TONINO AND DREAMTIME
Mauro Calibani establishes Tonino78, 8c+ boulder, may be the world’s hardest boulder problem, and repeats Dreamtime, 8c.

Five new extreme moves, added to a problem already rated 8b+. And if we also consider that a small flake of the crux has broken, the new problem can only be much harder than the old one. A new start, rated 7c/7c+, added to the 10 moves of Leonardo. Fifteen moves for ten seconds of explosive power at the highest level. Here are the ingredients of what could be the world’s hardest boulder. The author is the always-stronger Mauro Calibani, top fit this winter, dedicated to solve motoric challenges that push him to the top of world bouldering. The ascents of Tonino78 and Dreamtime represent for the top climber from Ascoli a moment of great sportive intensity, comparable, in some ways, to the sportive value of the conquest of the world title 2001.
Here he tells us about his achievements.
Oscar Durbiano

TONINO 78
End of March 2003. Last year, pushed by an irresistible curiosity, I decided to start. Dreamtime, the famous problem of Fred Nicole, had become one of the main goals of the season. Unfortunately the logistic wasn’t on my side, as the 800 kilometers between the project and me weren’t exactly a stimulating incentive. Despite the initial doubts, at the end of the spring I discover the new game and I begin to love it. Birds are singing and flowers are blossoming, but my fingers aren’t very willing to squeeze the holds of this extraordinary problem. Companion of my first attempt is the great Christian Brenna, who supports me in every session of the tries. At the end I decided to give up, due to the too high temperature.

In the mean time, the imagination and the insatiable desire to discover my limits and the unstoppable lust to climb, had pushed me toward “that new line”, discovered the year before by the expert eyes of Julien Nadiras and Olivier Lebreton, who, during an hike in Meschia Vecchia, had seen an interesting problem, that would have become Leonardo before, and Tonino78 later.
December 2003. Tonight we start for the usual Christmas holiday in Sardinia. We got up early this morning, for the last try of the year on Tonino. To reach the problem Ric, Massimo, Gnet and I have to fight hard, jumping in the traces of somebody else, with sneakers on the snow. None of us wants to get wet, with the risk of getting a cold that would spoil the vacation. Luckily the problem is dry, because not even the snow sticks to the holds…
I have some problems warming up, because it’s so cold, and then I start the first attempt. Despite the tiredness of the day before, I manage to touch the final undercling first try. Another time one- zero, ball in the middle. Twenty minutes rest and I start again, although with less hope. In the second try I reach again the undercling, but again I don’t stick it. Two-zero and let’s go home, better said, to Sardinia, with nothing achieved, waiting for better times.

January 2004. The holiday is finished but my thoughts are always the same. As soon as I can I start again to attack the project. After three sessions, necessary to burn the Sardinian sausages and to find the right feeling again, finally the dawn of January 24 arrives. At 8 AM I am already active, and at 10 AM I am under the boulder. The temperature is perfect, and today I feel well, so that during the warm-up I have comfortable feelings. Now I am sitting for the hundredth time in the bottom of the cave, but my thoughts are strangely serene, positive… I feel the energy of my friends around me and eventually I start….
I climb fluidly, without thinking. By now everything is perfectly assimilated, each detail of the progression is automatic, including the strength with which to squeeze the sloping holds that for one time don’t feel so small. Everything works well, heel hook, two intermediate holds and dyno to the final undercling, where finally the hand sticks the hold! At 11.23 AM a scream of joy: it’s done. Tonino78 has been born, the hardest boulder problem I ever climbed.
February 2004. I feel the motivation coming back, to try again Dream Time, the old project of last year. We organize a weekend in Cresciano, with Ric (Boulder Boy), Massimo and Ama. During the first attempts I have some problems in finding the right feeling again. Luckily the training I made during the winter on Tonino comes to the surface, and it has been really effective, in such a way that I can try the problem for three consecutive hours. Exactly during one of the last attempts of Sunday, I fall the first time from the last move… Nothing done, but I now feel that the problem is within my reach.
I drive back to Ascoli, but remain concentrated on my goal. After a few days the weather worsens and with it also my motivation. Luckily I get a telephone call from Enrico Baistrocchi, who, like the Colonel Bernacca (famous meteorologist of the Italian television ndr), starts to inform me in real time about the weather conditions in the area of Dreamtime. A few days later I get the decisive telephone call that lets me start. Ama comes with me to the train station, and the same night I am in Milan. The next morning in Cresciano it is a great day, the best I have found until now. We run to the magic boulder. Checking the sequence of the problem Enrico discovers that the last hold is frozen. We work an hour to thaw and dry it, before the actual start. After a lot of attempts, and more precisely during the fifth one of the day, I finally stick the last slope and in this way shoot the final bomb that ends my 800 kilometers nightmare: Dreamtime is mine!

Considerations
A comparison between Tonino78 and Dreamtime.
To solve Dream Time I spent about 25 days of attempts, against the eleven days for Dreamtime. Further the climbing style of Tonino suits me more, compared with the one of Dreamtime. And this without taking into account that one problem is 800 kilometers far away, while the other is 30 minutes away from my home. Considering both problems I have the clear feeling that Tonino is much harder. I decided to propose 8c+ because, if we make a comparison with the sit-start of Leonardo, rated 8b+ and confirmed by Julien Nadiras (jung and very strong bleusard specialist), the new start from the bottom of Tonino78, considering also the breaking of the flake in the middle of the old crux, is definitely harder. We are waiting for repeats, to compare the difficulties.
Mauro Calibani