Stefano Ragazzo makes climbing history with first Eternal Flame rope solo

Science fiction at it's best. And yet it's all true. Climbing on his own from 17 to 26 July, 33-year-old Italian alpinist Stefano Ragazzo carried out the first rope-solo ascent of Eternal Flame on the south face of Nameless Tower (6251m) in the Trango Tower group in Pakistan. Considered by those in the know to be the hardest and most beautiful big wall free climb at altitude in the world, the 650-meter line was first ascended in summer 1989 by the Germans Kurt Albert, Wolfgang Güllich, Christof Stiegler and Milan Sykora.

With difficulties up to VI, 7b+, A2, Eternal Flame pioneered new difficulties in Himalayan mountaineering climbing and indicated what could be achieved in the future. The route immediately captured the world's imagination and free climbing the entire line soon became a coveted challenge. Over the next two decades many of the world's best traveled to the Trango Towers with this route in mind, but all efforts failed, mainly due to the prohibitive weather conditions combined with the extreme difficulties at altitude.

Significant steps forward were made by Denis Burdet, Nicolas Zambretti and Toni Arbones who freed two of the four aid pitches in 2003, while two years later the Spanish brothers Iker and Eneko Pou climbed a variation to the 10th pitch, paving the way to an all free ascent, but due to bad weather they were unable to go for the redpoint.

The first free ascent was finally made in 2009 by Thomas and Alexander Huber who, during an unprecedented spell of good weather from 11 - 14 August 2009, discovered a new crack to the right of the Pou variant that allowed them to reach the summit after breaching difficulties up to 7c+. In no uncertain terms, the Hubers described the route as "best and most beautiful free climb on the globe."

The second free ascent was made in 2022 by Edu Marín, while just a few days later the third free ascent - and extraordinary first onsight - was carried out by Barbara Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher. Zangerl obviously claimed the first female ascent. And now the route has received its first rope solo at the hands of Stefano Ragazzo; his climb, we must admit, caught us completely off-guard, simply because we had never even imagined an ascent of this magnitude.

Ragazzo is no stranger to big mountaineering feats. Or rather, the Italian who moved to Chamonix a few years ago carefully cut his teeth on the classic climbs of the Dolomites, before exploring those in the Mont Blanc massif and progressing to the big walls of Yosemite, establishing new climbs in Alaska and the Himalayas with his life and climbing partner Silvia Loreggian. In March 2023 he made the first winter rope solo ascent of Moulin Rouge on Catinaccio, in May this year he pulled off a rare solo of The Nose on El Capitan. These are all, undoubtedly, important climbs. But they pale in comparison when compared to Eternal Flame solo.

Ragazzo climbed in big wall style, ie with a portaledge, but light. Extremely light. Read no fixed ropes, since he took only a 60m single rope and a tag line for the haulbag. He slept in his inflatable G7 portaledge and had food for 6 days. He hoped to climb the route in 4/5 days maximum, but bad weather pinned him down or forced him to progress excruciatingly slowly, with gloves and two down jackets. He summited on 25 July, in glorious sunshine, then after standing on the summit in disbelief he abseiled all the way back down, reaching advanced base camp at 5000 meters at around 9.30 pm. The next morning he descended to base camp. It's worth noting that that there were only two teams operating on the mountain, but they were either trying other routes or retreated from Eternal Flame due to the bad weather.

A detailed report will follow in due course. In the meantime, speaking by phone in Skardu after the feat, Ragazzo told planetmountain "on the summit I knew I had just done something absurd, but at the same time, I didn't really take it in... it's difficult to explain, I don't know how else to put it. After so many days of bad weather, that morning the sun came out, I was excited, I saw K2 and thought about Silvia, I missed her. I also thought about those who had been on this route before me, and for a moment I felt close to them. It was cool." Oh yes. Pretty damn cool indeed.