Pepa Šindel, Classified 9a/+ & Modified 9a+

Our team climber Pepa Šindel had a very strong spring, which he crowned in May with two brutal lines in Franknejura, Germany. In the span of two weeks, he added Classified 9a/+ and Modified 9a+ to his scorecard. Check out the videos on Pepa’s Instagram, and scroll down for a short interview we did with him afterwards.

Classified was first climbed by Alex Megos in 2013, with Adam Ondra making the first Czech repeat in 2015. Pepa practiced this extreme route full of small, painful pockets last year and sent it this May on the third attempt. 

Modified is a more difficult variant of Classified, which starts a little further to the right. Alex Megos was again the first to climb it in 2014, and Adam Ondra repeated it in 2015. For Pepa, it was another obvious challenge after Classified. The route gave him a hard time, but after a series of attempts, he finally succeeded on the second trip, and thus Pepa added a second 9a+ to his account (the first was Chiroptera in 2022, when Pepa was 15 years old).

We take our hats off to him and look forward to his next achievements. 👏🎩 If you're interested in what harness and rope Pepa uses, he flies to the heights with the ROCKET 🚀 and is protected from gravity by the DNA. 🧬 Want to know what Pepa told us about those climbs and what he plans to do next? After repeating Modified, he answered a few questions for us. 👇

First of all, congrats on another 9a+ send! What made you choose these two routes in Frankenjura?

• Thanks a lot! I actually picked them out already last year because I thought they might suit me, as they involve climbing on small pockets. Both routes (Classified and Modified) are basically identical, except for the different starts. It's 8b+ climbing that leads to a not-so-great rest, followed by a very difficult boulder at the last quickdraw, which is about 8A+.

When you compare Modified and Chiroptera, do the routes have anything in common? Which one suited you better?

• When I think about it, the routes are quite similar. Both are overhanging pocket hell. Chiroptera definitely suited me better at that age, because now I might not be able to fit my fingers into those pockets like I could before, when I was smaller.

Do you feel you've progressed since your first 9a+?

• Definitely. Back then, I was smaller and way weaker. Since then, I’ve grown, gotten stronger, and climbed several 9a routes which have definitely improved my climbing. 

What about injuries, are you able to avoid them? How do you try to prevent them?

• Unfortunately, I can't avoid injuries. With the aforementioned growth, I had initial stress fractures in my middle fingers. But thanks to early diagnosis and physical therapy (Fyzio Gym Cooper), I took a month-long break and now my fingers are in good shape.
  
  Currently, my knee is bothering me. At Easter, I unfortunately tore my inner meniscus on the route Janus 9a+ in Frankenjura. So now I climb more carefully and avoid heel hooks and twisting my legs in routes and during training. That's why Classified and Modified were such great choices – no heel hooks, no leg twisting. To prevent injuries, I try to exercise and compensate under the guidance of Fyzio Gym Cooper. 

What’s next? Will you try to raise the bar to 9b, or focus more on consolidating 9a and 9a+?

• I'd like to tackle some 9b routes this year... Clash of the Titans in Nassereith, Austria, is on my radar. But I've also recently started a new project in Krpcovo, Slovakia, which I think will definitely be a difficult 9a+ or even 9b. So, we'll see ;)

Congrats again, and keep crushing! 🤘⬆️