HOTEL SUPRAMONTE   At the Ice World Cup I was lucky enough to meet Mi Sun Go, the very strong Korean finalist at the Climbing World Cup. She told me she would like to try something different... and it's almost as if she had read my mind. That old idea immediately came to me, a project I had been thinking of for ages: repeat, a number of difficult routes with several pitches using sport pitons. Bubu - Mi Sun Go... looked like a perfect team to me: I, the headstrong mountaineer, she, a last generation climber in perfect condition. Two completely different cultures. Two different languages... as a matter of fact, we could hardly communicate at all, just that little bit in English. A perfect team! We took off on our "journey" on the 12th of April. Destination: Sardinia. Goal: repeat "Hotel Supramonte", one route, opened by Larcher and Vigiani, one of a kind. We weren't very well prepared. She hasn't been near a rock in four months, just weights and boulder. I'm not fit, but I'm really motivated and that helps a lot... also because, on these routes, either you're so motivated that everything seems easier or you'd better get motivated! The route starts off with a 7b+ and then proceeds with a 7c+, 8b, 8a+, 7c, 7a+, 7b+, 7b, 7b and 6b+. We try the central part for two days, but a north-west wind is forecasted, so I drop everything and run to the west coast for some windsurfing. For two days that's all I do and I almost forget our goal in the Gorropu canyon. I realize how much energy my passion for windsurfing takes out of me... but I can't do without it! On the third day I decide to return to the Hotel... more out of respect for Mi Sun than for the route itself. That day I decide not to climb, I am too tired so I follow her with the Jumar so that she has all the time to try out the single passages which are at the limit for her small stature. The morning after, "love at first sight". I decide to try the route from below and, as usual, I do it all in a hurry and I'm at the base at eleven in the morning. It's obviously a good day and everything's going right. I feel like a perpetual engine, I can't do wrong. I only encounter some problems on the last two 7b lengths, my thumbs are burning, but mostly I'm scared of falling and ruining everything. It may only be a "7b" but after nine pitches, and at twilight, I give it my all to find a belay. Mi Sun follows me by climbing second all the way and at the end she's almost crying from the pain in her thumbs, but she won't give up! We quickly climb down in the dark, the worst part of the day, also because she has never seen a descent before this week. For the next few days, Mi Sun keeps trying the pitches and in the end she manages almost all of them. Given her short height, I have to admit she's good. All she needs is a little more experience, but she's a quick learner. Sooner or later she'll return to finish it. The season of our "journey" on the alpine walls is nearing.   Bubu				"Hotel Supramonte" SARDINIA (Gola di Gorropu) Report Movie (4,73 Mb)
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