8C Sport Route...Above Gear!
It takes balls to climb an 8c sport route and ignore the bolts…but 8c trad clearly doesn’t bother Jacopo Larcher!
His send of ‘Lapoterapia’ in Italy using gear placed en route will make it one of the hardest trad climbs in the world.
Having climbed the route using bolts a few days previously, Jacopo realised that the thin, overhanging crack might take some gear. Rushing back to the climb, he inspected the route by head torch as darkness closed in.
As he told Pierre Delas/Fanatic climbing after his ascent:
'The last weekend of November I visited Osso by chance, and got attracted by the beauty of that flared crack. I immediately realized that it would have been possible to climb it on trad, but I didn't have any gear with me, so I climbed it clipping the bolts, making the third ascent of the route. I was of course happy about my ascent, but the idea to climb it on gear was too tempting...and after just a few days at home, I drove back to Osso with some pads and gear.
The gear, although good, certainly sounds spicy:
‘As you can't place any gear until the fourth bolt, I used two crash pads to "protect" that section. The first crux is protected by a small but good cam (if it pops you fall straight on the ground) and the following sections by some micro cams. Doing it on trad, the real crux becomes to place the small cams (Red C3 and 0.1 X4) before the hardest section, as the placement is not so obvious and the holds aren't really good. From there, you have to climb the hardest section (long runout) before you can place some more gear and do the last section.’
Epic T.V has an exclusive interview coming up with Jacopo, so stay tuned for that!
