Stefano Carnati repeats Vicious Circle (9a+/b) at Mišja peč in Slovenia

Stefano Carnati scores it big once again at Mišja peč in Slovenia. After sending the crag's three 9a's - Sanjski par extension in December, Xaxid hostel in January and Martin Krpan in February - last Saturday the 25-year-old Italian dropped the ace and redpointed the 9a+/b Vicious Circle. This is the most difficult route at the crag, and also the most difficult in Slovenia, established in 2016 by Adam Ondra and hitherto unrepeated.

Vicious Circle begins to the left of Za staro kolo in majhnega psa with a start bolted by Ondra, before traversing rightwards and joining the upper section of Sanjski par extension, providing a total of 40 moves, many of which extremely complex. To complicate matters, on his second day of attempts Carnati broke an edge on the first hold, making "the intro sequence less flowy."

Despite this setback, Carnati needed only 12 sessions for the redpoint, plus the 3 for Sanjski par ext in December. This speed is astonishing and underlines once again the skill of Carnati who in the past has sport climbed up to 9b (Erebor in Arco, April 2023 and bouldered up to 8C+ (Vecchio Leone Sit Start in Brione, November 2023).

 

 

 

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