Arnaud Petit Takes Comp Climbers for New Big Wall

Top French climbers Arnaud Petit and Jonathan Crison have established Soavadia with a team of strong competition climbers in a program established by the French Federation of Mountaineering and Climbing.

Arnaud guided the young climbers in how to rig a big wall for free climbing and how to spend time on a monster project.

The climbers included Dora Sulinger, Manon Barnier, Tom Durel, Tristan Roguiez, Robin Valet, Julien Forgue, Gaël Bouquet des Chaux.

The new 600-metre 5.13a climbs the big Tsaranoro Atsimo in Madagascar and climbs parallel to existing line from 2017.

The team took nearly a week to establish and work the route before sending it. Unlike most big wall route, the bolts are close enough together that you don’t feel like you’ll take a 50-footer at every crux.

Opening a line on the big Tsaranoro walls was a dream for me and that’s exactly what we are doing now with the @ffme_rocaventure team. Guiding and sharing such beautiful projects is a true privilege. Thank you @dorasulinger @manonbarnier @julienforgue @robin_vlt @roguieztristan @tomdurel and guides #jonathancrison #gaelbouquetdeschaux ? for your motivation and @ffmontagne_escalade to have put up this program for competition climbers who wants to discover something different. We are all super psyched with the line and the summit is close !

A post shared by Arnaud Petit (@arnaudpetit_climb) on Jun 21, 2018 at 11:58am PDT

Petit wrote on Instagram, “Long, sustained, beautiful. On this unique featured granite made for face climbing, with a surreal bivy spot in the middle – for the ones who wants to enjoy even more the wall: I have the feeling Soavadia put up in six days by our team will become a classic. Thank you to Amélie Bonnet, who drew us the mountain.”

Petit was one of Europe’s best competition climbers back in the 1990s with a number of big wins to his name. This is not his first time to Tsaranoro and has freed old aid routes.

Having a team that takes young competition climbers away from the gym and up onto big walls is a great way to get the next generation of strong climbers excited for their own projects in the future.

A post shared by Arnaud Petit (@arnaudpetit_climb) on Jun 24, 2018 at 7:28am PDT