Black Bean 8b

Black Bean is a bolted sport route on the cliffs of Céüse in France, graded 8b, in the Biographie sector of the crag. It is normally climbed clipping bolts like any other pitch at Céüse. In 2011, French climber Arnaud Petit climbed it instead using traditional protection, placing gear as he went up a wall built for bolts, turning an established sport pitch into a trad testpiece for a single ascent.

History

Bruno Clément opened Black Bean as a bolted route. In 2011, Arnaud Petit set out to climb it on natural protection instead of clipping the existing bolts, a project documented on film by Bertrand Delapierre. Petit said afterward that few routes at Céüse would protect as well with gear as Black Bean did, calling it magic that a limestone wall of that size could go on natural placements. The ascent was notable less for the route's grade than for the style: reframing an established sport pitch as a trad line changes the decisions a climber makes about resting, clipping points and body position throughout the pitch.

On film

Arnaud Petit Climbs Black Bean 8b with Natural Pro in Céüse (2011), directed by Bertrand Delapierre, documents Petit's ascent of the route on placed gear rather than the bolts it was equipped with. The film follows him working out where to protect the pitch and how doing so changes the climbing itself on ground built for a sport ascent.