Hey everybody! Sorry for the lack of updates but during september I've been on the road alot!
First in Finale Ligure where I've been routesetting for the Finale For Nepal bouldering competition...3 days of hard work in the heat but it was well worth it! The comp was a great success and everybody liked our boulder problems!...
Then in the great Frankenjura! My favoutite place in the world! Since I did Action Directe I've been only another couple of times, once shooting fot the AD video and another time a few days this summer in heinous conditions, hot muggy and full of mosquitos...
This was the first time I left Italy without a real project, only a few routes in mind I wanted to try! We got there and first day we decided to climb in the classic Krottensee Turm sector. And of course the first route you see coming from the parking lot is Wallstreet! Wallstreet is the first 8c in the world climbed of course by Wolfgang Gullich in 1987... my same year of birth...good coincidence! So Wallstreet immediately got into my list of projects for this trip!
The project didn't seem to last too much in fact from my second go I fell on the last hard move... but I keep falling here on the same move over and over(5 or 6 times) and the route soon becomes a mini epic! After one rest day of rain I decided it was time to step it up and on my last possible attempt of the day, just before the dark I sent the route!! Epic was over and Wallstreet has became one of my all time favourite 8c's!! Thanks again WG for the amazing routes you put up in the past!
After completing Wallstreet I chose not have other multiple day projects but rather some daily ones. During the rest of the trip I climbed another couple of routes that were in my "to do" list:
- Stonelove 8b+ a very classic Jerry Moffat route climbed in the 1988
- Armstrong 8c very short route by Markus Bock with a hard mono move... I tried this route in the past years but I thought I couldn't do it due to this tiny mono I couldn't pull and fit properly with the index nor the annular... but this time I could do the move with the annular and nothing stopped me to finish it!
Before Frankenjura I spent some days in a beautiful and unknown crag near Lecco called Esino. The climbing here is beautiful and the routes suit perfectly my style. Not too long,bouldery and complex. To get in the style of the crag I started climbing the already estabilished routes... after those I tried a couple of projects! One I could climb it in a day, in a few tries at around 8b+!
The other one was harder and I spent a couple of sessions to find the right beta for the crux. This project is called Pizza Connection and it is basically the logical link up of two already existent 8b's with a hard sequence to connect them togheter...
A couple of days after Frankenjura I came back to Esino and after a few more tries with one finished at the last move(Again!!...) I sent the route! Psyched!
Here is the list of the routes I climbed in Esino this season:
- Dirty dancing 8b 2nd ascent
- Moby Dick 8b 2nd ascent
- Take it easy 8b
- Asado 8b 2nd ascent
- La grande illusione 8b 2nd ascent
- Questione di feeling 8b+ 1st ascent
- Pizza Connection 8c 1st ascent
photos by Luca Passini (Pizza Connection)