Filip Babicz frees Persefone Ext (D15) in Italy's Gran Borna cave

The Italian-Polish mountaineer Filip Babicz began exploring the Gran Borna cave in 2016, and soon realised that, unlike at other crags, this is the only place in the world where drytooling routes reach the extreme grade of D15+ on natural holds. The current maximum is D16+.

The route in question, called Persefone, is 54 meters long and boasts 84 holds and 145 moves. This huge underground marathon across the vault of the cave is the second, after Ade Integrale freed by Babicz in 2019, which runs across the entire ceiling. Both routes start at the lowest point of the cave and split a few meters later: Ade Integrale breaks off left, Persefone continues across to the right. The two climbs cross the opposite walls and join each other a few meters from the end, resulting in a massive overhanging 100m circuit.

Babicz freed Persefone in 2021 but at the time the extension to reach Ade Integrale was missing. This was bolted in December 2020 and after various holds breaking it soon became the most intense sequence in the entire cave. The fact that the crux is located right at the end, after 45m of climbing, made the battle tougher than expected.

“I've been trying since mid-April, but I've always fallen right at the end" commented Babicz. "On June 5th, thanks to specific training and some new beta for the final moves, inspired by the style of France's Gaetan Raymond, after 54 meters and 25 minutes of climbing I descended from the roof to the bottom of the cave in exactly the same place as I did 5 years ago after Ade Integrale.

"I dedicate this ascent to Denis Trento" concluded the Italian Army athlete "a friend who passed away in the mountains a month ago. He belayed me during my first ascent of Ade Integrale and also during my attempts on Persefone. It's a hard blow not to be able to share the joy of this send with him, even though he's with me in my thoughts and heart."