14 March 2015

Gioia controversy based on a misunderstanding?

As it turns out, Gioia, famous for its difficulty, already has five glued holds. 8a thinks Christian Core did the right thing to glue it back to its original state, especially because the broken hold was located in the 8A+ stand start. If there had not existed five glued holds, prior to one hold getting bigger from climbing, we do not think it should have been glued back without full consensus. In general, we also think that it could be OK to reinforce loose holds. From the picture we can see the size of the the broken hold from when Adam Ondra climbed it, meaning that it must have been bigger when Dave Graham and Daniel Woods started trying Gioia and using that hold. This Christian Core did not know, so he just glued it back to its original status. We have been talking with Christian and he is very sorry for the controversy. He just did what he thought the whole community wanted him to do and he says that the locals agree with him. He feels sorry for not meeting and discussing the broken hold together with other potential Gioia climbers, to decide if it should be glued and how. - I am very sorry for any misunderstanding and poor communication. The broken and glued hold is on the crux of Gioia stand 8A+ so I did not think it was such a big thing but important to preserve the lines. There were already invisible glue on four more holds on the 8A+. Varazze is a very beautiful bouldering area and we welcome everyone to come and try our nice boulders. Adam Ondra has shared his opinion in the 8a forum and he also thinks Christian did the right thing as in fact the broken hold was loose from the beginning.
12 comments
Sort by:
Date
Reply
Most commented
Jernej Kruder sends Martin Krpan (9a) sans knee pads

Jernej Kruder, who won the Boulder World Cup in 2018, has done Martin Krpan (9a) in Mišja Peč. “I would like to expose something here: I spent many tries on t…

Welcome to Vertical-Life Web

Six years after partnering with 8a.nu, we’re excited to announce the unification of the 8a.nu website and the Vertical-Life app into a single platform: Vertical…

Will Bosi repeats Return of the Sleepwalker (9A)

William Bosi has made the second ascent of Daniel Woods’ Return of the Sleepwalker (9A) in Black Velvet Canyon, after projecting it for 12 sessions. This was th…

Favorites
Katie Lamb makes history

Katie Lamb has become the first woman to climb 8C+ by completing Box Therapy (8C) in RMNP. Daniel Woods made the FA back in 2018, and only Drew Ruana and Sean B…

"It was dramatic to the very end." On the 8a finish of Project Big in Flatanger, Jakob Schubert explains that a horn broke and he was close to falling. The last three minutes of the video show just how much this climb means to him."This horn could have ended my career... This was the biggest mental …

Will Bosi repeats Return of the Sleepwalker (9A)

William Bosi has made the second ascent of Daniel Woods’ Return of the Sleepwalker (9A) in Black Velvet Canyon, after projecting it for 12 sessions. This was th…