40-Year-Old Dani Andrada Sends 5.15a/b
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November 16, 2015 – Dani Andrada has redpointed Chilam Balam in Villanueva del Rosario, Spain, completing the fourth ascent of the 80-meter route. The 40-year-old climber spent about an hour climbing the route’s 235 moves, taking advantage of two dozen knee-bar rests along the way.
Chilam Balam was first climbed in 2003 by Bernabé Fernández, who gave the climb a 9b+ (5.15c) rating, then the hardest in the world. Adam Ondra made the second ascent in 2011, and French climber Seb Bouin repeated it earlier this year. Both called the route “soft” 9b, or roughly 5.15a/b.
Andrada, who has been climbing since age 12 and is one of the most influential and prolific first ascensionists in Spain, has previously put several climbs of this difficulty, and he agreed with a rating of hard 9a+ or 9a+/b. More importantly, as he told Desnivel, Chilam Balam is “possibly the most beautiful route I’ve done and the best in the world.”
At his Instagram page, Andrada wrote, “Don’t stop dreaming, sometimes dreams come true.”