In reply to UKC News:
This is a nice demonstration how may things be lost in translation, particularly when climbing is involved:
1)“Consolidated” – Jon is very right on this one. A better translation could have been “strengthened” (I understand the hold was wobbly, so it was made stay put using – possibly, but I'm not sure - a bit of resin). Nothing was chipped - Maurizio feels quite strongly against chipping, which is quite understandable considering his North-eastern/Dolomites upbringing. And by the way, he’s very sparse in the use of bolts.
2)In Italian climbing jargon, the difference between “slabs” and “wall” is quite pronounced. “Wall” -> “muro” is used almost exclusively for small vertical/overanging reliefs that are climbed using “holds” (or “holes”) and not friction (or for an indoor climbing wall). If something is bigger than that, is a “paretina” or even a “parete”. If something (as in the case of Eternit) is made of uniformly semi-vertical, featureless rock slabs where holding on crimps is backed up by using friction, these are definitely “placche”-> “slabs” (i.e. Maurizio did not really all dyno his way up).
Maurizio/Manolo is really a living legend in Italy, of Bonatti-size fame (even if what he does is much different than Bonatti, of course). I had the luck to see him climb last year near Turin, and spend some time with him at dinner in the evening. He did climb 7b (even with a near crippling and quit painful joints problem) as people normally does walk. I was also pleasantly surprised how self effacing and charming he was (a lot of far less talented climbers are far less modest!).
If you’ve a chance try seeing one of his lectures – he does something like a story of his climbing life, great pictures and music but not a single mention of boring grades or route names!