Dolomites, Marmolada, Punta Penia, 'La Larcher Vigiani'.

On 12/08/2001 Rolando Larcher e Roberto Vigiani have completed with the ascent Rotpunkt of the entire route, their design on the wall South West Marmolada. The street that goes by the name of 'LarcherVigiani"had been opened by the two in the summer of 2000 in four days of climbing strictly from the bottom and as they were wont to do ...

... without ever resorting to cliff passages or artificial passages in the opening, but only using the cliffs to plant the bolts.

One hundred years after the first ascent of the south face, this is the first route of the wall opened entirely in this style.
The route passes a incredible line edging the Cristina pillar in the lower part and passes the Lindo Pillar in the middle in the upper part. The comments of the two openers are enthusiastic to say the least, "exceptional rock, at times stupendous" states Rolando, "after Gorropu and this route in Marmolada, it will be difficult to open a more beautiful route"according to Roberto.
And indeed, the route follows a series of vertical slabs and overhanging bombs with a decidedly different slope from the rest of the South, with athletic climbing on dreamy rock, almost always worked with clean holes.

The south-west wall on which appear illustrious names of openers such as Bettega, Zagonel, Soldà, Messner, MaffeiIt is thus enriched with an itinerary destined to mark a period. The difficulties of the route are very high, apart from the first two pitches, on the other 9 lengths you never go below the 7b with the exception of the 7th pitch, which has a blocking pitch of 7a. Ben 5 lengths are 7c and beyond, with the most difficult located on the eighth pitch that touches 8a. Rolando and Roberto have given names to each length, some of them emblematic; for example, the tenth shot is one of two Dream Pitch also known as the 'shot to grease"because he is so handsome that if he were in the gym he would be greased by repetitions, whereas the ninth shotone of the two "Dream Pitch"of the route is for Rolando the absolute best pitch of his climbing career, including gyms...
The 12 August climb took the ropeway 12 hours to perform the Rotpunkt of the route during an almost unreal day with a dry and stable climate that one rarely finds.

I followed the ascent of 13 August by climbing from the West Ridge ferrata and photographing the roped partyin the evening we slept at the Punta Penia bivouac and the next day Rolando and Roberto rappelled the route again to redo the summit pitches that I photographed from thehelicopterthe rock not outstanding, but something more...
this route will do a lot of talking, in the valley and at the tip of the marmolada we met some famous donkeys have already started braying....