Maurizio 'Manolo' Zanolla climbs F9a Slab

7th September, 2009

This has been read 9,048 times

Maurizio 'Manolo' Zanolla, also known as 'The Magician' due to his exceptional slab technique, has extended his own existing route O ce l'hai... o ne hai bisogno (F8b/+) at the beautiful limestone venue of Baule, Bellunesi Dolomites, Italy.

He has named his 27 metre crimp-fest Eternit and proposed a grade of hard F9a.

The legendary 51 year old Italian climber stated that "Eternit is undoubtedly more demanding than all the others I've climbed in this style, from Bain de Sang to Thin Ice, Appigli ridicole and Bimbaluna."

In an account of the route on PlanetMountain, Manalo describes his ascent:

"I clipped the rope, reached out on nothing and everything seemed to capsize once again. I couldn't take it any more, I wanted to slip and alleviate the pain from my arms, from my head. I delegated all the responsibility to my feet, my shoes, the rubber. I didn't want anything to do with it anymore, slip, just let them slip. But there was still a spark of anger left within me, I loaded and sprung up, far away to the edge of those 11 minutes, 38 seconds and 60 moves of my life. Exactly 19 years after having thought it was impossible..."

Full story and photos on PlanetMountain

This post has been read 9,048 times

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Comments

Moacs

7 Sep, 2009

"Eternit which Manolo describes as "an incredible route. Completely natural (except for one consolidated hold). But above all absolutely vertical" Good effort-ish: - Isn't "completely vertical" a wall, not a slab? - Seems a shame that "completely natural" is noteworthy these days (and he chipped it anyway) J

catt

7 Sep, 2009

Amazing, and it looks beautiful. Great write up as well, who says sport climbing accounts need to be dull. Typically sad that the first comment on this news thread is negative.

jon

7 Sep, 2009

'Slab' over here doesn't necessarily refer to the angle of the rock, as such. More to the monolithic nature of the rock as opposed to features... cracks, corners etc. This means that you can indeed have a vertical slab - it's only us Brits that use it to define angle. And 'chipped'? Is that what 'consolidated' means???

James Oswald

7 Sep, 2009

So if you have a "monolithic" piece of rock which is past vertical would they call it a slab?

jon

7 Sep, 2009

Yes technically, although in France they might also refer to it as a 'dévers'. For an easy angled slab (in France) they might say 'dalle inclinée'. Basically, as I said it is a slab of rock, which, if you think about it is how a non climber in Britain might describe it, and not be referring to the angle.

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