Posté en tant qu’invité par source:
L’éditorial de Desnivel traduit en anglais : source http://novebi.ning.com/group/villanuevadelrosario/forum/topics/chilam-balam
:- Editorial of Desnivel No. 205, 12/03 by José Mendieta
" Chilam Balam / Estar en la altura
To verify information is a basic duty of the public media and we don´t put this under question! In sports there are two ways to verify an information: either there is a journalist present or there are eye-witnesses, which verify, what has happened. Just because of the very special characteristics of the climbing world, the climbing media do have another source of information: to report, what the protagonists say, because the journalist only can report “what has happened there without being there”. But in the absence of solid information one needs at least convincing information. Let´s analyze the situation in search of facts, proofs and witnesses.
The day of the ascent
When we asked Bernabe, he answered that on that day he was belayed by Josellilo de Anteqera. Bernabe wasn´t willing to give further information. Not, not any other journalist (as we know), was able to locate Josellilo. Then, it was told us that he traveled to Great Britain and that he didn´t return.
During the preparation
Traditionally, Bernabé doesn´t climb with climbers of similar strength as well as he doesn´t climb with local climbers. For that reason, nobody could tell anything about the progress on the route. These witnesses would help us to get an idea about what was going on. And normaly the climbers know about how the others progress in their projects and this is not because of keeping the others under observance, but because it´s simply normal! But Bernabé was belayed only by beginners.
His previous ascents
Bernabé bases his own credibility in his previous ascents of 8c+ (Mojave), 9a and 9a+ (Orujo), each being the first of its grade in Spain. The fact that Ramonet has confirmed the grade 8c+ of Mojave, does not prove the ascent of Chilam Balam, a route, which should be 9b+. And similar to Chilam Balam, the local climbers show skepticism when it comes to speak about Orujo: they couldn´t see Bernabé making progress in this project. But what´s known very well is that Bernab´s chopped natural(!) holds after his ascent for which he proposed the grade 9a. Then again he chopped holds, two of the three artificial holds, and then he proposed the grade 9a+. For sure, these facts do not deliver any convincing information.
After the ascent
Daniel Andrada went to Chilam Balam with the same interest as he would try any other hard route. What Dani thought about Bernabés ascent was, that “when he said that he made it, then that should be the truth.” What he could see was that it is difficult, the protection is wild, some runouts look even almost dangerous – surprising that you would go there only belayed by beginners, but still possible. But, above all, he could see that the finish of the climb – a long and runout boulder sequence between two bolts – does not show the typical signs (mainly rubber on footholds, chalk marks, magnesia on the holds) which should remain after working climbing a project for years.
All these things are there. We have the right and we even have the obligation to inform the public about these things. Bernabé told us now that, after all the polemics, we made him loosing the interest in climbing. On the other side, he told us from the very first moment after announcing the world´s first 9b+ that he would stop climbing at high level. Nobody asked him to announce the world´s first 9b+, but – yes – we would like to ask him to meet the height of his own proposal. "
