
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.
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