Luca Bana gets A Present for the Future (9a+) in Italy

26-year-old Italian climber Luca Bana has repeated A Present for the Future, a 9a+ put up in 2010 by Adam Ondra in the G-rota sector close to the historic crag Madonna della Rota in Valle dell'Opol, Northern Italy. After several holds broke on the crux section the route was finally repeated for the first time in 2021 by Stefano Carnati, and Bana has now claimed the third ascent after a handful of sessions.

Commenting on his Instagram account, he explained "Quite a short chapter lasted more or less a handful of sessions, born out of the need to express myself and get involved on a different terrain than usual: very steep crux, hardcore moves and painful holds, this route is no joke and certainly does not belong to the commercial and most inflated ones."

This is Bana's third 9a+ after Goldrake at Cornalba in 2019 and Super Crackinette at Saint Léger du Ventoux in France at the start of 2024. In the past he has bouldered up to 8B, even flashing the 8A+ of Darkness at Brione, while up in the mountains his stand-out repeats include a single-day free ascent of of Scacciadiavoli (560m, 8a+/8b max, 7c obligatory) on Marmolada in the Dolomites with Bernardo Rivadossi.