Giovanni Giachino climbs Trainspotting (9a)

Giovanni Giachino, with two 8c+ under his harness, has completed Trainspotting (9a) in Val Tanaro. The 22-year-old is also focusing on comps and has twice this year made it to the final in the Italian Cup.

Can you tell us more about the ascent and what went into completing it?
Trainspotting is one of the three hardest routes in the crag “La Stazione”, recently bolted by Carlo Giuliberti and Lorenzo Bogliacino. The route is at a 40° angle, made of small incut crimps, with relatively good footholds and pretty fun to climb, in my opinion; it could be divided into three sections: the first one being an 8a+/b 10-meter route, the second one is an 8-move-long boulder around 8A/+ and the third section is another 10-meter-long route graded 7b/c.

I started projecting Trainspotting on the 23rd of September 2023, when it hadn’t even been freed yet. After 10 sessions on the route I got halfway up the crux, without successfully climbing it for another 11 days, therefore I stopped trying it in May of 2025. I started this comp season motivated to finally tie up loose ends with Trainspotting, and after months of training and competing both in bouldering and sport climbing competitions, with the guidance of my coach Federico Galli, I went back to the crag last weekend to get back to projecting the route.

On Saturday, after a first try to refresh my memory, on my second try I finally got past the crux I fell off 11 times before and clipped the chain of my first route in the 9th grade. I am very satisfied with the results, but above all I am more satisfied with having climbed my first 9th graded route in this valley, where I spent my childhood and where I discovered, through family members, the world of climbing. Additionally, right there in Valdinferno, I freed my first 8b boulder “Luçe” in 2024.

I really hope this valley will get the spotlight it deserves and that more climbers will come and explore it, because it really has a lot of climbing potential. It is the perfect gateway from the chaos of the city into nature.

What are your summer plans?
There's some 9a in my mind that I want to try, like "Prima classe" in the same crag of "Trainspotting", "pornographie" in Ceuse and mybe another one in "Ailefroide", but I don't know if I can try all of three. I also want do to have one week at Gottard pass in Switzerland and try "Hazel Grace" and like 10 days in Sardinia trying some new routes in Ulassai.