Leading French climber Gérome Pouvreau cuts loose on the final move of the hard classic The Middle Way (7C+/8A), on the boulders of Hampi, India, during the winter of 2010. Impressively, he sent the problem on his third attempt. The problem is composed of just eight dynamic and very powerful moves on small crimps, and was made famous by Chris Sharma in his ‘Pilgrimage’ movie which documents the world class bouldering at Hampi.

Situated on the high Deccan plateau of Karnataka in south-central India, Hampi is famous not just for its climbing: the ruins of Vijayanagara, a great city of around 300,000 inhabitants, lie strewn throughout the boulders. The region’s excellent granite provided the Vijayanagara masons with the perfect building material for their temples and palaces. Vijayanagara was the most powerful empire in early modern India, but the sudden capture and killing of King Aliya Rama Raya in 1565 at the Battle of Talikota created disorder in the Vijayanagara military, and the invading Deccan Sultanates later plundered the great city around Hampi and reduced it to the ruinous state in which it remains today. Every climber who visits Hampi should take the time to reflect on the extraordinary history surrounding Asia’s greatest bouldering destination. Hampi is the only climbing area in the world that lies within the ruins of a major ancient city.

SAM BIÉ