Stefano Carnati has made the fifth ascent of Erebor 9b, in Arco, Italy.
First ascensionist Stefano Ghisolfi, who also bolted the route himself, first climbed the route 2021, grading it 9b/9b+. The grade was supported by second ascensionist Laura Rogora, but new beta from Adam Ondra and a further repeat from Jakob Schubert have seen the grade confirmed at 9b.
Erebor is Carnati's hardest ascent to date. Sharing the news on instagram, he said:
'Overall it's been an unforgettable process ... The hardest part definitely involved [keeping] the motivation high enough when the amount of time passing between each session was (at least) one week and progress was most times very slow'.
'But unless you get stuck by the repetitiveness of the actions, sometimes the weekend warrior mode has its pros. In this situation it definitely gave me time to recognise a better approach forward by analysing every finest detail in such a way that I could work on my weaknesses during my training routine and possibly be gradually more complete'.
Stefano Ghisolfi making the first ascent.
'This is a kind of route where it is relatively easy to make rapid progress at the beginning, since it doesn't involve any super hard single move. But ... the true difficulty lies in linking each sections. Every tiny mistake on a move may hinder success on the subsequent [moves]'.
'Indeed I was able to climb it split in two parts already after a short amount of time, but moving the highpoint up and up was extremely demanding .... Props to Stefano Ghisolfi for bolting and establishing this great power endurance testpiece!'
Whilst Erebor was the hardest route in Italy when Ghisolfi first climbed it, he's since been busy, establishing not only a harder exit to Erebor - The Lonely Mountain, 9b - but his hardest route to date, Excalibur, 9b+.
With both of these routes either in or close to Arco, Carnati has plenty to keep him occupied.
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