Gabriele Moroni: Three 9a’s (5.14d/.15a) in Five Days in Frankenjura
Italian climber Gabriele Moroni crushed it last week in Frankenjura, making the second ascent of Classified (5.14d/5.15a). He then went on to send two 5.14d's: Sever the Wicked Hand and Elder Statesman.
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Italian climber Gabriele Moroni has had an excellent end to September in Frankenjura. During the last week of the month, he managed to send three routes 5.14d and higher. Having made the second ascent of Classified (5.14d/5.15a), Moroni went on to climb Sever the Wicked Hand (5.14d) and The Elder Statesman (5.14d) on September 27 and 29, respectively.
Moroni described his ascent of Classified on his 8a.nu page:
“2nd ascent of this beautiful route recently opened by Alex Megos. Talking with him we both think the grade would need a slash since it can’t be considered as a solid 5.15a but neither a 5.14d… so 5.14d/5.15a sounds good! It took me around 15 tries in not always the best conditions…”
Megos, the young climbing phenom from Germany, freed the route last April.
According to Markus Bock’s Frankenjura difficulty list, a website that ranks all the hardest climbs at Frankenjura from most difficult to least difficult, Moroni’s ascents are ranked #2, #4 and #15, with Sever the Wicked Hand being the least difficult.
Previously, Moroni sent Action Directe (5.14d), a classic Wolfgang Gullich test piece from 1991 and the fifth hardest route at Frankenjura, according to Bock’s list. In 2008, he placed second at the Vail World Cup in the United States.
See below a video of Moroni climbing with Silvio Reffo in Frankenjura.