Batman, a Wenden dream come true for Spreafico and Carnati

A route in Wenden is never banal. Because the extraordinary compact Swiss Wendenstöcke wall is a true university of climbing which requires great technique, nerves of steel and supreme courage. What counts here is a style of climbing which requires everything, regardless of the difficulties which are measurable with numbers and grades.

This is why the on-sight ascent of Batman at the hands of Paolo Spreafico, accompanied by Adriano "Franz" Carnati, seemed newsworthy to us. Despite the difficulties being "only" max 7b+ and 7a obligatory, the route has only ever received a handful of on-sight ascents. For good reason.

It's obvious that the 250m of this legendary route, first ascended in 1989 by Ueli Buhler and first on-sighted by mountain master Beat Kammerlander, guard their secrets jealously and in depth. A depth with Spreafico and Carnati, both members of the historic Ragni di Lecco group, managed to interpret correctly, with ability and courage.

BATMAN by Paolo Spreafico
Wenden represents a dream for me, and my dream of Wenden has always been BATMAN.
At times dreams come true... like today for example...
Franz!! Tomorrow storms are forecast for the evening, what shall we do? Should we go? Sooner said than done, so after a hot and useless afternoon with our minds in one place and our bodies somewhere completely different we set off along our own "Highway to Hell" ;) direction Reissend Nollen.
We set off at 18.00, brief rest then a massive flash as exited the tunnel: 40 km/h above the speed limit...
And now? What next?
Silence.
Oh well, in the meantime pump up the volume and we'll show these Swiss how our wheels screech...
We exited at Wassen after having clipped most railings on the Susten with our usual speed entry to Wendenalp, then with the same corrosive desire for Rock ‘n roll we found ourselves at the base of the wall.
Surprise! Berna, Kurt, Palmaz and Onghi were also there... but all the routes were completely soaking... but this wasn't a problem, as tomorrow I was off to climb Batman, this was certain.
And the day turned out to be one of those which you dream about for ages... everything was perfect, it was great being in the right place at the right time, perhaps someone was guiding me... and Franz, thank you thank you thank you for everything, he did everything, all I needed to do was climb, simply climb...
And here you have to do just this, here you have to climb... today I Climbed... today was great.

Paolo Spreafico