Leo Cea, 11, ticks Era Vella (9a)

Leo Cea, with two 9a’s under his belt, has repeated Chris Sharma’s classical Era Vella (9a)* in Margalef. In the Vertical-Life interview from September the 11-year-old Chilean said that his dream was to try Era Vella and his uncle Javier reports. (c) Cris Posadas @gamantri

”Leo had 11 sessions on EV. Most of them with terrible conditions due to the storm affecting Spain. Only on 3 sessions he was able to try to second half of the route. He never complain about the conditions nor was frustrated. He worked with perseverance, calm mind, and enjoyment on every single go.

Due to his height [141 cm], he had to figure out different ways to solve many of the sections of the route. Even on the send go, he climbed EV figuring out on the moment different ways to climb it because the conditions of the route were not optimal (pretty humid and some holds even with water inside). He had to solve moves on the spot by changing the way that he was climbing it before.@

How long is the trip and what about school?
26 days including travelling time. Leo is a very good student. He enjoys school and work hard, so his teachers thought there will be no problem of him missing some class time. They created a plan with his teachers to minimize the impact of him being away for this long. He is going straight back to school as soon as he is back in Chile.

What was the background for the trip?
Last year, in october, he sent his first 8b+. As a gift for him, René, his dad, gave him the climbing guide of Margalef. Leo knew a little about Margalef at that time, but after he got the guide he started to explore Margaled through the guide and fell in love with some iconic routes (demensia senil, victimas perez, era vella, etc). then his eyes and goals were put on climbing in Margalef. With the help of his coach and other experienced chilean climbers, he choose EV as the main project for his first visit to Margalef. At his house you can see many drawings of Margalef routes made by Leo hanging on the walls. This was really a dream for him that came true.

* It should be noted that we have previously reported Era Vella as an 8c+/9a but due to a break it is now considered 9a.