Nils Favre climbs his "side project" The Story of two Worlds (8C) in Cresciano. He repeats the Ticino classic without a kneepad and thus in the same way as Dave Graham opened it 18 years ago.
The ascent of The story of two worlds (8C) comes for Nils Favre almost surprising. After an intensive session in Ephyra (8C+) the day before, the French-speaking Swiss decided to go at the Dreamtime block in the evening. «I needed a few tries for the first section. When I then tried to connect the beginning and the end, I was able to climb the boulder,” says Nils Favre.
Uncut video: Nils Favre climbs The Story of two Worlds
Proven Beta
Spread over the past ten years, Nils Favre only tried his hand at The Story of Two Worlds during two or three shorter sessions. Two weeks ago, Jernej Kruder asked him to try the Graham problem with him. He got the individual moves together fairly quickly.
On another day he was able to climb the entire first part, but fell out in the dagger. Although he had repeated Toni Lamprecht's 8B boulder before, he could no longer remember the solution. "I first had to watch a video of myself from 2013 to remember my own beta."
"It was exciting to see that despite my progress as a climber over the past ten years, my beta from back then still worked best for me."
Nils Favre
With or without - a question of style
Nils Favre repeated The Story of two Worlds without a kneepad. A conscious decision by the 31-year-old: "Dave Graham climbed the boulder for the first time. Kneepads make a big difference in terms of difficulty."
“I tried the line more for the story than the difficulty, so it made sense for me to climb it without a kneepad.
Nils Favre
The Story of two Worlds can be climbed so differently
The way in which Dave Graham's test piece is walked on and evaluated - especially with regard to the use of kneepads - has repeatedly caused controversy in the past.
Alex Megos, among others, also expressed his displeasure after he had forced a quick inspection of the line in December 2020. He called for the "how" to be the focus and not the mere fact of having climbed a boulder or a route.
That might interest you
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- Excalibur: Why Adam Ondra is taking himself out of the race
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Credits: Cover picture Nils Favre