French climber Seb Bouin has repeated Lapsus in Andonno, in northeastern Italy. It was the sixth ascent of the 30m route that Stefano Ghisolfi first free climbed on Nov. 2, 2015. At the time, he graded it 9b (5.15b).
Adam Ondra first repeated the line on April 20, 2017. On reflection, he considered the route 9a+ (5.15a). Ghisolfi himself agrees with that assessment today. He says that when he made the first ascent, kneepads (and kneebars) were not that common. These make the route easier now than back in 2015.
Stefano Ghisolfi makes the first free ascent of ‘Lapsus’. Photo: Stefano Ghisolfi
“The right thing is to confirm that Lapsus is not 9b anymore,” says Ghisolfi.
Lapsus is actually the linkup of two historical routes at the crag. It starts with Noia (the first Italian 8c+) and finishes some 70 moves later on the hard part of Anaconda (8b+). There are some hard moves in between to connect the two routes, says Bouin.
