Stefano Ghisolfi and Pietro Biagini climb hard at Margalef and Varazze

Stefano Ghisolfi continues to climb "a muete" in Spain and after his recent 8c onsight at Oliana he now checks in with another important climb in Catalonia: his seventh 9a+, First Ley at Margalef. First ascended by Chris Sharma, it shares much of Margalef's King Line, First Round First Minute, but then avoids the exit boulder by trending leftwards. In the past it has only been repeated by Adam Ondra and Alexander Megos, and Ghisolfi's declared objective is obviously the 9b First Round First Minute. Should he succeed, this would be the Italians second 9b after his first ascent of Lapsus at Andonno in 2015. In order to reach the chains though there are 6 or 7 extremely difficult moves, especially during the link, but Ghisolfi told planetmountain.com that he is really, really motivated and that he'll remain in Spain for another month…

Talking about 6 or 7 extremely difficult moves: at Varazze young Pietro Biagini struck gold with his first 8B boulder problem, Alphacentauri sit. Biagini is known above all for his results at the crag (where he has redpointed 8c/c+) and climbing competitions, and so at first glance this quick raid to the Italian bouldering mecca comes as a bit of surprise. It shouldn't: Varazze is only 30 minutes from home and in the past he has bouldered up to 8A+. During this quick trip Biagini also repeated Excalibur sit 8A+, two 8A's and countless 7C/+…

TOPO: Margalef, Spain


TOPO: Varazze, Italy