Stefano Ghisolfi does a red point ascent of a 9b route for the sixth time. He climbs Stoking The Fire in the Cova Gran in the climbing area Santa Linya, Spain.
The Italian Stefano Ghisolfi has had an extremely successful year. Despite concentrating on the numerous international competitions, he found time to climb difficult routes outdoors. Already at the beginning of the year he climbed Queen line ,a route with the difficulty 9b. Now he doubles that with Stoking the Fire - and this under extremely bad conditions.
“I'm struggling with the humidity and the fog here in Santa Linya. I've never seen the cave that wet and it's hard to find the motivation to come back every day and get on the route. I still have plenty of time to wait, but if the situation doesn't get better, I'll start serious attempts despite the wet grips. Is it possible to climb a 9b with wet handles? "
Stefano Ghisolfi shortly before Stoking The Fire climbs through
Stefano is the fifth person to climb the route. The line was first ascended by Chris Sharma in the year 2013, followed by Adam Ondra. Last year it was the Austrian Jakob Schubert and the Japanese Sachi Ammawere able to climb the route redpoint.
Six 9b and one 9b + in the bag
For Stefano Ghisolfi Stoking The Fire is the sixth route of this difficulty. Beside Queen Line, he also climbed the famous First Round First Minute in Margalef and La Capella in Siurana. In this context, it should not be forgotten that he climbed the route Perfecto Mundo (9b+), the second most difficult route in the world, which he climbed in December 2018.
That might interest you
+ + +
Credits: Cover picture Sarah Grip