Anak Verhoeven frees Kraftio, the hardest climb in Belgium dedicated to Chloé Graftiaux

Anak Verhoeven has also been taking full advantage of the cancellation of all climbing competitions and yesterday in Belgium she made the first ascent of a bouldery line that follows Bonsai, a difficult 8c freed last year by compatriot Simon Lorenzi, before continuing past a second bouldery crux to the top.

Verhoeven had repeated Bonsai a few days ago and her first free ascent came faster than she had expected, so much so that she has put forward the grade 8c+/9a and not full-blown 9a as she had initially hoped.

In any case, the new route is hardest in the country. More important though is the fact that it’s named Kraftio, a tribute to Belgian climber Chloé Graftiaux who died tragically while descending from Aiguille Noire de Peuterey in the Mont Blanc massif in 2010. Graftiaux was Belgian sports climbing champion and had won several stages of the Bouldering World Cup, but she also climbed ice, big walls, and up in the high mountains. She was only 23, as old as Anak is now.

Link: anakverhoeven.be, Petzl, La Sportiva

View this post on Instagram

Send day! I’ve climbed The Project . More info coming soon! ⠀⠀ : @johnjanssens ⠀⠀ . @lasportivagram #lasportiva @lecomte.alpirando #equipetapassion @rhinoskinsolutions #skinabusespecialists @xcultclimbing #xcultclimbing @xcultusa @petzl_official #petzlbenelux @frigyesvandenauweele @climbforhim . #climbing #rockclimbing #escalade #klettern #sportklimmen #climb #outdoors #climbinginbelgium #belgianrock

A post shared by Anak Verhoeven (@anak.verhoeven) on Jun 4, 2020 at 2:38am PDT