Sardinia, Punta Giradili, 'Mezzogiorno di Fuoco'.

'Mezzogiorno di Fuoco' P.ta Giradili - Sardinia
Rolando Larcher - Maurizio Oviglia - Roberto Vigiani
Opened in June 2006 from below
Rotpunkt-style ascent May 2007
Development: 270 metres - 8bmax/7c obligatory

High Noon, Punta Giradili by R. Larcher, M. Oviglia and R. Vigiani
Opened in June 2006 from below
Rotpunkt-style ascent May 2007
Development: 270 metres - 8bmax/7c obligatory

Material : 12 quickdraws, 1 kevlar per hourglass on the 2nd and 4th pitches
10 mm Inox fix nailing.
Descent Possible by abseiling with two 60 m ropes and rappelling downhill. Or from the summit by tracks to the dirt road leading back to the car

Rolando asks me if I feel like writing something about this 'umpteenth' route opened in our - for some - impure, boring, adventure-killing and even sterile way of climbing walls.
What do I do?
I tell you that last year in June a trio of convinced route-openers, modern or sporty, call them what you will, with temperatures approaching 35 degrees in the shade, he thought it best to engage in a titanic story of long run-outs and staple rods on one of the most beautiful walls reflected in the blue Gulf of Orosei.
It would be easy to make the usual chronicle of a climb, the usual tale with more or less dramatic tones or ironic jokes in pure Anglo-Saxon style.

In short, I have many topics to write about, but this time I want to talk about the "course of life"experiences and feelings after years of climbing, of friendship, of extreme passion towards an activity that for some of us is and will forever be a drug we can never do without.
But is that really the case? Can nothing really distract us from our passion for climbing?Many times during the day and even while sleeping, my thoughts fly over sequences of passages, routes, mountains and the people who inhabit them.
In my twenties my thoughts were very ambitious and selfishI was looking for goals and pursuing them to the goal.

Then I found a partner with whom I could share my passions and my character was moulded by trying to divide ambition with love for one person.
Age softens the character and smoothes the edges and so my daughter Eva was born.
'My' women were influencing my lifeThey made me more responsible, I felt a moral obligation towards them, even though in the most intense moments of action the brain cancels everything and only thinks about the goal.
In life, in words, I have always been a fatalist. I was saying ... if something has to happen it happens, it is useless to think about it! But deep down you always think that misfortunes cannot happen to you. You read the tragic news in a newspaper and remain indifferent, showing only a little astonishment... but you are already turning the page.

Think "if it happened to me I would react like this! I would do this or that' or, presumptuously, that you would never do it!"
One evening in November 2006 my daughter was hit by a car while crossing the road.
At that moment, the world stoppedthe rational no longer existed, for about 30 eternal seconds she lay helpless in my arms, I thought she was dead, I kept shaking her against the rules that a trauma of which you do not know the extent imposes.
In the hours that followed I only prayed that Eva would not die, everything else did not matter, my beloved mountains were light years from my thoughts, the rock, the snow, the sky, the sea, friends and all the elements that had a front row seat in my 'normal' life... deleted!

What I thought was a certainty in my life suddenly counted for nothing.
All my thoughts were there focused on my daughter and her condition!

Now Eva is better and I return peacefully and think about these things. Life has been generous with Eva and with us who are close to her as parents; breathing deeply I find myself happily thinking about those extreme passages with the distant piton, on the fantastic wall of Punta Giradili in Sardinia.... under Rolando and Maurizio cheering me on and me clutching the last handhold of this umpteenth Rotpunkt that life has given me.

Roberto Vigiani

December 2006