As the third climber in the world, Stefano Ghisolfi climbs a 9c route. After missing the Olympic qualification, the strong Italian manages an ascent of the route „Bibliographie“ in the French climbing crag „Ceüse“.

The 35 m long route was bolted by Ethan Pringle in 2009 and is located in the „Biography“ sector, which also includes the legendary route of the same name and was first ascented by German Alex Megos last year. After all, it took him 60 days, splited over few years, until he managed to climb the route.

„PLEASE DON’T WAKE ME UP, like in every fairy tales last day was actually the best day. I’m crying

Thanks for the amazing and endless support @sara_grip (who made the video of the ascent too), @sebbouin for the send belay (now it’s your turn), and @ethan_pringle and @alexandermegos for the vision. And thank you all for your support with always positive comments!„

„Yesterday and the day before I wanted to focus more on my journey, the climb and the people around the story of Bibliographie, I avoided on purpose talking about grades, but seems inevitable to do so. I took a day to think about it to find the right words. When I started trying Bibliographie I couldn’t imagine I could climb it in one season, watching @Alexandermegos video the route seemed impossible and if it took him 60 days, I start projecting it thinking to come back over the years. In the end, I felt good on it from the beginning, found new beta for the crux (switching left and right hand compare to Alex), and new beta for the second crux. I climbed it in a total of 25 climbing days during this 3 months, and I tried to compared it to Change and Perfecto Mundo, changing my mind every other day. Change took me around the same time and Perfecto Mundo a bit more, but I feel all the 3 routes could fit all in the same grade range. I know I can climb a 9c, but for a route to be that grade it needs to be much harder than the existing 9b+s, and Bibliographie for me isn’t. This doesn’t mean I want to belittle the performance of anyone, neither Alex’s or mine, it is still an incredible achievement (especially the first ascent that includes many more hard mental and physical aspects) but I just wanted to be honest about what I felt during the whole process on Bibliographie, and this is just my opinion, hopefully we will listen other soon. I would have been happy to be the third person to have climbed 9c, but I’m my heart I know I’m not (yet)“

After „Perfecto Mundo“ (9b +) and „Change“ (9b +) it was Stefano’s third route at the upper difficulty limit. It was the first repetition of all routes.

Photo: (c) Adri Martinez