Adam Ondra: 2nd Ascent of Gioia (V16)

Adam Ondra has completed the second ascent of Christian Core’s Gioia in Varazze, Italy.  It’s been a long time coming for a problem this beautiful and hard to see a repeat.  Last spring, Daniel Woods traveled to the line for an attempt and Christian took him to his problem.  Although able to do all the moves, Daniel was shut down by warm temperatures. 

The problem was first established by Christian Core in 2008.  Since then it’s been attempted by some of the world’s strongest climbers with no success.  Christian originally did the line as a stand start from a prominent edge in the middle of the problem which was V13.  Adding in the full line produced what has become regarded as another potential “hardest problem in the world.”  In a write-up by Christian at PlanetMountain Christian quotes Varazze local Marco Bagnasco, “I'm not sure exactly when, but someday I'll find another difficult problem, perhaps not as hard as Dreamtime, but just as beautiful.”   The problem he found became Gioia.

Back in January of this year, Adam made his first attempts on the problem and stated on infoboulder.com, “When I first saw "Gioia" on the pictures, I was really amazed and wanted to take a look at it, Christian also was also persuading me many times to come, but I finally found some time this January.

The problem didn't disappoint me at all, it looked even more spectacular and bigger than on the pictures, which is very rare, most times it is the other way round. I managed to send "the stand" quite fast though it is not fully my style and started trying the sit immediately. The beginning is less physical and extremely crimpy, what suits me much better. But I struggled to make all the moves anyway. In the end of the day, I did all the moves but one. But I can understand that doing all the moves is nothing in comparison with linking the full project. There are so many hard moves in a row, you have to try again and again to get right and fast flow, because I don't think there is anyone in the world who is capable to do this problem slowly.

Judging from one day of trying it, I think it is comparable with "The Story of the Two Worlds" in Cresciano, which should be 8C+ (V16) according to everyone except the careful proposal by Dave (Graham). I am psyched to return for this perfect problem in autumn.”

Originally graded V15 by Core, Ondra has suggested V16 for the problem.  Click the image below for footage of Christian on Gioia which means simply “Joy.”

Sources: up-climbing.com, infoboulder.com, Planetmountain.com

Update!  Click here for video of Ondra on his ascent.