Pietro Vidi repeats 'Tribe', Jacopo Larcher's trad masterpiece at Cadarese

On 28 November 2024 Italian climber Pietro Vidi repeated Tribe, the stunning trad climb at Cadarese in Val d'Ossola, Italy, first ascended in 2019 by Jacopo Larcher and repeated in 2020 by another trad master, James Pearson.

The repeat by the 22-year-old from Madonna di Campiglio might come as a surprise but, on closer inspection, it shouldn't. Vidi has bouldered up to 8C+ (Fuck the System in Fionnay in Switzerland) and sent 9a at the crag (Last Night at Siurana) - and in recent months he started focusing his efforts on some hard trad, with great results. Climbs such as Jeune et con (8b R/X) and Twinkle toes stand out, two routes at Cadda where protection is marginal and falling is not an option. At the end of November, while placing all gear on lead, Vidi grabbed the third ascent of Tribe.

Larcher chose to leave the climb ungraded, in a effort to put the focus back on the climb's beauty, rather than the mere difficulty. Larcher defined it as "the most difficult thing I’ve ever climbed" while Pearson, confirming the 5-star nature, added that the route contains "the hardest series of moves I’ve ever done on a trad route." Even Vidi, who like the others initially worked the sequences on toprope before trying it from below, didn't commit himself. Here's what he told planetmountain:

"I tried the route for the first time in spring, just out of curiosity, after I got into trad climbing last season. I was immediately struck by the beauty of the pitch and as soon as conditions got good in autumn, I immediately returned to Cadda.

The first attempts went really well and I thought it would be a matter of days, only later though did I understand how technical and conditions-dependent the second boulder was, which together with the rain and snow made the process much longer than expected.

As for the grade, I respect Jacopo's decision to not give one, even if it is certainly the hardest route I have ever climbed and in general one of the projects that took me the longest!"

 

 

 

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