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Paolo Sempio, Ilga's chairman, is both an amateur climber and a researcher at quite a good level. The results of his two passions are three different sorts of climbing rubber:
• Kuss. This black rubber offers very high performances on any kind of surface, especially as regards grip climbing and resistance upon small support points.
• Grimpeur. This black rubber has an excellent resistance to abrasion and a fairly good grip, so it is suitable for long, mid-level paths/ways.
lga sponsorizes Melloblocco, Italy's most important international gathering of stoneclimbers. Melloblocco's spirit is to bring together athletes, amateurs, and fans, offering them the possibility to express themselves with the greatest possible freedom: everybody is free to climb as they like, in the most different conditions, individually and in groups. In fact, this is an excellent opportunity to socialize, without the tension typical of a great, demanding rock face.
Paolo Sempio, Ilga Gomma's chairman, is both an amateur climber and a good physicist, with several publications to his credit. These passions have led him to work out a new idea of free-climbing rubber. "The fact is", dr. Sempio says, "that not only are new mixtures important, but also the speed in carrying out laboratory tests and selecting what we produce. After such tests the most successful mixtures must be promptly tested directly on rocks. The most difficult problem to solve, is that the common laboratory instruments are not suitable to measure the grip of a free-climbing rubber. This is why Ilga Gomma's staff have conceived new, targeted tests and built special instruments to carry them out".
 Instrument for grip measurement, conceived and produced in the lab of Ilga Gomma
The tests of our free-climbing soles on a rock face have been carried out making a special kind of shoe, with all the mixtures available. Blind tests, in which you don't know which mixture is being tested and are wearing shoes with two different mixtures, have been particularly useful to make a direct comparison. The kind of rock as well as the temperature are also important. Our rubber KUSS is multi-purpose, with a very good grip on all sorts of ground and in different climates. Val di Mello's granite and smooth calcareous surfaces have been the test-beds for our Kuss mixture.
Paolo Sempio during a test in Val di Mello
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