Darius Rapa and Samuel Richard send Es Pontas (9a+)

Darius Rapa and Samuel Richard have repeated Chris Sharma’s classical Es Pontas (9a+) in Mallorca. Both are active competition climbers and Rapa was sixth in the Lead Euro Youth Championship this year and Richard won in Boulder. More info to come.

Christian Core, Boulder World Champion in 2003 and who five years later did the FA of Gioia (8C+), took the picture. The Italian travelled from Canada to Mallorca with the vision of the picture. ”During the flight, part of my rational mind said "total madness", while the other part repeated, "yes but this is crazy cool". For making it work, so many things had to come together perfectly, too many:

- First of all, the weather (it had rained the week before, of course for the photo I needed clear skies).
- No clouds, (there where many around...)
- Being there at the right time in the evening, just few minutes before it got too dark.
- Another very important point to consider is to have a climber climbing a part of a 9a+ (5.15a) route in the dark with only the light of a lamp...

How did you get create the mysterious light on the picture?
I used three flashes and one incredibly strong powerful lamp. One flash behind the left big rock, showing the arch. The guy low on the left keeps the lamp, otherwise Darius in the dark wasn't seeing the rock and holds. Darius was climbing without any lamp, we used one powerful on the left holder by the guy. It was late, at the beginning of stars, around 8 pm. It was and incredible team work with everyone, I loved every second.