Chris Sharma back to the future on Magie blanche at Mouriès

In 1986, the climbing scene in France included some of the world's strongest climbers. One of them, Marc Le Menestrel, established an extremely hard route, Magie Blanche, at one of the country's premier crags at the time, Mouriès. After making several attempts he was unable to redpoint the route, and only in 1989 did another Frenchman, Didier Raboutou, finally send what would become one of the very first 8b+ (5.14a).

Intrigued by the stories of his friend Marc Le Menestrel, on October 16 this year Chris Sharma - the undisputed top climbers of climbing the past 15 years - travelled to Mouriès to try this slab for himself.