Der Norweger Sindre Sæther holt sich die 5. bzw.  6. Begehung der Route „Chilam Balam“ (9b) im spanischen Klettergebiet Villanueva del Rosario. Sindre verbrachte 85 Projekttage verteilt über 3 Jahre in der Route. Für Sindre war es die erste Route im Grad 9a+ oder härter.

Bernabé wollte die Route im Jahr 2003 geklettert haben und bewertete sie damals mit 9b+. Da damals die Topkletterer gerade mal 9a+ klettern konnten, kamen bald Zweifel auf.  Zudem Bernabé davor und danach keine annähernd gleich schwere Routen geklettert war. Für seine Erstbegehung gab es auch keine Zeugen und auch keinerlei Videomaterial.

Im 2011 gelang Adam Ondra nach drei Projekttagen die zweite Begehung bzw. Erstbegehung dieser  80 Meter langen Tour. Adam bewertete die Route mit Grad 9b und hielt aber auch eine Begehung durch Bernabé Fernández 2003 für möglich.

„In total Sindre invested 85 climbing days over 3 years in Chilam Balam either working parts, doing link-ups consisting of parts of the route, building fitness on the route after long forced breaks or having attempts on the route. In the end, he got to the last bolt of the route 15 times before sending and climbed the first 8c+ part 35 times.

The time was spent mainly mid-winter (between November and February) in a lot of cold, wet and humid conditions. In 2018 he only got to try from the ground 5 days as the route was more or less constantly wet despite spending somewhere between 3-4 months in Villanueva that year.

Sindre is in Norway known for his bigwall achievements, having freeclimbed a lot of hard aidlines in the Trollwall (most unrepeated), as well as Tsunami A4 (now 8a+) on Kjerag, as well as many other walls in Norway and around the world.

That is not to say that Sindre isn´t an accomplished sport climbers as well, but since he isn´t on any social media and doesn’t say much about what he does most people know very little about what he has climbed. If my count is correct Chilam marks his 6th route 9a or harder, the hardest before Chilam being La Novena Enmienda in Santa Linya in 2016.“