Michael Piccolruaz sends Alasha (9a) DWS

Michael Piccolruaz, who was #15 in the Tokyo Olympics, has repeated Chris Sharma's Alasha (9a) in Port de Sóller. The 27-year-old Italian is foremost a boulderer and in 2017, he took second place at a World Cup. He has also done two 8C boulders. ”Best experience of my life climbing these moves high above the Mediterranean Sea! The definition of KINGLINE!!”

Can you tell us more about the ascent?
Alasha is definitely special. So happy to get the 3rd ascent. I`ve tried it a bit already two years ago when I got to witness Jakob`s impressive ascent. This year then I planned a trip specifically to try Alasha only.

Together with Jernej Kruder we started working on it right away only to find out that the lower part was soaking wet. And this struggle with the conditions continued for almost the entire trip. And as so often it ended up becoming a last day best day kind of situation. A key hold entering the crux just wouldn`t dry up so I had to put tinfoil on it to prevent my fingers from getting wet and like this make it somewhat climbable. The ascent was quite epic then. I had my crew of friends there supporting me and cheering and on my first go of the day I stuck my previous highpoint on the absolute limit saving myself through to the saving right hand jug. The last moves to the lip of the wall were thankfully all in control and I got to fully experience the rollercoaster of emotions hanging on the topjugs of Alasha so high above the sea. Definitely a dream come true. What a Kingline!

What is next?
Next some projects around home in Innsbruck 👍🏻. I have a long term project of climbing all the routes at the Schleierwasserfall. Currently I'm working on Weiße Rose (9a) and I've tried an open project once which is really good as well. So those two routes I definitely wanna climb now this fall.