Jacopo Larcher makes rare repeat of Meltdown (5.14c/F8c+)
- Sunday 27th November 2022
Italian all-rounder, Jacopo Larcher, has made the third ascent of Meltdown (5.14c/F8c+) in Yosemite, USA, one of the world’s hardest trad climbs.
Originally climbed by Beth Rodden in 2008, Meltdown is located in Cascade Creek, Yosemite. Writing about her ascent in the US magazine, Climbing, Rodden explained how she’s been attracted to Meltdown. Having climbed several big Yosemite walls including Lurking Fear (VI 5.13c), El Corazon (VI 5.13b) and the Nose (VI 5.14a), Rodden deliberately switched to single-pitch routes in order to allow herself time to recuperate from the stresses of big walling. Meltdown’s notoriety was boosted when firstly it was featured in Big Up Production’s, Dosage V. Secondly, a raft of top climbers including Enzo Oddo and Tommy Caldwell also tried Meltdown but came away empty-handed; this, after Ron Kalk had already tried the line before Rodden. Finally, a decade after Rodden’s first ascent, Carlo Traversi made the second ascent in 2018.
Over recent years Larcher experience of hard trad routes has broadened considerably from what it was back in 2008 when Rodden first did Meltdown. However, Meltdown clearly inspired Larcher from the get go, “There are many hard trad climbs around the world, but very few have become iconic. For me, Meltdown was definitely one of those. I don’t know why, but it somehow had this mysterious aura. I remember watching the movie of Beth’s incredible first ascent back in 2008; at the time I didn’t know much about trad climbing, and I couldn’t really understand the significance of the route and her achievement at that time. The route just looked so beautiful, yet completely desperate to me. Something unthinkable for me to consider climbing, at the time.”
Lacher first tried Meltdown in 2016 when he spend a couple of days on the route figuring out the moves climbing with Babsi Zangerl. Larcher said this about their time of the route in 2016, “We were both surprised by the beauty of the line, as well as its difficulty. It definitely wasn’t about thin finger jams, but about some very powerful lay-backing on extremely bad and glassy footholds. After those two days, I was even more impressed by Beth’s ascent back in 2008.”
Larcher and Zangerl have been back to Yosemite since but have concentrated on big walls rather than returning to single-pitch testpieces like Meltdown. However, Larcher is working on a documentary about different styles and ethics in trad climbing and so specifically returned to Yosemite this fall with the intent of getting back on Meltdown.
Larcher explains how his return to Meltdown went. “Luckily, this time I immediately had some more positive feelings working on it. The footholds were still terrible and the route hard, but I somehow felt like a more mature (trad) climber. I was very surprised yet motivated, when I managed to top-rope it clean on my third day trying it this year. After that, I naively thought it would go fast on lead, but placing the gear adds some extra spice to it and it definitely makes the route significantly harder.
“On my fourth day of lead tries I had to pull out a big fight and dig deep in order to reach the anchor. The easier upper parts always felt good on top-rope, but it definitely felt different when coming from the ground. Usually, while head-pointing hard trad routes, the actual send go feels smooth, which is obviously a nice feeling, but on this one I had to fight very hard and was very close to falling in the upper part, which somehow made the experience even more unforgettable. It was definitely one of my favourite moments in climbing.”
Larcher summaries his experience saying, “I would like to highlight once more what Beth did in 2008, which was way ahead of the times, both in women and men’s climbing history. I honestly believe the shorter you are, the harder this route gets, and yes fingers size doesn’t matter. Chapeau Beth, thanks for the inspiration.”
Finally, the documentary mentioned above, How Hard Is Hard?, is due out in 2023.