Controversial Send of Action Directe 5.14d Resurfaces
Said Belhaj said that he climbed the famous Frankenjura line, but other climbers said he lied about it. Hear what Belhaj has to say
In 2019, Said Belhaj claimed that he climbed Action Directe 5.14d in Frankenjura. Fellow climber Hannes Huch publicly called Belhaj out for lying about the ascent, saying he never completed a redpoint.
The first ascent was in 1991 by Wolfgang Gullich, who graded it 5.14c/d but is now considered the first 5.14d. It has long dynamic moves off small holds and a dynamic start into a two-finger pocket. Güllich invented the campus board to train the specific strength needed for Frankenjura.
Action Directe was bolted by Milan Sykora in the 1980s with a start from the neighbouring line to the right. Güllich used a 16-move sequence and a more direct start with a dynamic jump than originally planned. It took him 11 days of projecting to redpoint it. Dai Koyamada used a different sequence with only 11 moves. It’s been climbed nearly 30 times.
In the video below, Belhaj talks about whether or not he climbed Action Directe and the controversy surrounding it. In 2017, Belhaj made the 13th ascent of Cobra Crack 5.14a in Squamish, read about it here.
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