Sébastien Bouin Climbs Lapsus 5.15 in Italy
The route was considered the hardest in the country when it was first climbed
Photo by: Clarisse Bompard
French climber Sébastien Bouin has repeated Lapsus at Andonno, in northeast Italy. Lapsus became the first route graded 5.15b in Italy when Stefano Ghisolfi made its first ascent back in 2015.
Lapsus has since seen repeats from Adam Ondra, Marcello Bombardi, Jonathan Siegrist and Giorgio Tomatis. Lapsus is a link of two historical routes at the crag. It starts on Noia, the first Italian 5.14c before finishing up Anaconda 5.14a.
“There are some hard moves in between to connect both of these routes,” said Bouin. “It makes for a really cool endurance route on blue and orange rock. I haven’t climbed a lot in Italy, so it’s cool to discover new crags.” Regarding the grade, Bouin said, “Stefano originally proposed 9b [5.15b], yet I tend to agree with subsequent ascensionists and think the route a bit easy for that grade, but it’s 100 per cent my climbing style. I would give it a personal grade of 9a+ [5.15a].”
In response to Bouin, Ghisolfki said, “When I did the first ascent I think kneepads were not that common, new beta and kneebars makes it way easier than how I climbed, so I think the right thing is to confirm that Lapsus is not 9b [5.15b] anymore.”
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