Elias Lagnemma Repeats Christian Core’s Gioia V15/16

It was originally given V15, but upgraded by Adam Ondra. This is only the fifth ascent

Gripped February 23, 2021

Crusher and Squamish-based Christian Core began climbing when he was 12 years old, and he went on to win two Bouldering World Cup titles as well as a Bouldering World Championship. Core is also known for establishing Gioia in Italy, which he graded V16. Elias Lagnemma has just made the fifth ascent.

In 2011, Adam Ondra repeated Gioia and said it should be uprated: “If you were to give this 8c [V15], then bouldering grades wouldn’t make much sense anymore. You’d have to downgrade all the 8b+’s (V14s) and most of the 8c’s (V13s) as well. Ondra said Core rated the route V15 to “play things safe.” Ondra then suggested Gioia was V16. “If we admit that some of the current testpieces are V16 and not V15, I think it is better for the whole scale,” Ondra said.

Gioia was then repeated by Nalle Hukkataival in 2014 and Niccolò Ceria in 2020. Hukkataival didn’t propose a grade. On Sat. Feb. 13, Lagnemma, 25, logged only the fifth send of the burly test-piece. He used a knee-bar discovered in 2015 and gave it a personal grade of V15/16.

In 2019, we interviewed Core, originally from Italy, about what it means to train – read the story here.