Fred Rouhling

Fred Rouhling, born in 1970, is a French rock climber and boulderer noted for creating and repeating some of the earliest grade 9a (5.14d) sport climbing routes in the world. He grew up in the farming town of Le Panissaud near Angouleme and was already climbing 8b by the age of nineteen. In the early 1990s he made the first ascent of UFO, the first 8c in the Calanques, and climbed Les Specialistes Direct in the Verdon Gorge. In 1993 he created Hugh at Eaux-Claires, the first 9a route in France, later repeated by Dai Koyamada and Sebastien Bouin. He is also known for the controversy over Akira, a 1995 route in the Vilhonneur quarry that he proposed as 9b, which would have been the first route of that grade; about twenty five years later it was graded 9a. He has also spoken about the practice of chipping holds in French climbing.