French climber Seb Bouin has sent “The Dream” 9b in Brar, Albania. Originally bolted around October 2018 by Adam Ondra but never sent. A huge 50 metre line consisting of non-stop tufas with some ‘fun’ looking knee bar rests.
“The Dream” 9b is of one eleven new routes that Adam Ondra and his team put up when they visited the Brar canyon crag near Tirana, Albania late last year. Adam also bolted and then made the First Ascent of another route called “Four For Glory” 8c at the canyon. You can watch Adam bolting and sending these new routes as well as trying “The Dream” in the video below from 14:05. He only had two days to climb it as part of a massive Balkans road trip.
With this route Seb Bouin is definitely the hardest outdoor sport climber of 2019. He started trying the route in November but had fallen at the crux a few times after battling wet and slimy tufas, and cutting his finger open on the route. Seb and his team (his awesome Mum is with him!) have been around the capital of Tirana looking for new crags and routes to develop for the last few weeks. Expect more hard routes and development from Seb as this area seems to be full of brilliant, climbable rock.
Bouin also bolted and sent route he called “La Rage d’Adam” earlier this year in the Verdon Gorge, grading it 9b/+. It became the hardest sport route in France – the birthplace of Sport climbing. He also sent the 9b Adam Ondra route “Move” in the Flatanger cave where the hardest sport climb in the world “Silence” 9c is, and repeated “Mamichula” 9b, another Ondra route which is a linkup of Papichulo and Pachamama – two classic 9a+ Chris Sharma routes.
