Gabri Moroni repeats Erebor (9b)

Gabriele Moroni, who has already done 22 routes 9a to 9a+, has sent Stefano Ghisolfi’s Erebor (9b) in Arco. The Italian is a former successful competition climber who took the bronze in the Euro Boulder Championship in 2004, at age 16. He stopped competing in 2018 after he had won his first Boulder World Cup. In 2023, he made his comeback and his best result was #25. (c) Enrico Veronese

Can you tell us more about Erebor?
It has been a long process! I briefly tried it once or twice after I did Trofeo dell’Adriatico at the start of 2022 and found out if I ever wanted to invest my time on a 9b, Erebor could be the right one. Pretty much my style and not too far from home.

During the fall of 2022 I started working more seriously together with Stefano Carnati and Luca Bana. We spent several weekends trying hard and sharing betas and we all made fast progress. I actually started falling at the redpoint crux so I thought I was close. It was around December. Then I went to Siurana for a couple of weeks.

I finally got back on Erebor at the end of January and it took me a few sessions to get back to where I was in December. I fell at the redpoint crux another few times till one day I hurt my knee on the route and it was game over for the season.

This fall I wished I could start trying it earlier but it was very warm till November. I trained a lot and since the beginning I felt really strong on the route and after a few session I already matched my old highpoint. It took me another handful of days for the send but I felt this season the route went pretty fast!

What are your 2024 plans? I don’t have many plans for 2024. Like in 2023 I will try my best to fit and combine everything I do. My jobs, training and the outside projects! So let’s see what happens. No more comps 😜