On fingertips, with head and heart. By Di Ivo Ferrari

... I'm walking towards the "usual" face. I often go there, I don't need to talk to anyone there are there are no written rules... I could have gone there with friends today, but after so many years of climbing and well beyond the age of being driven to achieve things, I'm now "taken over" by a strange, unfailingly desire, that of climbing alone, where ropes and carabiners are not allowed. With my hands dirtied in white powder I begin to climb, the usual moves, the usual speed... and if I fell?

Should I fall I'd die and the dead don't resurrect.

What's the point of soloing when an infinite number of companies produce ropes, designed
specifically to stop all falls! There is no point, but judgement shouldn't be passed or searched for by those who don't have that unnamed demon inside them, the one that drives you to live days without a safety net... Were I to fall I'd die and, I or any "habitual soloer", are well aware of this. But I don't want to die, I love life and life has gifted me with this responsibility!

Why, therefore, walk towards a day of soloing? I could say "to prove something", "to be different"... I could invent many definitions to justify it all with "because that's how it is, today I was alone!" But the reason is extremely simple, almost disarmingly so: everything I need to fuel my life, to live it to the full for myself and those around me! To descend back to the valley, even more joyful and with the desire to return home.

I love soloing, feeling good and making those close to me feel good. I often hear and read judgements made by others, words spoken or written in haste and I understand those who don't understand...

I love those who solo, the real soloers, those who don't "work" a route with a modified gri-gri but with their fingertips. Those who, in order to play their game, need to stay below the "limit", giving that indescribable "maximum", so controversial exactly for this reason. Those who know that an error simply cannot exist and accept fate!
Dedicated to Alex Honnold and his way of life.

by Ivo Ferrari