★ Action Directe 11

The world's first UIAA 11 (8c+/ 9a) and today considered a benchmark for 9a.

The original route bolted by Milan Sykora traversed in from the right, but Güllich bolted a more direct start that consisted of crux dynamic move to a two-finger pocket.

The route is named after a French far-left terrorist group which was active between 1979 and 1987, murdering 12 people and injuring 26. Apparently the inspiration for the name came during training for the route (including mono campusing) as it appeared to Wolfgang that the intense training required was an act of terror against his fingers. It was also a fitting name for the direct start Wolfgang had bolted.

It took 11 days of efforts for Wolfgang to free the short (5 bolts / 15m) but powerful route, which he did using a 16-move sequence on September 14 1991. The route has seen about 20 repeats after the first ascent by Wolfgang Güllich †.

The fastest redpoint to date was by Alex Megos who sent the route in just 2 hours. He has repeated the route 4 more times since.

Ascents

• Alexander Adler on 9 September 1995
• Iker Pou on 7 June 2000
• Dave Graham on 21 May 2001
• Christian Bindhammer on 14 May 2003
• Rich Simpson on 13 October 2005 (ascent has been questioned by UKC, and many other climbing sites.
• Dai Koyamada on 15 October 2005
• Markus Bock on 22 October 2005
• Kilian Fischhuber on 25 September 2006
• Adam Ondra on 19 May 2008
• Patxi Usobiaga on 24 October 2008
• Gabriele Moroni on 17 April 2010
• Jan Hojer on 22 May 2010
• Adam Pustelnik on 10 October 2010
• Felix Knaub on 22 October 2011
• Rustam Gelmanov on 26 March 2012
• Alexander Megos on 3 May 2014
• Felix Neumärker on 16 May 2015
• Julius Westphal on 25 June 2015
• Stefano Carnati, 2016
• David Firnenburg, 2016
• Stephan Vogt, 2017
• Simon Lorenzi, 2017
• Said Belhaj, 2018 (ascent is being questioned, belayer unknown)
• Stefan Scarperi, 2018
• Adrian Chmiała, 2019
• Melissa Le Nevé, 2020 First female ascent
• Philipp Gaßner, 2021
• Buster Martin, 2022
• Marco Zanone, 2022
• Vojtěch Trojan on May 2023
• Moritz Welt on 13 October 2023
• Stefano Ghisolfi on 4 November 2023

• The limestone is soft – please clean your shoes from dirt in order to avoid polished handholds and steps.
• Don't toprope directly through bolts – use your own material.
• Clean chalk and tickmarks with a brush.
• Don't leave toilet paper.
• Pick up rubbish.
• No unnecessary noise.
• No camp fire and bivvy.
• Park considerately (tractor should be able to pass also at the weekend).
• Smoking in the forests is forbidden from March 1 until October 31 by law.
• No publishing of boulder blocks.