Shikantaza | E9 Trad climb

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First ascent.

The route is located on a big boulder at the base of Sergent; it starts following a sloper rail on a prow until a good flake, where you place some micro cams before setting off for the crux section. After a few moves you reach a good crimp, on which I decided to place a cliff as protection; the placement looks good, but the hold is a loose flake, which would probably break if you take a big fall. I tensioned (on lead) the hook with some cord to a lower cam to stop it from falling off accidentally. The next section involves some technical moves and small crimps and ends with some insecure moves to a big flake, where you can finally place some more gear before the easier top out. [1]

References

[1] https://www.planetmountain.com/en/news/climbing/jacopo-larcher-adds-two-difficult-trad-climbs-to-valle-dell-orco-italy.html

Second ascent.

I was still a little apprehensive about trying it on the lead, as a fall could have pretty nasty consequences. It feels very much like a Grit route, where it's really, really short, but there's only a small section which is particularly dangerous. However, you can very quickly do one move too many and go from feeling very safe, to suddenly realising that if you make a mistake you're going to hit the floor. [1]

References

[1] https://www.ukclimbing.com/news/2024/10/james_pearson_makes_first_repeat_of_shikantaza-73811

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOe_pqQ8Auk