Disney Production! UPDATED

Yesterday was a great day in Brione,Val Verzasca,Ticino!
The temps were a bit high but conditions not too bad in the shadow.
Me and Niki were able to climb Salamandre, nice problem put up by Fred Nicole back in the days with some crazy pinch features and a kneebar...
My project for the day was this cool line called Disney Production, climbed by Bernd Zangerl a couple of years ago! I'm sure he gave it 8a+ and it took him a few years to do the crux and send the problem. Pretty good line that climbs a cool rail feature until you get these two small crimps with a decent heel hook and bump to a slopey crack... so weird move!

I've already tried it once in the past and yesterday I climbed it first go and felt not so hard... By the way my skin was very good and the temps were okey after the sunset!
About the grade... if it's usually hard to grade things this is even harder to do. This thing is basically a one move problem. Getting to the two bad crimpers with heel on is about 7a(?!?) followed by this weird move almost impossible to compare with others I did... But I'm sure this single move might be at least 7c+ or 8a... So I'm pretty sure that the grade 8a+ is appropriate! Plus I'm sure somebody in the near future will flash it!Come to try it...It's very possible to flash!
To finish I think mine is the known second ascent. If someone knows more say me. Thanks!

UPDATE: Mine is the third known ascent: Micky Paige from England climbed it last december for the second ascent!! thanks Martin of Cityblocs Leeds for the info!...

England

Hey guys! What have you been up to?
I just came back from a one week climbing tip in England.
Our base camp was a small Hotel in Sheffield and from there we could easily get to the best gristone areas in the Peak District!
What a beautiful area is the Peak! Miles and Miles of green pasture lands with these sporadic canyons and rock cliffs and of course big boulders!
But fist let's talk about the comp in Sheffield last saturday!... Well it was actually a great competition, everything was organized perfectly and the gym is definitely the biggest and nicest I've ever seen. The qualification format was lots of fun for everybody, 30 blocs in 5 long hours, 3attempts for each bloc. At the end of the qualifications I was in 8th place with all the problems but two! Almost all the strongests were qualified for semifinals tough...
Ah during the qualifications there was a "Team Comp"! I was proud to represent the Climbing Works Team AKA Team WAD togher with Stew Watson Stefane Julien and Sabby Bacher!... And of course we won ahead of Team France and Team Beastmaker!!

Semi was in World Cup's format, 4 blocs/5minutes(or 4 I don't remember) with 4 or 5 mins in between each blocs. They were pefect and all but one very hard but possible were climbed. I got in the finals at 5th place, last spot for the finals... In my opinion I've been very lucky because I couldn't climb the easier problem on the slab but I climbed the two other blocs very fast.
Finals were just after the free BBQ offered by the organization! Everybody in the finals was very tired after the long day but we tried to do our best! I climbed first and i was the only finalist to flash the first two blocs. I tried hard on the last crazy problem(with a "feet first start") but I was completely cooked...
Gerome Pouvreau was still fresh enough to easily flash the last problem and won with style!!So impressive!...good job dude!
To finish the day in the right way everybody went to the Culture Club in Sheffield Center for a great dancing party...ohhh yesss!
Sunday was a rest day for me due to burning muscles and skin and hungover but I went to Stanage to enjoy some sun and staying with my friends...
The rest of the days we stayed in England we tried to climb as much as possible without getting too much wet... In fact almost everyday it rained at least a couple of hours but before or after showers it was possible to climb in not too bad conditions thanks to the wind!
We visited all the classic areas like Stanage Plantation, Burbage, Curbar, Black Rocks and Raven Tor!
Unfortunately I dindn't have the chance to try some of the hardest problems due to little time and bad conditions and skin but I had lots of fun climbing on the easier classics! some of the best I did are Brad Pitt, Deliverance, Ben's Wall, Buckstone Dyno etc...

Well I also checked some of the best "Hard Grit" routes around and I'm really syked to return in October hopefully with a better head and better experience in trad... We will see!

But first I'm sure I will be in Sheffield again in july for the Bouldering WC and possibly I'd like to climb a few days on the limestone where some of the first hard routes in the world were born!!!...

Sheffield!

Hey everybody!
I'm off to Sheffield for a week of climbing!
Saturday I will take part at this great bouldering comp/event at The Climbing Works, likely one of the biggest bouldering gym in the world! http://climbingworks.com/events/CWIF10
There will be a qualification round with 30blocs to climb in 5 hours then a semi and a final for the first 16 and 5 competitors! It's gonna be a tough comp with lots of strong climbers from France,Austria,Netherlands and of course England...
After the comp we are going to stay one week in the area, climbing(or at least trying to climb) in the Peak District! I'm really psyched to have a taste of the grit and climb some of the classics I've only seen in the videos! Firsts on the list are Brad Pitt, Deliverance, West Side Story etc... After these I'd like to try some harder problems!!
Can't wait!... I just keep the fingers crossed for the weather...

Deus Irae photos...

Here are some pictures about Deus Irae(after break)8c+!







All the photos were took by Massimo Malpezzi!

DEUS IRAE!!!

YO! How is it going my fans??!!.......!!
Well today was a great day for me!... Firstly because I climbed this one very sick route I really wanted to do since I first saw it a few years ago! Then because I finally start to feel I'm getting in a decent shape after one month of training, weight lifting(can you imagine me doing that?!?) and plastic pulling...
Back to the route I climbed today its name is Deus Irae... located in Claro, a great granite crag in the Ticino Valley,Switzerland!
It's very hard and painful and consists in about 20 intense moves with small edges, perfect pinches, sidepulls and gastons all the way up to this 30° steep wall!
soo sick!
Some locals told me they bolted it about 15years ago as a joke until Fred Nicole came to try it but he abandoned the project after a bit. A few years later Dave Graham climbed it with the quickness for the first ascent! He said 8c+ and after a few repetitions the grade was settled between 8c and c+.
Unluckily(or luckily?!) a key hold between the second and the third bolt broke off about a month ago creating a new crux just past the start! It still goes but it's definitely harder if you think the old crux(the top sequence) of the route is now the redpoint crux!...
Well totally Deus Irae took me about 4days of actual work, lots of skin and blood... but it was worth it! I'm nearly 100% sure this was the first ascent after the break and I'm so glad this little piece of perfect rock is still climbable... even if Adam Ondra would climb it also if the broken holds were 10!...
Concluding this history I think the grade now is 8c+... a very solid one!
Pictures are coming soon...

Thin Ice!

Well nothing really interesting happened in my climbing since the 2010 started because the weather has been terrible for the whole winter and the opportunities to climb on some real rock have been a few... I had a small trip to Arco with the idea to climb in this winter crag called Terlago and try a route called Thin Ice. It was actually a great idea because the weather and the temps were perfect the days I was there and the route was soo good.
Thin Ice is a very technical and fingery route on this slightly overhanging wall! The holds are pretty small and the moves are very weird... and a good footwork is needed. That's the reason why I had to try it for three days!! Every time I was trying to send it something went wrong. I couldn't feel the balance and stay on the footholds. On my third day of attempts everything clicked perfectly and I smoothly climbed to the top! Syked!
I really enjoy this kind of route, technical and physical at the same time with some hard boulder problems and a resistant part at the end! About the grade is always hard to know exactly... Nicolas Favresse said 8b+ when he did it but consensus seems to be 8c... I go for the slash grade!!...

2010!!!

Hey everybody! This is my new blog! I just decided to start one too like lots of climbers in the world!
Considering that I can't tell all the stuff I've done in the past I will start from the current year!
Hope you will enjoy it!