It's been a slow week in terms of global news, but a few ascents stood out, particularly in the bouldering world:
Niky Ceria climbs Gioia
Italian climber Niky Ceria has made the fourth ascent of Christian Core's Gioia in Varazze, Italy. The problem was originally given Fon 8C by Core, before Adam Ondra and Nalle Hukkataival both repeated the problem and suggested an upgrade to 8C+, or at least 8C/+.
Gioia is known for its razor crimps and big, shouldery moves. In 2015, Dave Graham found a new kneebar which made the stand start easier, although he didn't repeat the full line. In the end, Ceria didn't use the original beta or the new kneebar beta but spent time finding his own way which he describes as 'less skin dependant and slightly more powerful.'
Ceria has been ticking off multiple high 8 climbs in recent weeks. In November, he made the second ascent of Jimmy Webb's Ephyra (Font 8C+) in Chironico, Switzerland, as well as repeating Dave Graham's 'The Story of Two Worlds' down the valley in Cresciano.
New Font 8C from Matt Fultz
29-year-old Matt Fultz has established a new Font 8C in Reynolds Creek, Idaho. The problem, which he named Polaris, tackles and overhanging face before slapping to poor holds on the arete - it can be seen in the video below.
Earlier in the year, Fultz made a rare ascent of Daniel Woods' Hypnotized Minds (Font 8C+) in Rocky Mountain National Park; a particularly impressive feat considering he only ticked his first 8C last year.
Uncut: Nicholas Milburn on Southern Drawl (Font 8C)
In the Ticklist #19, we reported that Nicholas Milburn had repeated Jimmy Webb's Southern Drawl (Font 8C) in Chattanooga. Mellow have now released the uncut footage of his ascent which can be seen below. The problem follows a steep roof with a wild swing near the end and Milburn climbs the problem in an impressively nonchalant manner.
Comments
Didn't Daniel Woods go out to repeat Gioia at the same time as Graham, and found a new sequence also? And then Core glued over the footholds so they couldnt use the new sequence. And they left in disgust. That was my memory of how that went down.
Also pretty sure Nalle didn't say anything about the grade, only Ondra.
EDIT: Two sides to the story: www.8a.nu/news/gioia-controversy-what-do-you-think
Well whatever, ancient history
iirc the new sequence with the kneebar was not an issue in the slightest, and had nothing to do with the broken feet.
The issue was they stood on some feet that were obviously going to break, so it was "known" to not try to use them. The easier start shared the same feet and had more traffic with no issues before dwoods and graham.
But they stood on the feet, broke them and exposed better feet. So Christian "fixed" that with glue.