Seb Bouin makes first ascent of Supreme Jumbo Love F9b+
- Friday 4th November 2022
Days after making the fourth ascent of Jumbo Love (F9b) at Clark Mountain, Seb Bouin has added the hard direct start to give Supreme Jumbo Love (F9b+).
“Some special moments up there, in the cold and the wind. There was whole lotta love for climbing, the place, the people around, and this desert.” Seb said after completing the first ascent of the monstrous 70m route, now the hardest route in the Americas.
Jumbo Love, originally bolted by Randy Leavitt in the 90’s, was first climbed by Chris Sharma in 2008. Subsequently, Ethan Pringle and Jonathan Siegrist made the second and third ascents in 2015 and 2016 respectively. Chris Sharma then went on to try the direct on Jumbo Love – a line originally bolted by Jorge Visser and known as Supreme Jumbo Love – in 2010 but left it incomplete.
Remarkably, Seb’s repeat of Jumbo Love – the fourth overall and the first by a non-American – was achieved after just ten days of climbing! Reporting his ascent of Jumbo Love in late October, Seb confirmed that he was invested in the direct start; “My overarching objective would be to do the Direct variation of Jumbo Love.”
Three days ago Seb confirmed he had climbed through the direct start but then fell on the crux of Jumbo Love. Writing on-line Seb summed up his thoughts on the direct saying, “I am definitely surprised by the quality of this direct start. It's a logical line. I would say, it's the line. And it's really fun.” Seb know however that he would have to be ‘on his game’ to get the first ascent of the direct start saying, “The first time I made it through the direct start, it was my third try of the day. I was definitely too spent to have any chance on the main Jumbo Love section. I knew I had to do the direct and the Jumbo Love crux on the first try if I wanted to have a chance on the pumpy Jumbo Love section.”
At that stage however, Seb speculated on the likely grading of the direct start saying, “It can definitely be a 9a / 5.14d route.”
Yesterday, Seb successfully climbed the entire line making the first ascent of Supreme Jumbo Love. Seb outlined the whole route saying, “The effort is really long, adding 20 metres of hard climbing before the crux of Jumbo Love. Followed by the second part of Jumbo Love which is really physical and pumpy. The icing on the cake is the last slab of 20m. A tricky slab where you have to know what you do. I almost fell on the slab...
“The route is around 70m and the hardest part of this route is to combine everything. The first 9a is quite tricky, and it's easy to fall, even if you have the power. Then you have this Jumbo Love crux, where it's definitely possible to fall even if you have the power (missing the one finger pocket).Then you need this fresh energy to link all the pumpy part to reach the lip of the overhang. The last slab is not that hard, but if you are done, and you don't know it quite well... you can easily fall there too.”
Summing up his trip said Seb said, “Finishing this trip by sending the direct start couldn't be more perfect.” He added, “Sometime everything just comes together, shape, conditions, vibes, friends, cameraman, luck… I know it doesn't happen that often, and I am very grateful to live such big moments.”
Having discussed the project with Chris Sharma Seb reflected on the grade of Supreme Jumbo Love Seb saying, “After discussing my feeling about the grade with him [Chris Sharma], the 9b+/5.15c feels appropriate for this one.” Seb’s first ascent of Supreme Jumbo Love in what is a relatively short time frame is in stark contrast to his first ascent of DNA (F9c) at Ramirole, France which – as we previously reported here – took him around 150 days to climb spread over the last few years!
Follow Seb on his Instagram page here.