examples such as 's famous Buoux route, La Rose et la Vampire . Some major North American routes also relied on chipped holds for their development, with examples such as The Phoenix in Yosemite , and Just do It at Smith Rocks. In a 2021 documentary, Rouhling said that finding natural new hard routes is difficult (particularly of the overhanging roof style that he was attracted to) and that the chipping of new "hardest" routes was far more widespread than was understood; Rouhling also noted that other leading French climbers had manufactured such routes in their own local quarries for their development and training. Akira controversy Home again in 1995 as his wife was recovering from back surgery, Rouhling began work on a new route he called in the Vilhonneur quarry. Akira was a 65-foot long low horizontal roof (only circa 12 feet off the ground), that he estimated had an bouldering problem, with a final 20-foot vertical section beyond the lip (the only part for which he used a rope); such a route was unprecedented as a sport climb at the time. On completing Akira, belayed by his recovered wife, Rouhling graded it at . At the time, nobody had climbed 9a+ (Chris Sharma would climb the wold's first consensus 9a+ in 2001, and the first consensus 9b in 2008). In 1997, Rouhling added another chipped route at Eaux Claire, L'autre côté du Ciel, a spectacular high roof, that he graded at . Rouhling faced an unprecedented level of personalized attack for Akira. Leading climbers publicly challenged his integrity, and various unsubstantiated theories were promoted about Rouhling and his routes. Those that tried Akira, failed to climb it. In 2004, Climbing sent Pete Ward (a future American Alpine Club Board member), to interview Rouhling over several days, and see him on his routes. Ward could not opine on the grade but verified that Rouhling was able to climb his routes as they were. Ward also believed that Rouhling should have classed Akira as a boulder problem rather than as a sport route. Ward was able to debunk several of the criticisms about Rouhling and Akira, and expressed a positive view of Rouhling from the interview process. In 2020, Seb Bouin climbed three of Rouhling's routes in his local crags and found two of their grades accurate at 9a (Hugh and L'autre côté du Ciel), however, he felt Akira was