Andrea Lostia di Santa Sofia FA’s Terzo Tempo (9a) and Tomatis repeats

Andrea Lostia di Santa Sofia, who the last 12 months has sent his four first 8c+’, has made the first ascent of Terzo Tempo (8c+) in Sardinia. Two days later, Giorgio Tomatis made the first repeat.

Can you tell us more about the first ascent?
Andrea: This means a lot to me, when I started climbing outside three years ago the highest grade ever climbed by a Sardinien climber was 8c. Last year I managed to push that half a grade further with my ascent of La Novena Puerta (8c+) and some dayd ago I finally managed to break into the ninth grade, and what's even better is my first 9a is in Sardinia!

The first day on it it was clear the first boulder was the real deal, initially we weren't sure it would be possible but try after try we combined our efforts to crack the complex beta, the final solution involved a very technical kneebar we used to shuffle our hands between the only three holds on the roof, a total of eleven moves on two meters of rock.

Giorgio is an amazing climber and his experience far exceeds mine. When one of us couldn't refine the beta anymore, the other found something more hidden in the complexity of the problem, without him I surely wouldn't have found the solution we came up with. He also made me realise my tactics were off, I started resting more and better and every detail adds up in the end.

Giorgio: I came to Sardinia with the idea of trying a hard project with Andrea. We spent a lot of time figuring out the beta. After that, Andrea told me the sequence of the second part, which he had already tried before I arrived in Sardinia. I think all this has sped up the process a lot, anyway the route is really beautiful and aesthetic, the first boulder is really hard, and then there is an endurance part ending with a powerful boulder to hit a two-finger pocket, It’s always a good experience to try a route together!