Charles Albert

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Charles Albert is one of the worlds best and most particular boulderers. Charles ability is hard to define on paper due to his unique choice in style: he typically climbs without the use of chalk, climbing shoes, and kneepads. In this style Charles is undoubtedly a master with no one repeating any of his boulders in the the same style as he climbed them.

Charles is notable for his hard first ascents, for example La Révolutionnaire Assis 8C+/V16 and Hypothèse Assis 8C+/V16. In 2018 Charles did the first ascent of No Kpote Only in which he proposed the grade of 9A/V17, however this was downgraded by both Ryohei Kameyama and Nico Pelorson. Though these ascentionists did use shoes despite the translated name being "Bareback Only".

In 2023 Charles did the first ascent of L’Ombre du Voyageur for which he proposed 9A/V17 after spending 60 sessions to complete the problem. He commented that he thought it would be 9A+/V18 for the style he did it in, without shoes or knee pads, but suggested the lower grade for an ascent in a more typical style.

Lucien Martinez:

In Font, many times I saw Charles Albert do things so out of this world I would have called them impossible without having been a witness. Like flash FAs or in a handful of runs of 8A on a move that no one else can get anywhere near, or 7B slabs in trainers by simply annihilating miserable grains of sand with his nails… [1]

References

[1] https://fanatic-climbing.com/interview-lucien-martinez-irreductible-acharne-interview-lucien-martinez-inveterate-and-tenacious/

[2] Reel Rock 16: Barefoot Charles https://www.redbull.com/int-en/episodes/reel-rock-s8-e2

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVSC9vIb-PU

[4] https://www.8a.nu/news/qa-with-charles-albert-6net8