Leo Bøe ticks Era Vella (9a)

Leo Bøe has done Era Vella (9a) in Margalef. The classic 50m long line FA'd by Chris Sharma was, for many years, the most repeated 9a in the world but then it got downgraded and lost some of its appeal. However, due to more recent hold breakage, 9a is once again being claimed. “Beyond happy with this route! So fun to work and always a fight vs the pump. Who is crazy enough to bolt a line like this…?? I would like to thank all the people who came with me and got me motivated to try hard! 9 days of effort.”

Can you tell us more about Era Vella and your personal journey on it?
I did all the moves on my first round, but I realized it would be a proper fight to link all of them together. For me to send the route I had to get out of my comfort zone and enjoy getting pumped out of my mind. In my attempts I fell and went right back on until I reached the anchor. During a session I would do a run from bottom to the top 3-4 times and would need 2 full rest days to recover. Suddenly when I managed to do the route with 1 fall I knew it was about to happen. I was so close, and suddenly falling at the last quickdraw… Usually people don’t fall at that point, but for me the redpoint crux was just doing the last few easy moves.

What about the backflip? How long was the fall?
I was full of adrenaline! I just unclipped the anchor and jumped. I fell to the first quickdraw after the no hands rest so possibly a 30m fall. I have never done something like that before.