Andrea Locatelli (11) excels at onsight

4 August 2022

Andrea Locatelli, who did his first 8c last year, has onsighted El General left (8a+) in Valle dei Mulini. In total, the 11-year-old has onsighted nine 8a's and two 8a+ which means only Adam Ondra has had a more impressive onsight ticklist at age 11, i.e nine 8a+. Here is a video from a recent trip to Frankenjura.

When Andrea had onsighted his first 8a, his father David commented. "Since Andrea was very young, we got him used to spending a lot of time outdoors, often on the crag, close to home or around Europe. When he was three years old, he started to play in the small climbing gym we have in our garage, and he improved very fast. At the age of seven, he joined a climbing team and started to compete in regional and national competitions. He likes to climb in the climbing gym, where he trains twice or three times a week, but he also loves to climb outdoors. So far, he has not dedicated many days to a project, and he likes onsight climbing. At the age of nine, he completed his first 8a and right afterward his first 7c onsight. To reach the climbing areas, we often travel with the whole family in our camper, trying to offer him a variety of climbing styles, types of rocks, crags, and boulder areas. Soon, we would like to go to Fontainebleau and then Kalymnos!"

How is it mentally, focusing so much on onsights?
When we go to the cliff to try a pitch, regardless of grade, Andrea goes up as if he had to climb it onsight. The idea is: to see where you arrive, otherwise if you want you can always try again. So it’s not stressful. In recent months I think it’s almost never happened that he devoted more than a day to a route… Now, however, he wants to try something harder and raise the grade but there will also be ascents onsight!
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