Niky Ceria does the FA of Ghost of the Navigator

Niky Ceria reports on Insta, that he has done the FA of Ghost of the Navigator in Valle d'Aosta. He found the line in 2021 and in the end, it took him four days not including all the days cleaning and preparing. The Italian used 22 pads which took him over 30 minutes to place. The 30-year-old has previously done around ten boulders 8C or 8C+ but some of his FAs he hasn't graded like this one. ”It’s a line which stays somewhere in the middle of several styles such as bouldering, highball and trad and we didn’t squeeze it into a number.”

How high is it and is it hard also at the top?
For the last moves the feet are at 6 meters and it’s quite steep. It was personally the most difficult part of the climbing and not easy to figure out. It finally has 20 moves :)

Did you work it on top rope? What was the highest point you fell?
I took a fall once placing my feet just below the upper section. Quite controlled. I worked the last moves with the rope very well and all the sequences with ladders and pads up to 5 meters.

"Ghost of the Navigator was a lot about preparedness. If I think back to the days I have spent on it, more than 70% of the time isn’t related to climbing. After the finding part, I spent a few moments visualizing and taking the measures. No-bolts philosophy means that you have to commit using the things that you find. The tree at the top isn’t in line therefore a person has to hold the rope in angle. This means that the time to work on it is very reduced. I hence used the days on my own for cleaning the holds and washing the lichens away properly. Spraying water on this rock doesn’t cause any damage. On the contrary, it helps to scratch less and preserve the precious texture at the top. The height and the steepness made me very concerned about the fall. Differently than on other occasions, and due to the huge size of the problem, I opted to use some of the dead branches to flatten the landing a bit. The rest of my lonely days was spent taking care of the forest around the wall which is sadly very unhealthy."