Thursday, July 25, 2013

Summer edit part 1

Yes I finished off the high school forever and I’m finally “MATURE”  so I’m getting ready to have a sick summer. During the exam I can’t climb so much so I used the my free time to train hard (campusboard,  moonboard, fingerboard) in order to be really in shape when the school will be truly over. The weekend after the first 3 written tests I went with my friends Nicky, Pietro and Ivan to an 1700 m high place in Pellice Valley called Rifugio Barbara.
Rifugio Barbara
It’s a beautiful bouldering spot where the most of problems were brushed and firstly climbed by the strong climber Christian Core but just a little part of them are excellent line with good rock quality. The projects for us were so many for example Nicky worked in two session Kimera 8c trying to link all moves and he got some good tries from the start. Pietro and Ivan sent a 7a just on the left of “Big Mother” that consists in a few moves on an edge. Pietro was able to get another 7a and he was so close for the direct line of it graded 7b.
It was a great day for me too I was able to send an old project tried the past years in few goes, the name is Fat bastard graded 7c+ so it took me few tries to configure out the beta and then I crushed it. Nicky and I left to Kimera for his first session so I got a rest and I took the opportunity to take some picture to my friend. When Nicky finished his first session I did a cool problem just on the left of Kimera called Punto Interrogativo (?).
The name it’s really appropriate because if you don’t know the right beta for the first move you don’t up your ass from the ground so I would like to thanks Nicky for the beta. The grade proposed in the guidebook was 7c but I felt it easier more like a 7b+.
Punto Interrogativo 7b+  Ph Pietro Tribuzio
I even got 2 boulders called Toporagno 7b and Caffeina 7b+ to complete this funny day.

4 day later I had the orale exam so after this I can say that school is definitely end and I can planned many trips around Europe.

The first one was in Magic Wood with my friend Andrea Perna from the July the 8th to July the 10th and this was a strange trip because the forecast didn’t looks good so we changed planned many times but at the end we decided to leave to Magic the same because we were really psyched to climbed upthere.
The first day was pretty good for Andrea that flashed two 7a but not enough for me because I fell off at the very last move of Octopussy 8a reaching the jug, because I was really tired and exhausted. Two hours earlier I sent classic, Blindfish 7b, that is, as the most of problems here, pretty soft.

The day after I was so sycked to crush Octopussy and after a quick warm-up a good friction came so after a revision of all moves I did it on my second go of the day!
In my opinion it is a great boulder with different style of climbing body-tension, toe/hill hook, fingery crimps so I’m really happy for this ascent and thank you to Andrea that supported me.
Octopussy 8a Ph Andrea Perna

Then we moved to Kolienmoster that is a long travers on  fucking slopy holds with continuous left hill hook. After having configure out the beta I got many tries without chance, my feet slipped or my hands where without chalck. I rest about 10 minutes and then I crushed it without make any mistake but at the end I was really pumped and the skin of my forearms were destroyed
Around 4 o’clock we reached the “Sasso Bruno” where Andrea tried a classic here, Supernova instead I tried Du côté de Seshuan a crazy 7c+ starting near supernova and finishing with an outstanding dyno to a jug. It was my last boulder of the day and I was pretty tired so I decided to put off until tomorrow morning.

The 3rd day or rather the last one was a great day too, after a rainy night the sun came and dried up the Magic Forest so we were ready.
We got warm and with the patience of Andrea we went to take the video of Octopussy because the uncut one had magically disappeared from my camera. Time passed quickly  so after that we reached a cool arête called Abraxas that was a ticklist project of Andrea. We dried the left side pull so I send it so quickly and I proposed the 7a+ grade rather than that of the guide (7b+).  Andrea did all single moves expect one and it took a bit more work to do it and when he started to try the whole line he crushed it in a couple of attempts.
About 2 o’clock we came back to Sasso Bruno for our last session of boulder so I was really focus on Du coté de Seshuan but in the first attempts I seemed to have no chance. I had no more skin and my hands were sweating so I decided to relax a bit and to put my hands into the river to cool them. When I was ready we moved the pads under the line again and with the cold hands I felt really closed so in few tries I sent it. 

It was very late but I would like to still try the first part of the never ending story because the first 2 days a f****r wet the whole line (I don’t know the reason) so I wasn’t able to try it before. This time was fortunately dry and in 30 minutes I configured out my beta but I was too tried to get some serious attempts. It’s a project for the next trip!! :)

When I came back home I forced myself to rest 2 days to catch up on some skin but I just one day without climbing was too so a friends of mine ask me to go climbing so I thought: why not?
We went in crag that just one routes left me so I was ready to crushed it in order to not come back anymore. I was able to get it on my second try but even if I climbed a little my skin was destroyed again! AHAHAH

Just 2 days before the France trip with my brother I went with my family to one of the most impressive sport climbing place ever. The crag is not so big but there is an amazing rock quality feature of this place, horizontal crag and technical climbing, with routes from the 6a to 8b and one more still be climbed (8c or more for sure). My project was the 8b, called El Tigre, opened by Iker Pou and repeated by Adam Ondra that develops in an a fantastic overhang where there is the hard section to end up with 7a+ routes.
I crushed it on my second go with the support of my friends and I didn’t believe to do it in two goes. I thought that it isn’t an honest 8b but could be this grade for climbers shorter than me.

El Tigre 8B Chesod Ph Pietro Tribuzio


This is a little taste of my summer. I still waiting for 2 months! SI SEÑOR



Friday, July 5, 2013

Last competitions before Summer

It’s already too long since I last wrote here, but the state exam has arrived and I had to leave for a while climbing. 
About 1 month ago I had my last young Italian championship in Arco, I trained hard all winter to finish off this experience in the best way. I felt really in shape and I was so sycked to climb; the first of 2 days of competition there was lead specialty, I had a fun qualification round with my friends and I was able to be in finals as 5th with a good performance on the 2nd routes.

At 4pm the isolation zone closed and about 1h an half later the judge presented all the finalists in order of category from the young one to the old one, (u16,u18,u20) then we had two minutes to view the route and try to understand the right sequence. 

The isolation was external but my time came and after having reviewed the sequence thought I started to climb really fast because I was tired and my arm getting pumped in a second! :)
I finished my comp as 6th and I was really proud of me.



Young italian championship in Arco Ph  © Pierre Zanone


The day after there was boulder specialty, I woke up early in order to have the time to have breakfast and to warm up. The qualification round started at 11 am, the 7 boulders looked really fun and beautiful, I was able to flash 4 of them and I  make 2 others problem, just one left me in order to be sure to be in final but unfortunately it was my anti-style or maybe I was not enough strong to get it so I was unable to do it.
I had to do nothing else that wait the ranking but the tension increased, after an hour the judge hanged the ranking so I saw that I was the first climber excluded from the final.
I was really sad and disappointed because I would like to show how much I'm worth it really and because this was my last possibility to make a final with climbers/friends old as me or one year younger.

Over to the results of 2 days I had a really great time with friends in Arco that I will remember forever! :)

The next Friday there was the first amateur competition in Biella, the boulder setter was Alberto Gnerro and the organizes were The MOVING and Runout climbing school. 
I had a fun qualification so I finished 1st as my brother Andrea. All of my friends that had already finished the comp started to eat sandwich or something similar which looked so delicious so I was really tempted  but I wanted to wait the end of the final.
There was just one problem for the final and every athletes had three tries in 3 round, the last of the ranking (the 5th in this case) started as the first and so on. 

Competition in Chiavazza  Ph  © Matteo Zin
After the view of the line the final started but nobody reached the top of the problem but I had the best performance and fall off to stick the TOP!


The evening finished as well with the teaching of Marzio Nardi who spoke about his climbing life and about the passion that unites us: CLIMBING!

Timely as every year here that the Italian Cup in Ivrea came and for me it was a possibility to stop studying for a day in order to rest a bit my mind. We woke up early to go to the gym in Pollone to warm up a little and as every years there was a balloon launch and I took some picturs.


The isolation zone was not so comfortable expecially the warm up area but luckly I was already a bit preheated.

Rumors say that the 4 problems of the qual. round  were pretty hard and I had to wait for more than 3 hours to confirm if this was true.
I was really sicked to do a great qualification but I earlier understood that this can’t become true. The rumors were true so the problems were really hard but the sun, the humidity don’t help us so 24 athletes had  “il giro della morte” or rather we weren’t able to stick a bonus hold or a Top so our score was equal to 0. My worth comp ever!



Fortunately the competition are over for a while so it’s time to have good climbing days with friends around Europe!