Flor and Kinder, 9a+ generations

Jonatan and Joel on their projs

Jonatan Flor and Joe Kinder on their 9a +.

In 2022, following a huge surge after the 2000s, several climbers managed to alternate on 9a pitches, making the magical grade "less magical". With Adam Ondra's sixteen hundred and passes 9as, Megos 9as onsight, 9as climbed on weekends by the no-pros, etc., we would expect more people on the higher grades, but the gap closes a lot. Two climbers who are not afraid of going beyond the novea are the two protagonists of today's news.

Jonatan Flor, born in 1996, is one of the strongest Iberian climbers. Despite not being as famous as an Andrada, the number of grade 9 pitches he has climbed is appalling. In the last period the Spaniard is particularly active in the Cuenca area and, dedicating himself to Following the leader as main project, allows himself some breaks on the "easier" routes. Right here he climbed Seta Iberica, a line of 9a+ that Jonatan considers just easier than the famous Cordia Maleficarum, climbed a short time ago.

Separated for about twenty years, Joel Kinder is another one who is getting married with pitches beyond 9a. Its peculiarity is the desire to try new projects, the result is a huge number of extreme FAs. Even his latest exploits refer to an extreme FA, a creation of his spiked during the pandemic. Joel has in fact recently freed Mamajama, a pitch that he defines as "hard as fuck" (aka very demanding) and for which he proposes the grade of 9a+, evaluating it as one of the most difficult pitches climbed in his prolific career.

From athletes’ IG page

Alessandro Palma