17 May Alex Rohr climbs Alpenbitter 9a 11 years after the FA

Eleven years after the FA by Simon Wandeler, Alexander Rohr succeeded in the first repeat of Alpenbitter, 9a route in the Bernese Oberland that risked losing himself in oblivion and that instead thanks to this young climber, back in vogue. A tough and exhausting fight, which totally involved this climber since last year and that saw, in a very unexpected way, a happy ending just a few days ago. Here is Alex’s story.

“Alpenbitter, 9a is located in Gimmelwald in the middle of the swiss alps. It is around 20 meter long and in very steep limestone. The crux is 12 meters above the ground. The climbing is very powerful and there‘s no rest before the boulder. The boulder itself is very powerful too and around five equally hard moves. After the boulder you reach a rest were the arms are getting better but my whole body could not really recover. Then there’s not too hard climbing to the top, but there are a lot of low-percentage moves and dropknees and you have to grab these pockets right. All in all, it is a problem of resistance. I had to to the first part fast and it had to feel easy. Thats what it pretty much did in the end. But it didn‘t go so easily. I spent three days this year on it to figure out the moves again and to give some tries. And everything was very exciting as I felt massive progress in power and resistance and general fitness compared to last year. So I went up on Tuesday to finish it off. But that was a very bad decision to await success. I always get nervous when I want it too much. So all the tries became pretty shaky and i made mistakes. Until the last go. The sixth. I was too tired to expect anything. But I had a very strong feeling when I did the first move. And the rest of the story is a classic flow-experience. So i can‘t remember what i did or felt. I just know that I got the the rest very very exhausted. And during the rest, I coul‘nt recover as I expected. So I just had to go for it. All in or nothing. I felt like a haunted while sprinting up the last meters. And i did it. Nothing happened. I just yelled but only for a few seconds. Too tired. I fell in the rope and almost passed out. I never had such a go in my climbing before.”