Will Bosi gets second ascent of Excalibur (F9b+), Arco
- Wednesday 5th February 2025
Will Bosi has made the historic second ascent of Excalibur (F9b+), Stefano Ghisolfi’s Arco testpiece in Italy, after spending 21 days on the route.
Completing his long-term project exactly two years to the day after Ghisolfi’s first ascent, Will Bosi commented: “This is one of the craziest and rewarding lines I have experienced and pulling onto the top of the route is something I will always remember. Excalibur was my longest project on a rope since Mutation (F9a+ at Raven Tor UK) so I was so psyched to piece it all together finally.”
Excalibur takes a relatively short but savagely (40degree) overhanging line up a wall at Drena near Arco. Originally bolted by Cristian Dorigatti and Morris Fontanari, Stefano Ghisolfi began trying the then-open project in 2021. Working in collaboration with other top climbers – Will Bosi, Jakob Schubert and Adam Ondra included – Ghisolfi slowly established his beta for the route and ultimately made the first ascent in February 2023 – click here for that report.
Will’s own timeline of Excalibur started in late 2022 as Ghisolfi was working on the route. Since then, Will has spent a total of 21 days on the route – albeit a significant number of those have been in poor conditions. Of the 21 days Will has spent on the route only ten have been in good conditions. For reference, Ghisolfi spent between 20 and 30 days working Excalibur before making the first ascent. At that time it was his fourth route of F9b+ having climbed Perfecto Mundo in Margalef, Spain 2018, after which came Change in Hanshallaren, Norway in 2020 and then Bibliographie at Ceuse, France in 2021.
Talking about the conditions, Will believes that this is a key factor for climbing the route: “The conditions make a huge difference with this route. Too hot and the holds don’t work, too humid and the holds don’t work but too cold and your fingers go numb and don’t work. Lastly, you need good skin for the holds to bite properly so I needed everything to come together to grab the ascent.”
Those who follow Will online will be aware that he’s been back on Excalibur since mid-January during which time he’s established new beta for a crucial section high on the route. Using this new beta Will was able to replicate a high-point which he achieved two years previously. By the end of January Will was redpointing to the two-finger pocket with just two moves remaining.
Finally, on February 3rd, Will was able to complete his ascent. Commenting on the actual ascent, Will added: “The first go of the day everything went perfectly, I felt like I was floating through the climb and arrived at my previous high point feeling strong. Setting up for the final hard move I was really confident but disaster struck and I just missed the hold and fell off. I took an hour's rest, warmed up and went again. This time I arrived at the rest feeling tired battling through the upper section but on the final crux I landed perfectly into the slot. Pumped out of my mind, I almost fell jumping to the jug but just about kept it together for the top out”.
Commenting on the grade, Will expressed that after so much time bouldering he felt ‘a little unqualified to be sure’ but he was happy to agree with the F9b+ grade. Will previously proposed his own King Capella in Siurana, Spain to be F9b+ but after ascents from Alex Megos and Jakob Schubert it has settled at F9b. Will noted that linking all the sequences of each section changed the overall difficulty substantially on Excalibur which made him more confident of the F9b+ grade.
Since Ghisolfi made the FA of Excalibur, Will, as well as other climbers - Brooke and Shawn Raboutou and Jana Švecová, has worked on Excalibur. Bosi’s ascent of Excalibur marks a return to sport climbing following an unbelievable bouldering run where he climbed four boulders graded Font 9A/V17, more than any other climber in the world. This included Aidan Robert’s Spots of Time, Daniel Wood’s Return of the Sleepwalker, Shawn Raboutou’s Alphane and Nalle Hukkataival’s Burden of Dreams.