Niccolò Ceria climbs Bügeleisen Sit 8C in Maltatal

Ever so discreetly Italy's Niccolò Ceria has gradually transformed into one of the foremost boulderers in the world. The 29-year-old from Biella tends to shun the crowds, hence his long spells off the beaten track say in the Fontainebleau forest, Norway and Finland, and his courtships of some of the world's most legendary blocs are more often than not lone affairs. This time he was motivated to explore Austria's underrated Maltatal and the problems put up of one of the valley's prime movers, Klem Loskot.

On 11 November the 29-year old repeated Bügeleisen sit; this iron-smooth overhanging sheet was first climbed by Loskot in 2001 with a standstart and 8B+ difficulties, while  in 2014 the sequence of razor-sharp edges was made even more difficult by Nalle Hukkataival whose sitstart bumped the difficulties up to 8C. The boulder, described by the Finn as "one of the BEST hard boulders in the world." has been repeated since, by the likes of Jakob Schubert (2015), Stefan Scarperi (2020) and Nicolai Užnik (2020), and all have confirmed the beauty, difficulty and importance of the line.

Ceria managed to send Loskot's version after three days of effort, before gettint to work on the sitstart. Listening to his inner instinct he discovered a new sequence that suited his style perfectly and, entering "a zone I rarely visit", he "switched to a high-focus mode" and completed the send before quietly walking off into the forest once again. In pure Ceria style.