venerdì 20 dicembre 2013

Ticino Part 1!

Here I am again.
Ready to leave Italy one more time, direction Catalunya, for the traditional X-mas/New Years trip!...
It will be the usual journey with some of the best friends I have, this means lots of climbing in Siurana and Margalef, big dinners and nights out in Cornudella, New Years party, me punting on A Muerte and other stuffs like that... But I'm sure it is going to be MEGA again, like every year!

During the last weeks I spent alot of days going and back from Ticino,Switzerland trying to take advantage of the great conditions...
After a good warm up day sending the "new classic" Walk the Line and trying to get my skin used to the hard granite again, I decided it was time to start working on something harder and more challenging.
I always wanted to try an 8c boulder in the last years but never had the time and the motivation to spend more than a couple of days on the same problem. This year was different, I got psyched for bouldering again, after a couple of years mainly rope climbing.
I knew that if I wanted to have some chances to climb an extreme boulder at this grade I really had to find something on my style that suited me at the perfection. That means a pretty long boulder, resistant, a bit physical and possibly with weird moves!
My choice was a problem climbed last year from Dai Koyamada! Insanity of Grandeur 8c!
                                          photo Ikuko Serata

This problem is the lower sit start of the famous 8a+ Delusion of Grandeur wich I already climbed a few years ago!
The full line climbs a really crimpy 3mover at the beginning, really friction dependent and tensiony, at about 8a+ for my height and with my beta.
Once you do the first 3moves you get to a not so bad slot and here the easier method to climb the next sequence is to do a 180° spin around and climb through this roof with some really funky beta at about 7c untill you directly get into the harder move of Delusion of Grandeur!
The first day went well and thanks to the precious help of Martin Keller I was able to do all the moves except for the move to get the slot. After a few days of work I finally found a good beta for the bottom since Martin's beta was too morphologic for me and Dai's was too hard...
I found a micro crimp a bit lower and right from the crimp the other two guys used, defenitely worse but closer and very helpful to do a toe release just before the crux move to the slot...

The second part was dialed very well and I managed do the big link from the 3rd move to the top a coupe of times per session.

 On my 5th and final day I changed my foot beta again at the last minute, switching the always slipping heel with a more solid toe. Actually harder but more safe and less annoying.
On the send go I climbed without esitations, I had everything under control and without any error I cruised my way to the top!...
Gabriele Moroni, Insanity of Grandeur from rivoli on Vimeo.

It was a very emotional moment and defenitely one of the highlights of my career. This ascent gave me extra motivation to do more bouldering and try to climb more difficult stuffs! This doesn't mean harder graded boulders but also easier things on different (and more difficult for me) styles!
Thanks alot to all the people that supported or helped me during these days under the boulder, Simo,Max,Bazu,Bogli,Dani,Maik,Ali,Martin and many others!

After finishing this project I started trying a new one!
Right now I only had a couple of days on it, basically to climb the standing start version, but I had a great session on the bottom part too and felt very good... Let's see how it goes!

But first it's off to Spain!!...

giovedì 21 novembre 2013

Beginning of the bouldering season!

I am writing this post staring out the window, watching a big hailstorm hitting hard my hometown Novara. The temperatures drastically dropped off from 10° to 2° celsius...
Days are getting shorter and shorter and temps will soon be frigid.

I am pretty happy about my rope climbing successes this year and it looks like I won't try my project Goldrake yet this fall due to the horrible weather that strikes Northern Italy almost every day since I came back home after a couple of months climbing around Europe.
So this means it is likely the right time to switch motivations a bit and start the bouldering season.

And what better way to start off the bouldering season than with a bouldering trip?...
Albarracin sounded like a great destination for this time of the year so me and three other good friends,Max,Marco and Alice planned the trip and booked our tickets for one week of bouldering in this beautiful place!
Albarracin is a great and well known bouldering destination and defenitely one of the best bouldering spots in the world! The enviroment is beautiful with tick forests and canyons full of red sandstone blocs. The quality of the problems is just incredible and you can find all the styles of climbing and type of holds possible all in the same problem!
We have been really lucky with the weather, always good and dry and except for a couple of warm days at the beginning of the trip, we had great climbing conditions!
Of course, like every first time in a new place, I couldn't stop climbing and every day we visited a new secor or two(or three)!
I climbed alot of moderates and since I was here just for a week I decided to climb on stuffs that could take at most half an hour of my time...

Here is a list of the hardest problems I managed to climb during this trip, with my personal grades:

- Zarzaparilla 8a+ (8b on the guidebook, 1st try from the start, flashed the 8a version, tried the top sequence and sent from the start)
gabri moroni - zarzaparrilla from rivoli on Vimeo.


- Cosmos 8a
Gabriele Moroni, Cosmos from rivoli on Vimeo.

- Klem's Traverse 7c+ flash (8a in the guidebook)
Gabriele Moroni, Klem's traverse from rivoli on Vimeo.

- Zarzamora 7c+ flash (8a in the guidebook)
gabri moroni - zarzamora (flash) from rivoli on Vimeo.

- Fuerte a Muerte 7c+ (8a in the guidebook)
- El Varano 7c+ (8a in the guidebook)
- Zombie Nation 7c+
gabri moroni - zombie nation from rivoli on Vimeo.

- Revenge 7c+
Gabriele Moroni, Revenge from rivoli on Vimeo.

- Monos sit 7c flash (8a in the guidebook)
- Control de Calidad 7c flash (7c+ in the guidebook)
- Fido Dido 7c flash
- El Orejas de las Regletas 7c (8a in the guidebook)
- La Fuente 7b+ flash (7c in the guidebook)


Back in Italy I rested a few days to grow my skin back.
Last weekend I felt recovered and the skin looked perfect and thick again. The weather was good but it has been raining the days before but I was too psyched to climb after some days off...
I couldn't find anybody so I drove alone to Chironico to check a new problem from Giuliano Cameroni, Walk the Line 8a+!
I got there, tried to place the four crash pads in the right spot and immediately started to warm up trying the sequences also with the help of a rope. The problem is not really tall but the landing is a bit sketchy and falling without a spotter is not ideal.
I started giving attempts from the beginning but sometimes I felt a bit uncomfortable and just dropped off...
After a while I gave one great try and got to the last move but couldn't commit to the next hold! So I tried the last sequence with the rope again and eventually changed my beta a little bit doing a "less safe" but more efficient sequence.
Next go was the good one! I climbed well and without big problems until the last few moves. I was a bit scared but without hesitations I got the weird toe hook above the head and eventually topped it out in a big adrenaline rush!

Great problem and congrats again to Giuliano to have put up one of the best problems of this grade in Chironico!...

Well as I said before the weather is still bad but I keep my fingers crossed and hope in a climbable weekend on the Swiss granite... I'm really motivated to put some more efforts in a hard problem I just started to try on sunday...

Until the next!



lunedì 4 novembre 2013

Fall trips!

Here I am back at home(for a few days...)after a little less than a couple of months on the road!

STUTTGART
I left for Germany at the beginning of september with my friend Ema. My plan was to spend a few days in the Frankenjura at the beginning, heading to Stuttgart to compete at the annual Adidas Rockstars bouldering competition and finally finish the month long stay back on the Franken's rocks!
First days were easy days, trying to save some energies for the weekend!
Adidas Rockstars is defenitely the best organized event of the season. All the athletes are invited and during the days of the comp everything is offered from Adidas. We stayed at the Hilton Inn Hotel just next to the Porsche Hall where the comp was held and the first evening we were all invited at the official dinner and "transported" by a huge Adidas bus!...
Qualifications were pretty hard for me. The problems were good but I couldn't climb as I wanted to... The post qualification hours have been mentally tough too since I had to wait till the end to see if I could pass the turn... For one time luck was on my side and I barely made it to semis in 20th place!
Next day was different. After a quick warmup I was feeling much better and fitter than the previous day!
The boulders were hard and nobody could climb all of them! I climbed pretty well and confident and could top only one boulder first go but I was kind of close to finish another couple of problems...
I was very happy about my climbing but having started first and having finished only one boulder I had no expectations about making it to the finals! So I relaxed,ate some food and followed on and off the rest of the semis.
After a while I started to realize that many athletes were finishing their semi with no tops or with one top in various attempts... Many of the best athletes were struggling like me on the hard problems!
At the end of the turn I was still in 4th position tied with Jorg Verhoeven so that meant I made it to the finals at my first international competition in a long time and with a pretty packed field of strong World Cup competitor! I was blown away!
The other finalists with me were Rustam Gelmanov, Jernej Kruder, Jorg Verhoeven and Dmitri Sharafoutdinov!
                                                 photo Elias Holzknecht

After some hours of waiting we were back in the isolations and ready for the show. The Porsche Arena was very crowded and the band ready to play some music during the finals!
I won't write much about the finals since actually my life in the finals have been very short...
I was very excited for it but after the first two boulders I have been eliminated togheter with Jorg and Dmitri. Basically the first boulder was too easy and everybody but one could flash it. The second one was really hard and nobody could even make the bonus...
So unfortunately the judges had to watch the semifinals result and we were eliminated by countbacks!...
A bit disappointing for me and for the other finalists but this is the competition game and I finished my adventure with a great 4th place!! This result made me realize that with some proper training and motivation, I can still compete at a high level togheter with the best international competitor and this got me psyched to compete again in the World Cups next year!...
To finish the story Jerney Kruder and Jule Wurm were the winner of the 2013 Adidas Rockstars!



FRANKENJURA
Back to the Frankenjura and back to the projects I left unclimbed in the last trips!
First days were a bit about re-adaptation of the body and the skin to the sometimes sharp rock. Plus the weather was horrible and we could only climb on the semi dry cliffs, usually the ones outside the forests. But luckily there were some of them and for the first time in almost ten years and more than fifteen trips I spent some times in one of the most classic and best sectors, Holzgauer Wand!
Holzgauer is home of one of the hardest routes in the area, Classified 9a+, climbed this year by Alex Megos.
I tried the route for the first time this summer in august, on the first day ever spent in this beautiful crag. It was pretty warm and humid, the route felt totally heinous and hard and I couldn't even do the moves of the first 8b+ part.
This time, already from the first tries, Classified felt like more doable. I realized that the route suited me perfectly. The first part is pretty intense on the fingers, having a few bad pockets and crimps for about twenty moves of 8b+. Then you get to an awkward rest on two slopey pockets. The final bulge is the crux and climbs on some more horrible pockets at about 8a+ boulder.
During the first week I think I spent three days on the route and I started to make some promising links. The big problem I was dealing with was the humidity. First part was dialed very well but everytime I got to the top part it felt greasy and slippery.
                                                 photo Roman Van der Werf

So I decided to take a break from the route and wait for some better temps in the coming days/weeks.
In between tries on Classified I also managed to send some more good routes like Kate Moss 8c, He's looking at you, kid! 8c, Hansel ohne Gretel 8b and the flash of Casablanca 8a+!
During this break from Classified I went back on my last year project The Elder Statesman! This route opened by Markus Bock has been my real nightmare last year. I spent lots of days on it and felt like I could have done it at least ten times... But every time something went wrong, a slip, numb fingers, splits, bad weather, fog, too warm, too cold and so on...So it became a real mental battle that evenyually I lost.
The Elder Statesman was the main project for this trip. After some days the conditions were finally good and I was ready to give some serious tries. The attempts were going better and better falling higher every try until one day I basically climbed it to the last hard move, I did the move then fell on the next much easier move to get to easier terrain... I was really pissed off and my skin was trashed.
I decided to rest the day after and came back the next day.
I felt really good but the conditions turned bad again and the wind usually hits the wall was not there. After the warmup I tried my chance on the route but the conditions were so horrible that giving it all I could only climb to the first crux about halfway. I was even more pissed off that we left the crag immediately after I lowered off the route.
So we drove to Holzgauer Wande since my friend Ema was trying his 8a+ project Casablanca there.
After a quick warmup Ema sent Casablanca and said the friction on the rock felt good. So I jumped back on Classified and yeah the friction was okay and actually better than on The Elder Statesman.
I thought that giving a try would have been a good idea sowith no pressure I started my attempt and I got quite easily and not pumped at the rest before the headwall. I switched into battle mode and left the rest more psyched than ever. I had a huge fight risking to fall at every moment but suddently I had the final jug in my hand and the chain in front of me... I couldn't believe I had just sent Classified!!
I lived a few hours of euphoria before to really understand what I had just done... Crazy moment and one of the best days of my career!
                                                 photo Roman Van der Werf

That same night I facebook chatted with Alex Megos and told him about my experience on the route and we both came at the conclusion that in this case the grade needs a slash and 9a/a+ might be the right number for this beautiful route!
I decided to rest the day after considering that I was feeling pretty worked and I wanted to try my other trip's project Sever the Wicked Hand 9a the next day.
Sever is another great route from Markus Bock I had already tried and got close on during my trip in august. The style of this route is not the average style of the hard routes here. It is about twenty-five meters long consisting in a first ten meters 7b part followed by a really hard boulder(the crux) on small holds and pinches at about 8a boulder, then one more 7b part to a rest and a good 7c boulder on small crimps and an always humid undercling pocket!
I just needed one try to make my muscles memorize again the moves and I was ready to give some attempts from the bottom.
On the second and third try I fell on the crux but I was pretty confident that if I could make it through the first crux then I could do the route with a good dose of luck.
And it went like this, next try I managed to do the crux but got to the rest pretty pumped. I tried to stay positive and to give everything I had for the last part, struggled alot but eventually I got to the chain for my second 9a in a few days... Incredible feelings once again!
So the natural thing to do was resting the day after, recover and grow the skin as much as possible and try to send The Elder Statesman the next day.
Usually it doesn't happen but that morning I woke up with the feeling that I would have done the route that day... I was so confident and psyched, the wind was blowing cold and dry!
We got to the crag pretty early, warmed up, chilled for a while then finished the warmup trying the sequences and brushing the holds.
It was pretty cold and windy so to avoid numb fingers during the climb I heated a little stone with a camping stove and put it in my chalk bag. It worked perfectly and I easily cruised my way to the last hard move. The next move is easy but it was the move I dropped off last time. I focused 100% and went completely static! Yes! Last meters are easy and I climbed them with a big smile on my face...
One more time I couldn't believe what I had just done. Three 9a's in three days of climbing and all my projects done!

So my time in the Frankenjura was over withmy most productive trip ever! Many thanks go to my friend Ema for the support and the belays!
Of course I still have a bunch of projects so I will keep on visiting Frankenjura in the next years and I will probably come back next spring!!

KALYMNOS
Some days after I returned from Germany I was ready to bounce again, this time for The North Face Kalymnos Climbing Festival of course in the island of Kalymnos in Greece!
I've been invited from The North Face to attend the event and to take part at the Project Competition!
This is not a real competition but more like a friendly contest between some strong invited athletes on some newly bolted routes in a brand new sector!
Totally I spent one week on the island! First two days were really lazy days climbing a bit and spending the rest of the day between the beach,bars and restaurants!
Then it came the first "competition" day. The new developed crag didn't look so inspiring at first sight, due to the nature of the rock, but after climbing a couple of routes I changed my mind. Sometimes the rock was a bit crumbling but the routes were world class!
On the first day I felt horrible and unfit... I already got super pumped on the warmup and got way more pumped on the first competition route graded 7c+ where I miserably failed!
I spent the rest of the day with the feeling of being pumped and tired and couldn't recover. But I tried to enjoy the day having fun with all the other competitors and saved the day getting the flash of another comp route graded 8b on a little cave! Nice Frankenjura style!
I finished the day trying the third comp route, an 8b+ that Alex Megos just onsighted earlier in the day. It felt so hard and pumpy that I didn't think to have any chance to send it on the next day...
The next day was luckily a rest day from the competition!
The second comp day was totally different for me, I felt fitter and recovered and I warmed up on the first 7c+ comp route I fell on the other day.
After that I rested a bit and tried my chance on the 8b+... I quickly climbed the first part without getting so pumped and got to the crux. It felt like a different sequence from the other day and could connect the moves quite easily and sent the route on my second go!
Before the end of the day I tried the fourth and last comp route at around 8c. On my first go it felt so good and doable on the next try. It was defenitely the route fitted more my style, very bouldery with a fingery crux.
                                photo Richard Felderer

On my second try I messed up the feet beta and fell. Then the sun came on the route, I tried to give everything I had but the sloper on the crux felt so slippery that I fell again...
So my comp was over with a good three routes sent. And eventually finished in 5th place!
I had a blast climbing this routes and spending time at the crag and hanging out with all the other athletes! I hope to be invited again next year!...
                                           photo Richard Felderer

After the Project Competition days I had another two days to spend on the island. Due to the very hardcore after party I had to recover on the next day but on the very last day I could visit one of the best sectors called Odissey! Here I took home one more souvenir climbing the classic Sharma's 8b+ Lucky Luca Extension on my second go!...


ARCO
Back to Italy I went directly to the city of Rovereto to visit some friends and climbing in the crags around Arco! Unfortunately during my two weeks stay the weather has been pretty bad, not so rainy but always cloudy,foggy and really humid.

 I came here with a route in mind. A route I tried a bit this last spring when it was still wet.
Bio-Logiko was bolted by Loris Manzana some years ago and climbed by Adam Ondra last year giving it the grade of 9a!
This last spring I tried it for a couple of days but the first boulder,the crux, was still wet. You can climb the second part starting from the 7c on the right so I got the first to send of this version at around 8b+/c!
This time the bottom crux, an 8a+ boulder itself, was perfectly dry but the conditions were giving me hard times. I was already pretty close to do the bottom crux on my first sessions back on it but eventually it took some more days to actually stuck the crux jump and send the route!
The day of the send was another humid day up at the crag, the clouds were low and the wind was wet. I decided to give it one last day of tries before going back home and preparing for my upcoming trip to Spain.
                                          photo Matteo Pavana

First two goes went bad. I got to the key pinch but it felt like soap. Then I rested for a while and gave another go. I got to the pinch and it felt slippery again but I managed to focus on squeeze the hold. Finally I stuck the jump and passed through the bottom crux for the first time! The second part was very well dialed but still a very resistent 8b+... But with a good fight I got to the top and finished an other chapter with the happy ending!! Big thanks to the Rovereto and Trento climbing community for always make me feel part of it!!
                                photo Matteo Pavana


Now I'm ready for another adventure! I'm leving for Albarracin in Spain tomorrow! First bouldering trip in a long time... Let's see what happens!

lunedì 2 settembre 2013

Post Brazil weeks!

Hey there!

After Brazil I really needed to come back in shape.
The timing was perfect since a new climbing gym in Milano had just opened! This new training facility was perfect to start again and keep me motivated for a while... So I planned a little training program to be sure to get in good shape for september.

Every week I felt like I was slowly getting back in proper shape so I decided to take some days off and drove to Frankenjura to test my form on real rock...
Usually summer is not the best season for climbing in Frankenjura but the temperatures were not too high and I could send some hard stuffs!
In more or less a week of climbing I was able to repeat "Penumbral Solar Eclipse" 8c on my first day, "Battle Cat" 8c+ and "Intercooler" 8c in the same day!
I also had some good attempts on a 9a called "Sever the Wicked Hand" and I hope to finish it off the next time...


A couple of days of rest after I returned from Germany it was back to the gym for the last weeks before leaving again!
In between training days I managed to take some days on the rock especially in a cool bouldering spot called Champorcher in the Aosta Valley.
Every day in Champorcher was good times with friends, opening new lines and trying the hard testpieces from Niccolò Ceria.
Here is a small list of the climbs I recently opened and repeated in the last days there:
- Jeezy Creezy 7a+ FA
- Minnato Prepotente 7b FA
- Può Accompagnare Solo 7b+ FA
- Brown Dampness 7c FA
- Yellow Fever 7c 2nd Ascent
- Straight Out of Darkness 7c (FLASH)  2nd Ascent
- Orange Madness 8a 2nd Ascent
- Murano 8b 2nd Ascent
gabri moroni _ murano from rivoli on Vimeo.


Last weekend I finally had the chance to check out a place I really wanted to visit since a long time, Fionnay in the Valais region of Switzerland!
The place is just beautiful and the boulders overcame my expectations. The area is not huge but every sector has its own kind of rock and style.

I felt very good during the weekend and I quickly sent some of the hard classics Fionnay has to offer.
I was really motivated to try to flash some of them but eventually it didn't happen... But I was very close on some of them. Especially on "Scarred for Life high" and "Seveso", with a bit more luck I'm pretty sure it could have been possible...
On some problems I found the given grades a little bit weird in comparison to others in the same spot. It's strange because some of these problems are opened and often repeated from some of the best climbers in the world with alot of experience in grades... But basically I don't really care since they are all beautiful and unique boulders and I really enjoyed them!
Here is the little list of the boulders I climbed on the weekend with my personal grades:
- Chute Fatal 7c+ (Given 8a+)
- Seveso 8a (Given 8b)
- Scarred for Life high 8a+ (2nd go)
- L'Eau Water Solo 8a+ (Given 8a+/b)

This is the last week of training then it's time to hit the road for at least one and a half month!
The plan is driving to the Frankenjura for a few days, then going to Stuttgart for the only comp I take part this year, the ADIDAS ROCKSTARS bouldering competition! I have no big expectations since I haven't been competing for a long time, but it is going to be a great event and I don't want to miss it!
 After the weekend in Stuttgart I will be back in the Frankenjura for three weeks trying to finish some projects I left from the last trips and send some new ones!
And last but not least, in october I'm going to Kalymnos for the North Face Climbing Festival!...


Stay tuned!...



venerdì 2 agosto 2013

Brazil!!

Hi everybody!
A few weeks ago I came back from one of the best trips I've ever had togheter with the francobrasilian couple Enzo Oddo and Francisco Taranto Jr. We spent one month travelling in Brazil visiting the best rocks and enjoying the brazilian culture!
This time I'm not going to write a post about the experience on my blog since a longer article with some beautiful photos will be published on some climbing magazines soon!...












Guela Seca 8b+(br. 11a) FA Passa Vinte(Minas Gerais)  photo Felipe Barbosa

This little intro/presentation is taken from Francisco's website Foto Vertical:  
From 11th June to 11th July, Enzo Oddo, Gabriele Moroni and Francisco were in Brazil. Their journey started in Rio de Janeiro, a cool city with a lot of beautiful rocks to be climbed! Then they were to a National Park called Itatiaia and Passa Vinte, a big cave! Enzo and Gabriele were astonished in Itatiaia: many walls, boulders, towers and peaks everywhere! Follow them: “ Well Itatiaia is actually the best place we visited during this trip, no doubt. We are sure that with some more attention, it might become a world destination for climbing” ;-) .
Francisco is editing the film. The first release seems to be at Grenoble, at “Rencontres du Cinéma de Montagne”. Stay tuned!












Le Trou du Cul de la Tortue 8a(br. 9c) FA Itatiaia(Minas Gerais) photo Francisco Taranto Jr.

mercoledì 5 giugno 2013

What happened last month!?

Hey there!
After a big part of april in the Frankenjura area I came back in Italy just in time for the 10th annual edition of the Melloblocco event held in the beautiful Val di Mello!
This year the bouldering festival lasted ten days but I got there on thursday evening and took part only at the last three days!
As every year the atmosphere was great and thanks to the good weather during the weekend alot of people came over and everybody had a great time on the boulders and of course in the evenings!...
The "competition" boulders this year were world class! Some problems in the past editions were very contrived. This year the problems were "real ones", this means logical lines and not many eliminations!
Basically I climbed only on friday and saturday but I was able to finish 6 of the 10 proposed boulders. The hardest climbed problem was around 8a+ and has been climbed only twice from me and Stefano Ghisolfi!

During the saturday night party we even showed for the first time in public our now finished Spain film from this winter! No Siesta Spain Trip!
The response from the audience looked great and everybody seemed to enjoy it!...

 After Melloblocco I was feeling tired so I decided to take some rest. Just having fun on the rocks, spending days with friends without having projects and going with the flow!
I spent many days outside bouldering and rope climbing even if the weather has been pretty bad...
So without pressure and enjoying the days out I even climbed some hard stuffs and felt in good shape!

Here is the list of the hardest stuffs I was able to climb during the last month!
ROUTES:
- Bibita Biologica 8c (First Ascent)  Arco
- Lapoterapia 8c (2nd Ascent)  Osso

- Dita d'Oro 8c (3 tries)  Maddalena
- La Rosina 8b flash  Maddalena
BOULDERS:
- Brown Sugar 8a+  Val di Mello

- Toy Boy 8a  Val di Mello

 - El Raton Matado 8a (2nd Ascent)  Gaby
- Special Edition 7c+ flash  Brione
- Ministero dell'Inferno 7c+ (First Ascent)  Gaby
- The Big Courier 7c+ (2nd Ascent)  Gaby
- Nona Misura Naturale 7c+  Val di Mello
- Pendragon 7c flash  Val di Mello

Now I'm getting ready for the Trip I've been waiting for several months... BRAZIL!
Stay tuned for more!




lunedì 6 maggio 2013

Frankenjura spring trip!

I just returned from another trip in the forests of the Frankenjura in Germany!
It was my 15th trip here so I have nothing more to say about the place,the climbing,the landscapes,the people... Everything in my opinion is perfect here and I feel like at home.
Finally for the first time I managed to bring other friends and for the first week we were a nice crew of 6!
Unfortunately the weather has been horrible for many days at the beginning and the rocks were really wet from all the rain and snow of this past winter.
All the routes I wanted to try were unclimbable and soaked so I had to find some dry or semi dry stuffs.
Keeping the motivation high was really hard with that weather and besides that, after a couple of days of climbing on wet holds I got two bad splits.
After a few days a big part of the crew left but me and Ema had another 10days planned! The weather finally became more sunny and stable and my two splits were healed!
 My main project for the trip stayed wet for all the lenght of the trip so I had to move the attention on some other routes.
After only a few tries of work each I was able to do  a couple of 8c+ and one 8c of course all of them estabilished from Markus Bock!
 During attempts on the harder projects I really wanted to do some classics from the 80's and possibly from Wolfgang Güllich!
Here is a list of the routes I climbed during this trip:
- Three Suns and One Star 8c+
- Sympathy for the Devil 8c+ (photos)
- Second Place is the First Loser 8c
- Kamasutra 218 8b (Gullich '86)
- Killer 8b (Gullich '87)
- Amadeus Schwarzenegger 8a+ (Gullich '86)
- Amboss 8a+ ('88)
- Melanom 8a+ ('89)
- 00 Faber 8a+ ('96)
- Engel und Bestien 8a ('85)

And here is a little trailer from my friend Matteo Pavana "The Vertical Eye" about the first wet week of the trip!


domenica 7 aprile 2013

Fast bouldering season!

Hello everybody!

As I said on the previous posts, since I got back from Spain my main interest has been training and getting ready for the trip planned in Frankenjura,Germany!
Back from Catalunya my level of resistence and fitness was very high for my standards but I felt like I had lost big part of my power.

So in the past two months I've been training mainly power! This means, besides campus boarding and some weights, alot of bouldering in the gym and outside at least once per week!
Luckily I live only a couple of hours from the best areas in Switzerland but I don't have many boulders of 8a or 8a+ yet to do...
By the way there are some beautiful pieces of rock I still have to do and here is a list of problems sent during the last weeks between Ticino and Val d'Aosta with some personal grades:

- Flash Flood 8b Brione (2nd ascent FA:Jorg Verhoeven)
gabriele moroni - flash flood from rivoli on Vimeo.


- Baby Mammoth 8a+ Chironico
- Un Ange avec des Cornes 8a+ Cresciano
- The Guilty of the Hilti 8a Brione (not sure about the grade but could be 8a+)
- Black Pearl 8a/a+ Brione (given 8a+)
Gabri_Black Pearl from rivoli on Vimeo.


- The Barbarians were Helpless 8a Chironico (seldom repeated could be 8a/a+...)
- Second Life 8a Chironico (given 8a+)
- Viva il Cavaliere 7c+ Val d'Aosta
- Cuor di Leone sit 7c+ Val d'Aosta
- Pamplemousse 7c/c+ Chironico (Flash. Given 8a)
- Orange County 7c Brione (Flash. Given 8a)
- Highway to Hell 7c Val d'Aosta (Flash. First Ascent)
- Brutalization 7c Val d'Aosta (First Ascent)
- Notte Abbastanza Buia 7c Val d'Aosta (First Ascent)

It looks like the training is starting to pay off and it's time to pack my stuffs and head to Germany... Frankenjura here I come!





venerdì 22 marzo 2013

Interviews and future trips!

Here are the links of a couple of interviews you can find on the web!

The first is from the famous website Planetmountain. Just a few questions about the Spain trip in a double interview togheter with Silvio! Unfortunately it is only in italian...
 Gabriele Moroni e Silvio Reffo e il loro No Siesta Spain Trip


The other one is from my friend Colette McInerney for her Five Ten blog! It is not the common interview but something a bit different with some funny questions(and answers)!
 Colette McInerney - Take Five with 5.10 Athlete Gabri Moroni 


Talking about the present I just finished my training plan and I'm ready for some rest and hopefully getting in good shape soon! 
Let's see if the training will pay off...
On april 10th I'm headed to the Frankenjura for a couple of weeks! I have many projects from last year... and certainly I will find some new ones!!
Right after Frankenjura I will take part at the annual event Melloblocco that this year will last 10days.We will see if we can try the comp problems in decent conditions some days... If not, it will be party a muerte like every year!
Last but not least on june 10th I'm going to Brazil for a month!! I'm really excited for this trip! I'm going with some good french friends, Enzo Oddo,Seb Bouin and the trip organizer Francisco Taranto Jr. who will take photos and videos!
Our plan is climbing in the beautiful brazilian crags, repeating and establishing the hardest routes in the country, trying to open some new routes on bigger walls and enjoying the brazilian culture! 
Can't wait!


Peace!



 

lunedì 11 marzo 2013

Post Spain weeks!

Hey everybody!
One month has already passed since I came back from Spain... time goes fast and I really miss the good times spent with Silvio and Mauro...

After I got back from the trip I took a week of rest. I really needed it especially after two months of non stop climbing. Good for the body,the fingers and especially for the head!
Once I felt recovered I planned a little training plan for the next couple of months! In my training plan I put a little bit of everything but especially power training! That means weights,bouldering,fingerboarding, two/three double sessions per week and for sure some rock climbing sessions as well!

I hope it will work since I'd like to get in good shape for my planned trip in the Frankenjura this spring... We will see...

This last week was an active rest week from training!
I spent a few days in Arco with Silvio visiting friends and checking out some new stuffs my friend Markus Bock bolted in this place called Nago. I met Markus and he showed me the new routes he just opened and the projects he is trying!
                                         Markus Bock on his new 8c in Nago!

The first day helped by Silvio's beta I flashed this new Markus creation called Black Thoot Grin!
                                          Black Thoot Grin (photo The Vertical Eye)

Beatiful route but due to the heavy rains of this last period still a bit wet. Once fully cleaned and dry it is destinated to become a new classic at about 8a+/b!
                               Black Thoot Grin (photo The Vertical Eye)

The next couple of days we tried Bucking Bronco, another great rig Markus just opened on a big boulder below the classic sector of Nago and proposed 8c+ for it!
                               Markus on the first ascent! (photo markusbock.com)

Bucking Bronco looks like a Frankenjura route, short,bouldery with some small holds, bad pinches and some hard clips!
After some serious working and micro beta adjustments,on the first try of the third day on it everything went right and I got the second ascent of this new gem! Psyched!
Silvio was super close and fell several times at the last hard move of the crux! Next time!
I want to thank Markus for bringing his FJ's vision in Arco where the potential for this kind of routes is very big. All the new stuffs he bolted in Nago are real gems and I can't wait to go back to try the new ones!

Saturday I spent a couple days in Chironico with the idea of bolting a new short route. We got there and everything was pretty soaked. I lowered down to check if there were holds on the face and I realized it might go... or at least it looks like there are enough features for a possible route! Since the rock was really wet I decided to postpone the bolting and wait for another more dry day.
Almost all the boulders were wet so I went to see if the route K-19 was dry...
K-19 is an amazing route on a huge boulder in the sector Nivo in Chironico. The line follows a perfect steep arete for about 20meters. I don't know who bolted it but I know the Ticino local climber Nicola Vonarburg got the first to send last year and proposed the 8c grade.
                                         The perfect arete of K-19

Luckily the route was completely dry and I thought it was a good idea to give some attempts. I tried the route already a couple of times last year and got close to send it.
To my surprise the route was not only dry but the friction was pretty good too! I gave a working go and felt good on the sequences. The route consists in a 7a intro to a rest. Then a 10moves crux sequence on crimps at about 7c boulder till a good but awkward rest in the roof. From here the final part of the climb gets physical and pumpy on slopey holds and bad feet. I think the outro could be around 8a+...
Next try went well but I fell in the middle of the crux. I had too much confidence on a move and missed the next hold...ouch!
The following try was good and I could get through the crux. I struggled a little on the last pumpy part but I didn't mess up and eventually sent the route for its second ascent!
I wish there would be more granite routes like this...
K-19 was my 70th route above 8c!! Hopefully I can get to 100 before the end of the year... A ver!...

Now it's time to get serious again and hit the gym for another two weeks of hard training!

lunedì 18 febbraio 2013

The End... of No Siesta Spain Trip!

Here is the last video clip about our beautiful adventure climbing the best rocks of Catalunya! Enjoy!


Now, after a week of rest, it's time to get back on the board and start training for the next projects!...
See you!
Gabri

sabato 16 febbraio 2013

No Siesta Spain Trip 2012/2013!!

Hey people!
I'm just back from the trip of my life...climbing in the best crags of Catalunya! For fun we called the journey No Siesta Spain Trip and we made a cool blog(unfortunately only in italian) about it.
This time it wasn't the usual two weeks trip like I had every year around Christmas/New Years!
I have been planning this trip for a year or so togheter with my buddy Silvio Reffo. This kind of experience was new for both of us since we have never been on a climbing trip that long... Silvio was a full time physio student until a few months ago so he has never had the time. By my part I might had the time since I'm a full time climber but unfortunately I've never found the right people to do this kind of thing!
I think Silvio is one of the best trip mates I could have asked for... strong,motivated,quiet and of course a good friend!
Another new thing for us was that we travelled in a van... a very big one! Three beds,kitchen,shower ecc and we had the opportunity to stay in one spot for as many days as we wanted until the projects were done!
And last but not least we have been followed by a filmaker for the whole trip! Our friend Mauro Giordani is a very talented filmaker and always psyched to jumar some ropes and film some action!...
We uploaded some short clips during the trip but the main idea is to edit a longer movie about the trip, our climbing experience and eventually show the final product togheter with some lectures at various events during the year...
Let's talk about the trip now! Writing about two months of travels,climbs,rocks,friends etc is pretty difficult so I will try not to be too boring!

After an endless 15hours journey started in Novara on december 8th and finished in Oliana at 4.30am the day after, we finally got to the parking lot, tired as hell especially after the last bit of road, driving through the Pyrenees,during the night with frozen roads... But we arrived at our final destination safe and sound and we were so psyched that me and Silvio couldn't sleep much!

The beginning of the trip in Oliana has been all about ups and downs for me...
We spent about ten days enjoying the beautiful routes and landscapes. We also spent good times with great friends like Graziano,Bernardo,Paolo,Chris,Daila,Anna and many others!
The “down part”of this start of the trip was that I noticed that my level of fitness was horrible!I always felt tired at the cliff and I couldn't sleep well at night.
 I had to imagine it since my preparation and resting before this trip has not been the best and before leaving I've been climbing short routes or boulders non-stop.
So I took this first ten days taking it easy and getting ready for the second part of the trip in one of my favourite places on earth... Siurana!

We arrived in Siurana some days before Christmas and immediately we met up with some good italian friends who were staying here for the Christmas holidays.
Here is Siurana I defenitely had the best times of the trip! Every day was waking up,breakfast at the panaderia in Cornudella and climbing a muerte with the rest of the crew... then beers,dinner and some more beers and parties in the evenings!
I also started to feel much better and fitter and in a few days I was able to climb one of my projects of the trip...
Jungle Speed is a 9a route opened by Daniel Jung a few years back and repeated a bunch of times by other makinas... I worked the route one day with Dani Andrada and Oscar Jimenez who gave me perfect beta. After a few tries I made a couple of close attempts falling at the end of the hard bouldery sequence and I thought I was ready to take it down! But as usual I started to punt and I wasted some more tries! Then on a very warm day everything clicked and I easily climbed the rig!
 Silvio also finished his 9a project Estado Critico in the same day so I let you imagine the amount of party we (not Silvio...me and the other italian homies!)had that night!...
Funny thing is that the day after, of course with a bad hungover, I re-climbed the rig for the video and felt it pretty easy!... As always I have no idea about the real difficulty and I doubt the grade 9a... but as always I don't really care since it is a sick route and the quality of the rock is one of the best in Siurana!
 The rest of the time here has been all about New Years celebrations, a couple of days to recover from it and some good punting on one of my nemesis rigs A Muerte at Campigui Pugui! Like every year I felt really close but then I started falling over and over at the same hell of a move and left it for the next times...


A week or so after New Years Eve, the climbers started to leave the Siurana cliffs and Cornudella de Monsant returned to be a ghost village so it was time to leave and move to Margalef!

When we got to Margalef it was pretty warm, so we thought about checking out the cliffs in the shade.
Silvio wanted to try Era Vella, one of the most famous and repeated 9a in the world.
I got to the cliff without any projects in mind, but previously Chris Sharma tell me about a beautiful route he put up called La Nevera Severa graded 8c+/9a in the sector just next to Era Vella...
This is not the common Margalef route on pockets... it is something odd, very original and challenging! Actually what I was looking for since I was not really attracted by Era Vella. Of course it is a beautiful route and the wall is very ispiring but at that moment I was not really psyched to test my level of fitness and just pull on good holds for 45meters...
I needed something different!
This rig is crazy! It consists in a 7a start to a ledge. Then a little boulder problem on pinches until you get to the best tufa feature you can imagine! At the bottom is like a normal double tufa feature then after some meters the two tufas become a unique thing and shape one single fat “tube-like” tufa feature that gets wider and wider!
 At the top the tube become so big that you can't reach the sides so you have to stay on the right side of it using some bad side slopers and flat edges.
The climbing on the route is very demanding, physical and technical at the same time and the slaps have to be done precisely. It's a compression testpiece actually!!
During the first tries on the route I was getting mad finding the right grips and the bad feet on the tufa...
 
 Finally after some days of work I could see the light and started to make some good links.
And of course before finishing it I fell a few times at the top on the final technical crux...
But then in a day with perfect temps, with a great fight against the fatigue I could do the crux move and kept it togheter till the chains!!
Climbing this amazing piece of rock has been one of the most satisfying climbing experiences I had. If you want to climb this route you need to put to the test your physical,your technical but especially your brain skills!!...

After the send of La Nevera Severa I felt fresh and fit but I didn't want to project anything for more than two days.
I've been climbing a couple more weeks between Margalef and Siurana and I was able to do some good onsights till 8a+/b and a bunch of 8c's with the quickness!
 Once I climbed this 8c called Lola Corwin in the Siuranella South sector of Siurana I decided to put some bolts on a direct and more logical start of the route... Daniel Jung told me about this new possible line a year ago but I didn't have the time to put the bolts on.
This year the line was still virgin so I took my drill and added five bolts on the new part! 
 I cleaned it a little bit, put some chalk on and immediately started to figure out the sequences. The new rig is in perfect Siurana style, this means super bullet grey rock with tiny crimps, slopey pocket and even a few monos!The new part I bolted could be 8b+ itself, very bouldery and with very small grips. The crux of this part is a very weird move to get a sharp mono! I fell here repeatedly until I splitted a tip and decided to let it go and try it again once the finger was healed!
 This means it was time to move back to Oliana! Silvio finally sent his project Era Vella so we were both “project free” and ready to bounce again!

Second time in Oliana was much better for me. Finally I had some resistence and I could try more seriously what I left uncompleted at the beginning of the trip: Joe Blau, an amazing 50meters long 8c+!
 Joe Blau is a sick route bolted(partially)by Joe Kinder! Basically there was an already existing 8b+ called El Gran Blau that starts from another 8b called Marroncita. At about midway the 8b+ goes right and follow a perfect line on sculpted pocketed rock with a technical and pumpy finish...
Last year Joe bolted the most logical straight line that joins the 8b+! The part Joe bolted it's alone around hard 8c with some of the best moves and kind of holds you can find everywhere!
Well this time I didn't punt much and after only a couple of days and without falling at the end I finished this great rig! It's defenitely one of the longest hard routes I've done in my career and I was pretty psyched to finish it!
Joe climbed it as well... he put alot of work on his route last season but he couldn't finish it and left Spain empty handed. But this year has been different and he finally finished his opera!! Mission complete dude!Props!
Days in Oliana have been great! The crag was always packed with lots of people from all over the world! Adam and Chris were in the house too working on La Dura Dura and the climb on it is actually one of the most impressive things I've seen. The route looks ridiculous like 9b or so in ten meters then another ten meters of 8c+ and more 8b climb at the top... New Level!
Funny thing was that everybody was psyched and couldn't wait for the “Dura Dura Show” to start! And when the two climbers were off trying the rig the audience was quiet watching the show and cheering their favourite one...
Unfortunately I couldn't watch the final episode! Adam finally climbed La Dura Dura the same day we left Oliana! Good job dude!
But beside the two super heroes I think the most impressive ascent has been done by Silvio!
Last year when I came back from a couple of weeks here in Oliana having climbed Mind Control,one of the classics of the wall, given 8c+ at the time,now 8c, I met Silvio some days later and told him that he should have tried it on flash... I know him pretty well, I know what he is capable to do and this route suits his style perfectly so I was pretty sure he would have had a good chance to flash it!
Well my prediction was right and Silvio, with the perfect beta from Ondra Benes and Barbara Raudner and some help with the translation from myself executed perfectly all the moves and casually flashed the route!!! Very inspiring to watch and pretty intense moment for me as well since I had the big responsability to instantly translate and give quick indications about the moves...
 After the great successes in Oliana the days were quickly coming to the end and we only had a couple of days left climbing in Siurana and by my part trying to finish “La Carriola Project”, the direct start of Lola Corwin I bolted some weeks before.
I felt really good that day and the conditions were okay. Cold, cloudy and a bit humid but at least it was not sunny and there was not too much wind. This route needs cold temps in my opinion, the sun makes the blue rock too warm and the wind makes the rock too dry and glassy... So that day was kinda perfect for my tastes!
 I gave one first try to put all the quickdraws and getting the whole thing dialed again. Next try I fell one more time to stuck the mono due to a little foot slip. Next try was luckily the last one, I climbed perfectly the first part but got into the crux of Lola Corwin a bit pumped. But with the last power I had I did the crux boulder and clipped the chain of this new amazing route I named La Carriola!!
What a huge relief having completed the process just before leaving.
 I'm really proud of this route, I think it's a new good addition in the Siurana hard routes and I can't wait to hear about someone trying it and maybe repeating it!
The grade I gave is 8c+ but I'm free to listen other opinions.
The math is not good for this route since the first half of Lola Corwin is about 7a+ and only the second half gives the 8c(maybe a soft one?)grade...
On La Carriola I personally think the first part is about 8b+ and the second part is basically the 8c part of Lola Corwin... and it makes 8c+!?! I have no clue but this is the grade I felt when I climbed it!...
Well I hope you enjoyed this post... It's really hard to explain all the mixed emotions I felt during this two months but finally I can say it has been the best trip/experience of my life!
 Living in a van in contact with two good friends like Silvio and Mauro and our van neighbour for two months Graziano, passing the best times during Xmas/New Years days with the homies: Petardo,Thomas,Guido,Pietro,Vieri,Claudio,Stefanino,Luca..., improving my spanish and learning from the experience of Bernardo and Jah and of course passing great times with Chris,Daila,Anna,Paolo,Joe,Colette,Barbara,Hannes,Primo,Adam,Kubo and all the people I met during this couple of months!! Gracias!

Now it's time to chill out a little bit  and getting ready for the next trip!...
VENGA!!