Riccardo Moretti climbs Grandi Gesti at Sperlonga

On Wednesday, December 6, 22-year-old Riccardo Moretti from Rome repeated Grandi Gesti in the Grotta dell'Arenauta cave at Sperlonga. This is his first 9a and a reference point for Central Italy. Riccardo sent me his thoughts, a video and some photos from his ascent.

"The redpoint didn't require much time, I started trying it the day I repeated Invidia, the 8b+ that shares the same finish as Grandi Gesti. Already on that first day of playing around I unexpectedly managed to do all the single moves and make some promising attempts, so I realised it was within my grasp and started some specific training for this new project.

I returned to the grotto for two consecutive weekends, each attempt provided me with some new beta, and after falling off the last hold I vowed I'd be back as soon as possibile to finish it off! I spent the next day and night thinking about nothing else but the moves, and returned on Wednesday 6 DEcember. After a good warm-up I gave it a go but failed after having made a couple of mistakes.

When I lowered off I thought about how I'd managed to make mistakes where I hadn't ever made any before. I rested and decided to give it one more go, and it proved to be the good one! I climbed completely automatically and without even realising it I clipped the chain. As I mentioned right after the ascent, I don't think it's a difficult 9a, given the effort I had to put in, but I'd prefer to leave the ungrateful task of downgrading the climb to some other top climber."