Weekend Whipper: Too Close For Comfort in Italy

Oof, that could’ve been bad….

This one comes from Martin Feistl, who filmed this whipper in Italy and sent it over to us.

Alois Vigna, the climber in this video, was climbing Franti, a short and powerful 7c (5.12d) at Falesio Silenzio, Finale, Italy. On his first lap he sorted out the moves, going bolt to bolt, and then came back down and gave the route a proper redpoint burn.

Martin told Rock and Ice, “Alois climbed through the crux between the fourth quickdraw (the last one clipped in the video) and the fifth, but he was too pumped to clip that fifth quickdraw, so he kept on moving. For about 1 minute the whole crag was shouting encouragement up at him, but finally he fell off and landed right next to me.”

Alois gave his blessing for us to use this Whipper, but asked that we keep the name of the belayer anonymous. “It isn’t his fault,” Alois said, explaining that the belayer was a beginner.

The takeaways, as such, are pretty clear: As a climber, make sure your belayer is prepared and knowledgable enough to handle the variety of situations that might present themselves, particularly if you are going to climb the route in a way that requires additional experience and expertise. Alois was lucky to walk away from this one—literally—rather than end up with two broken ankles. We’re glad everyone is okay.

Happy Friday and climb safe this weekend!

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