Bombardi Unleashed: 5.14 Trad, V15, and Big Wall 5.14
Two weeks after raising eyebrows with a rare double send, the Le Fenice V15 and Greenspit 5.14 tad, Marcello Bombardi has added another standout ascent to his season. The 32-year-old Italian, who retired from the IFSC circuit last year after 17 seasons and a World Cup win in Chamonix in 2017, has now repeated the five-pitch La Fenice 5.14b established by Matteo Gambaro and Alessandro Cariga on the soaring grey walls of Mongioie.
For Bombardi, this ascent wasn’t just another tick; it was an affirmation of a new rhythm he’s been settling into since stepping back from competition.
“As climbers, we often find ourselves fantasizing about the next line to climb even before we’ve finished the one right in front of us,” he reflects. “I love traveling to new places, discovering new cultures and environments. But if we pause for a moment and look at what’s in our own backyard… we might discover meaningful experiences in places we never imagined.”
That shift in perspective is what led him to Mongioie, not quite local, he laughs, but close enough. He had heard the legends: a magical corner of the Ligurian Alps, a sweeping, immaculate limestone wall, and, crucially, a route with pedigree. Matteo Gambaro himself had told Bombardi that La Fenice’s crux pitch was among the finest he’d ever bolted. For a climber who has spent nearly two decades calibrating his sense of quality on hard stone around the world, that was enough. Expectations, Bombardi says, “were high—but anything but disappointed.”
Though La Fenice is a five-pitch line, all the real action comes early: a technical 8a opener followed by the crux 8c on tiny, unforgiving crimps. Above, three moderate pitches lead to the summit. On paper, Bombardi felt confident—this was his style. In reality, midsummer heat, razor-sharp holds, and a cramped, hanging belay turned the route into a battle he had to earn.
His first reconnaissance in July confirmed one thing: this climb would require better conditions. So he came back in October, twice, hoping for the cold. Instead he got everything, low clouds, fog, humidity, and occasionally the perfect grey curtain shielding the wall from the sun.
On the second day, with his fingertips thinning and his margin for error shrinking, Bombardi knew he had a single quality attempt left. “It might be the last good go with the skin I had left,” he says. “I wanted to enjoy climbing this sheet of grey limestone, but I also wanted to finish the route.”
He left the belay expecting a fight. Instead, something clicked. Movement replaced tension. His feet stuck. The limestone’s texture settled into his fingers. And when he reached the final positive crimp, he knew: this ascent belonged at home, in more ways than one.
Bombardi’s repeat of La Fenice caps a season in which he seems to be rediscovering both his climbing and his landscape. If he’s missing the competition circuit, it doesn’t show. The big numbers are still there, but now, so is the sense of place.
