rampage. He's killing it, man. He's like absolutely smashing it. So 8c last week, 8c plus now. Yeah. I mean, it's amazing. And then is that truck always parked under the boulder? Yeah. And it's one of the reasons it's why it's so famous. Also because, you know, it was featured in this film. So it's like a big deal, but yeah, so it's private land. You've got to be careful with access, but yeah, the farmer parks it underneath and most people start from the wagon. He decided to sit start it and just like the fact that hardly anyone's done off the wagon, let alone the new variant, which is called. A first ascent 8c plus, but yeah, it's got to count for something. Yeah. There's not many of them around these days, is there? This is the thing, not many 8c plus boulders, full stop. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. OK, next up, Matilda Soderlund has been Sendi Sendi on getting on the Sendi train in Red River Gorge. Matilda Soderlund has climbed the Red River Gorge classic Pure Imagination 8c plus, originally graded 9a by its first ascensionist Jonathan Segrist in 2010, the route was later downgraded by Adam Ondra in 2012 when he flashed it. Matilda had been trying the route for around four days and after almost sending it on one of her first days, she eventually sent the route on Saturday. Well, everyone seems to be in Red River Gorge. I don't quite know where our invitation was, but it got lost. We're still waiting for an invitation to just the Americas. Yeah, please have us. Come on. We're nice people. Somebody bring us over. But to other ladies who've been crushing it in Red River Gorge is Melissa Leneve and Annalena Leiteman. Melissa Leneve has joined the party by climbing Golden Ticket 8c plus. Melissa took three weeks to send this stamina fest of a route. Meanwhile, after battling illness, Annalena has sent her 8c plus project Lucifer. She sent the route on the last day of her trip. Last day, best day. Yeah, exactly. And I know also Mina Leslie Budjastic, she's out there with Annalena for most of the trip. So it's like everyone seems to migrate to Red River Gorge this time of year. Send season. I said it. I said it. Send train. Right, next up, we've got a first ascent in in Italy and also a repeat in Spain. Thomas Dowser has made the first ascent of Un Gusto de la Libertad 9a in Ulusai, Sardinia. Thomas has previously climbed a 9a, the essential in Franconjura and spent around 10 days working the route. Felipe Carmargo has repeated Chris Sharma's Gancho Perfecto in Margalef, Spain. Originally graded 9a, Felipe has suggested an upgrade of 9a plus. The Brazilian climber spent one month waiting for the route to be in condition and finally sent at the weekend. So congrats to those guys. And just a really, really quick note. I've got a tiny little theory. Oh, go on. Yeah. So I've noticed that there's quite a lot of Red Bull athletes who are also Tanaya athletes. Right. Do we think there's a possible link between the two brands? Now, this is a conspiracy theory, because I think that they're trying to take over the world. I mean, there's there's a lot of athletes who are Red Bull athletes who aren't Tanaya athletes. Yeah, that's true. But think about it. So we've got Alex Megos. Yeah. Chris Sharma. Yeah, new. Felipe Carmargo. Yeah. Miho Nanaka. Someone else. No, I mean, that's. Might be someone else. That's it. I mean, it's a good, it's a good. I like your theories. Yeah, they're good theories. I mean, what's the end game? Because most conspiracy theories have an evil sort of. Well, like take over the world. Right. We're trying to take over the world as well, by the way. I don't know if you noticed. It's now not a conspiracy theory, it's now a fact. Confirmed. We're trying to take over the world. Should we move on? Yeah. So sticking with Chris Sharma routes and news that has made me unbelievably happy this week, Jakob Schubert has sent El Bon Combat an old Chris Sharma route. The line put up by Sharma in 2015 is in the Cova del Ocel in Spain. Jakob has come to Spain off an impressive IFSC comp season where he took the overall win for lead climbing. Sharma originally suggested 9b slash 9b plus, but Jakob thinks it's more likely to be hard 9a plus. I guess it's I can't. There were so many messages of Instagram and then I've got a pen. It's 9b counter time. I'm going to put the point out there, but before you put it on there, I've got the pen. He basically said that he wants a downgrade. Yes, he won. Yeah, right. Except Chris Sharma was the first person to climb that route. Jakob is the first repeater, right? So yeah, Chris Sharma reckons it's 9b, 9b plus, so pretty hard. Jakob reckons it's hard 9a plus, which hard 9a plus surely is 9. Anyway, but my point is, it hasn't been downgraded yet. It's not like officially downgraded. Jakob's just suggesting. And consider that Jakob is in the form of his life. Yeah. Sen season. Yeah, I really want to put it on the 9b counter. OK, I just want to get this straight in my head before we do it. Yeah, but OK, so surely by that logic, then the first ascension is it's not a confirmed grade. Yeah. So it's not confirmed until the second ascension comes along. And if they disagree, then the third ascension has to come along. And essentially it doesn't really have a grade. Well, it it's hard. This is not a hard counter. OK, here's my I agree with you. I know what you mean. But it hasn't been downgraded. If Sharma, from what I've seen, there's been nothing from Sharma being like, yeah, I think you're right. He's been like, congratulations. It hasn't seemed to have been confirmed either way. So technically, it's still because Sharma was the first ascension and he holds more sway than Jakob Schubert at this moment until Adam Ondra turns up and says it's 8b. So what happens if, like, just take another one, for example, and somebody comes along and they climb Mattie Hong's route 9b that he did last year, which I can't remember what it was. But just say they come along, they climb that, they downgrade it. Does he get taken off the 9b counter? We've never come up with this yet. No, no. I don't. I mean, but but we what we haven't done is route. So like Adam did that 9b that he immediately said wasn't 9b. So he didn't put it on the counter. Yeah. We had a vote. So here we've got a route, OK? That maybe somebody like somebody initially thought it was 9b, 9b, like 9b forward slash plus. Somebody has come along and said, I don't think it's a 9b. It's a 9a plus. And he's written that on his Instagram. Yeah, but we are now going to put it on the 9b counter beside his name. Yeah. Even though he claims it's not a 9b. But Jakob also messaged us saying I can change it to 9a plus slash 9b if it makes you. Which doesn't get on the list anyway. But it isn't yet. It's still a 9b. I mean, he's climbed a 9b route that is still a 9b. And he's suggesting 9a plus. He's saying he reckons it's hard. 9a plus. I mean, I honestly don't know what to do. I don't I don't actually know that we should put it on. Are you serious? I'm actually serious. I don't think I'm not. I don't think that we should put it on. I just don't know. I like I mean, I is there more, you know, surely it surely it takes for Jakob to be like, OK, I think it's 9b in order for us to be able to put it on. I think he's climbed a 9b route. It's like the guidebook. I suggested a 9a plus, which is how grading system works. I can suggest that I get a pay rise. But it could be nice if Sharma had come out and been like, I agree with you. Yeah, but it's got a like you've got to have more than one person to to balance that because we've got one one. We need a middle ground, but it's still 9b. All right. I'm happy to put it to a vote. What for next week? Yeah. You sure? I was worried that I was. I was thinking you'd want to do. I really want to do it. We've got like a few weeks till the end of the year. This would mean that Jakob is drawing with Adam for the overall. So this is massive news. So I generally don't know if we put this out to the guys. I don't know how this would go. But I like for me in my head, I don't know. Like it's not that I don't want to put it on. I do want to put it on. But like he has come along and he's suggested 9a plus. And like that, this is his name. We're going to put it by. And he's like he's he's the guy saying that it's not 9b. And we're putting on a 9b counter beside his name. OK, here's what we do, right? It's to a vote. Yeah, you guys. But but I will also email Chris Sharma. Yeah. And ask him. OK, fine. And if he comes back being like, yeah, I reckon. I mean, he also. Can we try and get Chris on the show next week? We will. I'll try to get Chris on the show next week. OK, but if he doesn't, which is highly likely, then we'll go with the with the vote. But if Sharma is the ultimate sway, right? Chris, if you're watching, can you come on the show next week? Please, mate. We need you. Please. God damn it. Fine. Wow. That was one of the most epic debates I think I've ever had. And we didn't actually come to any conclusion. We put it out to you in the way that only I did. I was swayed. Checking the video recording still working because otherwise that would have been a waste of time. Anyway, let's let's move on to media. And we're starting off with a video that we released on Monday. So we were with DMM. So DMM have sponsored this amazing event. We're down on the south coast of Wales and it's a two part video, really. The first part of the release on Monday is the story behind it. So it's about a man called Jonathan Woods, who tragically lost his life. It's an amazing story with some great characters. So just check out this tiny teaser. Drawing something I've done all of my life, you know, I'm a bit like Jonathan always climbed. I always draw. I don't really sort of question it. But I do love to draw activity and people who are fully engaged in what they're doing rather than posing. And of course, climbers are very involved in what they're doing. They're not aware of me. They're also very beautiful to look at. They're physically very fit and move easily and make lovely movements. So that's one of the attractions for coming here as well. But also to be amongst Jonathan's friends who have all kept in contact. And I really enjoy that side of it as well. I'm Frankie Woods and we're at Boshurston Cliffs, which is where my son Jonathan, commonly known as Woody, used to love to come and climb. He had, unfortunately, a fatal accident here seven years ago. Climbing was Jonathan's passion. It was all he ever wanted to do, really. And he came to this area over a 20 year period and absolutely loved it. Amazing story, that. And to be honest, for me, I think it's really important to tell those type of stories. And I don't know about you, but we were a bit worried about how it was going to be taken. And it's been taken really well, really, really positive comments from you guys. So thanks very much for that. And thanks to DMM for allowing us to come down and film and document. It's an amazing story. So the next thing we're going to talk about is your movie. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So basically, we have for the last couple of years, we've been making a series called Living Legends. I always get mixed up between that and legends only. But basically, Living Legends. And this year, we went in August to travel to go and see Neil Gresham, who is a legend. If you don't know who he is, then I don't know, you really should. But basically, he is a La Sportiva athlete. He's been with the brand for like 20 or 30 years. And we went and filmed with him to to find out a little bit more about about him and about his history with La Sportiva. I used to dread getting older as a climber. I thought my performance would really suffer. But the truth is that I'm improving by the day. And as I approach my 50s, I'm loving every minute of it. The cliche is that you maintain endurance and lose strength. But I did my personal best on a campus board when I was 45. So I think you can get stronger, too. And this has to be my single biggest advice to young climbers. So that's a little preview of the video. So it's Wednesday today. It's out tomorrow, Thursday on the Epic TV website, and we'll be pushing loads for that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So go and watch it. It's really, really cool. And obviously, it's great to learn a little bit more about Neil. Now, it is December and it's come that time when we cannot ignore Christmas anymore because it's almost upon us. So we roll out a whole Christmas gift thing on Climbing Daily, especially with the gear show, because it can be tricky. Like I'm a climber. I know what I want. But if I'm buying for someone else or if you're just stuck on ideas, it can be tricky. So throughout the next couple of weeks, we're going to be releasing gift ideas, gift gear shows. So if you're stuck for Christmas, keep an eye on that, because there's still loads of time to order before Christmas on the Epic TV shop. And as you guys know, we've got some pretty good deals on that. Last thing before you go, it was the legends only. Was it last weekend or the weekend before? Ooh, yeah. And we sent our French cameraman, Mr. Johan Kervela, to document the event. We normally go, but this time we thought we'd send a proper cameraman. So we sent Johan and he's created a masterpiece as usual. And here's a little teaser. The first boulder was definitely the most fun one. Le jeté, the triple jump. I went for the whole run, which is almost five meters from hole to hole. It lasts for so long that you can think about what's going on in between the move. That was the best part for me. So we'll be on Climbing Daily in some form next week. But yeah, awesome film. If you want to go and watch that, the link is in the description below. That is it. We're done. We're done. That was a really long show. Thanks for keeping patience with us. Yeah, we've saved the longest show for when you don't have a voice. I just, from now, that's it for the rest of the day. You're not going to say anything. Sign language out. See you later. See you next week.