Stefano Ghisolfi Sends Adam Ondra’s Goldrake (5.15a)
Italian climber Stefano Ghisolfi sends Adam Ondra’s Goldrake (9a+/5.15a) in Cornalba, Italy.
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Italian climber Stefano Ghisolfi sent Adam Ondra’s Goldrake (9a+/5.15a) in Cornalba, Italy this weekend. His ascent, the fourth for the route, took him only four days of effort.
“At the end of the day and with a bloody finger I clipped the chain unexpectedly, with a great battle until the end,” he posted on Instagram. “The most epic moment was when I tried to chalk up in the middle of the crux move, and I succeed!”
Ondra claimed the route’s first ascent in April 2010 when he was only 17 years old. Previously, it had been an open project bolted years before by Bruno
Tassi. It took more than four years for the route to see a second ascent, which was made by the Italian climber Gabriele Moroni in October 2014. Moroni worked the route for three years.
Seventeen-year-old Stefano Carnati, also Italian, laid down the route’s third ascent last month—in an astonishing 13 attempts, made over five days.
After hearing the news, Moroni posted on Facebook: “What the New Generation can do! What it took three years of my life … is a normal thing
for them … Good job Stefano Carnati!”
On April 3, Ghisolfi, age 23, joined the Italian send-train with Goldrake’s fastest ascent yet.
Last November, he established what might be Italy’s first 5.15b, Lapsus (9b/5.15b), in Andonno. The super-project links Noia (8c+/5.14c)
into Anaconda (8c/5.14b).
“I propose a new grade for me and for Italy,” he wrote on Instagram after his ascent. “I think this is much harder than Biographie[/Realization] [5.15a] and Demencia Senil [5.15a],” both Chris Sharma route’s, which he climbed the summer before. Ghisolfi told Rock and Ice that
he believes Lapus to also be harder than Goldrake.
As for what’s next, “I think I’m going to try some projects in Italy and then compete in lead world cups,” he told 8a.nu. “My ambition is always the podium.”
Follow Stefano Ghisolfi on Instagram @steghiso.
Watch Adam Ondra on Goldrake (5.15a):
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