David right before setting off for the famous dyno in „La Rambla“ (c) Iuliia Leonova

The two weeks trip to Siurana turned out to be a very successful one. After a couple of days of working on „La Rambla“ David could finally tick his first 9a+ ever. And right before leaving he finished the trip with a quick ascent of „La Reina Mora“, just next to La Rambla.

The trip to Catalonia was originally planned together with Ruben over New Year. But just before David got a foot injury which made it impossible for him to go. So he had to shift his climbing in Catalonia to February.

The main objective of the trip was to send La Rambla. In January David started to train for the upcoming bouldering season. Together with his coach Urs Stöcker he put up a new training plan in Zurich. Since the trip to Catalonia was actually planned earlier he didn’t train his endurance specifically. Instead he’d done a lot of maximum and explosive strength exercises in the gyms around Zurich and spent 3 days bouldering in Fontainebleau where he did some milestones of the history in bouldering, such as „Karma“ (Fb 8A), „La Merveille“ (Fb 8A+) and „Partage“ (Fb 8A+). All of them are very technical and tricky. True Fontainebleau style which everyone knows who has been to this magical bouldering area once.

Well, it was the first time that David has been to Catalonia in February. It is calmer than over New Year (not so many climbers). He stayed in a nice apartment of „La Vileta“ which is run by very friendly Catalonian locals, close to the main square of Cornudella de Montsant, the village underneath Siurana. Cornudella is pretty rural, mainly inhabited by farmers’ families who live from the surrounding olive, nut and wine fields. When you go climbing or walk around in the countryside you notice its beautiful landscape and nature. In the karst there are numerous caves. Dry and rocky areas dominate with a low vegetation of herbs, shrubs and pines. There are many rare species of wild animals. Because of their trustfulness robins often accompany you when climbing.

Dad feeding a robin who came to take a look if we don’t make any troubles at the crag

Because of its 9a+ difficulty La Rambla has been a new challenge for David. It is a long (around 45 meters), overhanging and technical route. It has got a famous name in the climbing scene. First ascended by Alex Huber to a lower anchor and extended by Ramón Julián Puigblanque to the actual top. It first kicks off with a technical crack followed by more powerful and pumpy moves with a unique jump in the middle to a rest before the hardest and most bouldery part at the end.

Some years ago David did already „El Rastro“ and „Broadway“, two lines which share at least half of the route with La Rambla, so that he already knew the lower part. On the first day he once checked out the moves, brushed and tick-marked the holds and gave it a good try where he already fell in the last and hardest part at the top. There are 4 compression moves on round side holds and crimps which easily spit you off when too pumped after around 35 meters of climbing approximately 8c to this point.

David shaking out his arms before he attacks the redpoint crux of „La Rambla“ (c) Iuliia Leonova

After this good first day of projecting David struggled some days with bad skin (especially the pockets literally ate the side skin of his fingers). Not the best conditions to send hard stuff. During these days he always fell on a certain and probably the hardest move in the route at the top from an open side hold into a small undercling which you have to catch close to your chest after you’ve reached out longly. In the past years such failures (falling on the same move without getting any higher) sometimes awakened negative thoughts and frustration in David. But meanwhile he can manage his mind set well. This time he didn’t really care about these failures and took it easy.

To be honest, every time you fall and reflect what mistake you’ve done you somehow have a progress in your project. It does not always have to be that you’ve got some moves higher but that you have adapted your beta or optimized your clipping positions and rest points for example. It is actually a failure itself to think that there is no progression at all although you keep on falling on the same move.

„It will happen sooner or later“ was David’s devise and he kept on trying with confidence and mental coolness. In the end it took him some 6 days of work to finally stuck the last hard move and top out his first 9a+ ever.

Keep smiling although projecting might be frustrating sometimes – that works wonders (c) Iuliia Leonova

So, La Rambla represents a new dimension in his climbing and now it feels like that there are more years of personal progress in climbing still to come. There must be a reason why the years between 20 and 30 are called „The Golden Twenties“ in climbing The main task will probably be to keep the mental coolness alive and to work on the maximum strength, mainly in bouldering and in the gym.

Right before David had to leave Siurana to head back home to Switzerland he wanted to use his fitness to dedicate to „La Reina Mora“ which has the same crack start and the same top-out with La Rambla but a more crimpy and sustained middle section. It is the real straight-up on this part of the wall. Falling two times on the last hard move in the end was a bit annoying but he had chosen a not optimal beta and when he optimized this it went down first go of the day and the finish of the trip couldn’t have been sweeter. La Reina Mora might be one of the most beautiful climbs in whole Catalonia.

David working himself up the crack of „La Reina Mora“ (c) Jon Cardwell

David is happy to return back to Switzerland again to prepare for the upcoming bouldering competitions and rock climbings in Switzerland. University lectures start as well again and it is great to come back home to reload batteries for the next challenges which climbing always has to offer in a brilliant way.

Thanks to Iuliia Leonova and Jon Caldwell for their nice pictures and to our sponsors Scarpa, Haglöfs, Friction Labs, Escaladrome Hannover and the DAV section Rhineland-Cologne for the amazing support lately. As the Spanish climbers say: A Muerte!!!

We hope you also like the short article and the pics down below. They were originally published on the Hompage of the Escaladrome. We have translated the text into English as we believe it gives a good summary about our climbing achievements in 2016. For more details please click to our Instagram, Facebook, YouTube or 8a.nu (David, Ruben) accounts.

Let’s crush together in 2017!

From North to South and setting high



By Simon Lenke, David Firnenburg and Susanne Lieberknecht

Despite their young age, David and Ruben Firnenburg already belong to the climbing elite. No matter if it is bouldering or sport climbing, on rock or at competition, their name is often ranked top in the end. In recent years, the two native Hanoverians have achieved national and international success in climbing.



At the age of 5 and 6 years, during a family holiday in Northern Italy, they discovered their enthusiasm for climbing. Assisted by their parents and the climbing scene in northern Germany they got to learn climbing with passion. After their A levels they first traveled around the world. A year ago then, they moved to Zurich, Switzerland. Their choice of living in this new place is not a matter of coincidence: „Here we can combine studying and training very well and there are only short distances to the rock climbing hot spots in the Alps“, David explains.

In spite of this big step to Switzerland, they both agree that they will not let disrupt their connection to Hanover over the new distance. „We will keep in touch with the North – especially with the Escaladrome, the home and hot spot of bouldering in Hanover, and our family“, Ruben says.

For both, the highlights of the international competition season occurred in the second half of the year. Ruben achieved a strong third place in the combined format of bouldering, lead and speed at the Juniors’ World Championships in Guangzhou in November. And David also secured a bronze medal in the same format at the World Championships in Paris in September. The combined triple will be the future competition format of the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020, where climbing will be Olympic for the first time as one of five new sports. Ruben and David are thrilled and see good chances to qualify for this important sport event. But that’s not all: David just missed the podium at the Boulder World Cup in Munich in summer, but secured a strong fourth place. In September Ruben crowned his competition year 2016 with a victory at the German Championship of sport climbing in Neu-Ulm, where David achieved the third place.

Also rock climbing went very well – despite the long and strenuous competition season last year. Thus, David could send the legendary „Action Directe“ (9a) in Frankenjura, one of his proudest achievements so far. „Topping out „Action Directe“ once in my life has always been a dream for me. This year, on the 25th anniversary of the route, this dream came true“, David says.

Ruben’s big project by the beginning of last year was the long and overhanging „Selecció Natural“ (9a) in the huge cave of Santa Linya in Catalonia/Spain. Right at the end of the year he started a new try ascending the route, but he had to realize that a number of decisive holds had broken out in the meantime. For the time being, he changed his project to the left and ticked „Analogica Natural“ (9a) shortly after Christmas. Completely free and self-confident, he then succeeded during the last day of 2016, on December 31th, being finally able to send „Selecció Natural“. These were two 9a’s in just four days. What an end of the year on rock for him!

Though, for David and Ruben the sports year 2016 began with the famous HardMoves Boulder league event. Together with eight other athletes of the Escaladrome Hanover the two brothers qualified for the final and then took a strong second place in the “Swimming Opera” of Wuppertal. „The HardMoves is probably the coolest fun competition for me at all. I like it very much that my own performance is not the focus, but the one of the whole team. And the team of the Escaladrome is just great. Everyone is passionate and dedicated, they help and cheer you up the wall, and the fan community from Hanover is simply undescribable. It is always an event full of tensions and emotions. I’m looking forward to next time! „, David reports.

We would like to congratulate and wish all the best to the two Firnenburgbrothers also for 2017!