Jorge Díaz-Rullo Proposes 5.15d for Café Colombia

On March 13, Spanish climber Jorge Díaz-Rullo made the first ascent of his long-term project Café Colombia at the Racó de la Finestra crag in Margalef, Spain, bringing to life a line that had defined his climbing for years. After his send, he said, “After 240 days, everything aligned, and my dream became real. A fight I will remember forever.”

He has now suggested that Café Colombia is 5.15d. An extension of Café Solo 5.15b, a route he established in 2021, it is a 30-metre power-endurance testpiece featuring roughly 40 demanding moves on small pockets and crimps.

“The hardest part for me was how demanding the route is,” he said. “If my physical level dropped even slightly, I couldn’t do certain moves; if I lost a bit of finger strength, I couldn’t stay on the holds; and if my endurance dropped, linking the sections became impossible. On top of that, the rhythm is so intense that you can’t afford even the slightest mistake.”

About the grade of the 17-bolt line, he said, “The route is extremely hard and pushed me to a level of effort I had never experienced before, nothing comparable to the 9b and 9b+ [5.15b and 5.15c] routes I’ve climbed so far. I feel like it could go beyond 9c [5.15d], but I don’t have real references to assess it. That’s why I’ve decided to propose 9c [5.15d], I think it’s the most sensible and honest approach. From there, we’ll have to wait for future repeats, which would really excite me.”

Díaz-Rullo first began working the route in 2021, maintaining a high-level of motivation throughout the process. Just over a week before his send, he described repeated falls high on the route and the unexpected difficulty of the finishing sequence.

“I thought the final boulder wouldn’t feel that hard coming from the ground, but the closer I got, the more I realized how brutal it actually is,” he shared. “In the end, I realized that the ‘rest’ isn’t really much of a rest… when you still have to continue with a [V13] boulder.”

Throughout this multi-year project, Díaz-Rullo has continued to build an impressive record at the top end of the sport. He has climbed multiple routes graded 5.15b and harder, including first ascents and repeats across Europe. Notable achievements include Mejorando la Samfaina 5.15c in Margalef and Bibliography 5.15c in Céüse. He has also repeated routes by Adam Ondra in Flatanger, proposing grades up to 5.15b/c.

Café Colombia joins the short list of the world’s 5.15d (9c) sport climbs, including Silence by Ondra, Big by Jakob Schubert and DNA by Sébastien Bouin.

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