In October XNUMX, Swedish climber Said Belhaj announced the redpoint ascent of the historically significant XNUMXa, Action Directe, in Frankenjura. The German Hannes Huch doubts the ascent of Action Directe and other routes.
In a recent blog article, Hannes Huch accuses the Swedish climber Said Belhaj of claiming ascents of routes, he never actually made. LACRUX has contacted Said but has not received a response so far. Hannes Huch writes in his article, he doesn't believe in the ascents because of the following reasons:
- Hannes accompanied Said on two tries to make a movie about the route Action Directe and Said as a climber. In these tries Said was miles away from climbing only from bolt to bolt, according to Hannes Huch.
- The belay partner, with who Said mostly was climbing in the route Action Directe also said that Said never made the famous jump of the route in autumn 2018.
- Even during a photo session with Ray Demski Said apparently never managed to do the jump.
- Hannes Huch ask Said for information about the person who belayed him during the successful ascent. After ten days Said replied that he does not know the person personally, but got in contact via instagram. The profile of the person seems to be gone, so he can not find the person anymore.
As Hannes writes to LACRUX, further inspections by Said would also be doubted. People from Said's closest circle of friends also had doubts about his inspections. As an outsider it is difficult to classify the topic and we believe in the principle "in dubio pro reo". Anyone with information about the incident is welcome to send it to our editorial team.
About Said Belhaj
Said Belhaj is a Swedish professional climber and is sponsored by Petzl, La Sportiva, Patagonia, Friction Labs and many other companies. Said got in touch with climbing as a child and for ten years participated in international competitions as a member of the Swedish national team. Said Belhaj is dedicated to various climbing disciplines, including bouldering, sport climbing and bigwall climbing. His most recent ascents include the sport climbing route Papichulo (9a +) in Oliana, the trad route Cobra Crack (5.14) in Squamish and Trip Tik Tonik in Gorges du Loup.
The blog article with the accusations
In the following blog article Hannes Huch explains in detail why he does not believe in the ascent of the route Action Directe by Said Belhaj.
find it somehow unprofessional about it now to report (even with question marks), before more light was thrown on the matter. If the allegations are not true, it still depends on him ....
Now"?
If I understood Hannes Huch correctly, it was over a year ago. There were several attempts to get receipts or confirmations for the "send".
Since you can never prove that someone has not done something (unless you have a movement profile perhaps), there will always be a question mark on release.
When you climb yourself, you know the feeling when planning a route. You think about it 24/7, about the trains - the handles - the rest - the bolts. On the day on which the route then commits, one would like to have everyone with them who push you and are happy with you. If there is a Hannes Huch who wants to film the whole thing - incredibly awesome!
When the project is then called Action Directe, as in this case, I find it very dubious to master the final climb in a night and fog action with an unknown belayer that you got to know on Instagram. Hannes Huch, who only had to travel 30 minutes away, would not have to give notice - and to forego great video material.
If it had actually been so, and “a couple of Czechs” had filmed me, I would ask IMMEDIATELY to send me the video.
These are so many discrepancies that simply indicate that this visit never took place. Pity for climbing.
“As Hannes writes in his article and to LACRUX, further inspections by Said would also be questioned. "
I read that in the article. After all, are they serious allegations ?!