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Will This Be the Year Adam Ondra’s Silence 5.15d Gets Repeated?

After making huge progress on Burden of Dreams V17 in Finland, Stefano Ghisolfi is back in Flatanger, Norway

In late summer 2022, Stefano Ghisolfi travelled to Flatanger, Norway to begin projecting the world’s first 5.15d, Silence. First ascended by Adam Ondra in 2017, the route has yet to see a repeat. Ghisolfi made good progress on the trip, figuring out alternate beta for the famous inverted crack crux sequence. He was also able to link the moves from halfway through the crux all the way to the chains, climbing through the route’s secondary crux section along the way. He ended up sending Move Hard 5.15b during the trip, a line which features this second crux sequence.

Realizing he wasn’t powerful enough to link the first half of the crux into the rest of route, Ghisolfi has spent considerable time increasing his strength and power over the past eight months. He made the first ascent of Excalibur 5.15c in February, a fierce, bouldery power-endurance route in Arco, Italy. Then, after having quick success with Will Bosi’s Burden of Dreams V17 replica, he set his sights on the real thing and travelled to Finland to project the problem.

Not really known for his bouldering, Ghisolfi surprised many by completing all of Burden’s moves in isolation, including the notoriously difficult first move, which is perhaps the hardest single move in the world. He also managed an impressive link from the second move to the finish, which you can watch in the video below.

Ghisolfi appears to be back in Flatanger for what we can only assume is a mission to continue projecting Silence. Will his newfound bouldering strength and power pay dividends on Silence? If there is anyone in the world who can repeat Silence, it’s Ghisolfi. He’s climbed four 5.15c routes and has considerable experience climbing in Flatanger’s Hanshelleren cave, repeating Ondra’s Change 5.15c and Move Hard 5.15b at the crag. You can watch his progress on Silence last year in the video below.

Stefano Ghisolfi Projecting Silence 5.15d

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