Ricardo Scarian frees Adidas 8b+ at Ranzo and repeats Thin Ice 8c at Terlago

After the first ascent of Adidas 8b+ at the Grottone di Ranzo and after 20 years absence from Terlago, Italian climber Riccardo Scarian returned to this historic crag in Arco and carried out the first repeat of Thin Ice 8c. The route had been freed by Nico Favresse at the end of 2007 and takes a technical direct line up a sheer 25m slab.


Thin Ice by Ricardo Scarian
Twenty years have passed since I last climbed at Terlago, the beautiful and sunny crag high in the Sarca valley above Arco. This is where I redpointed my first ever 8a, Maledetta Fortuna in winter 1989 and I have fantastic memories of these years. Diets were on the agenda and we used to depart from home in Primiero with just a liter of water. At Primolano we'd stop for a coffee and then we did nothing but climb until late in the evening. The team was comprised of Juri, Enrico an myself. I remember vividly how one day Enrico pulled an orange out of his rucksack: Juri and I looked at him in disbelief and he immediately put it back... I think we were fuelled by numerous liters of good red wine which we drunk every evening as if there was no tomorrow, together with the local climbers of the Sarca valley, Danilo, Giorgio etc.

Returning to present day, after almost three years of insistent invites by Simone I finally decided to go back to the valley to attempt his project in the Ranzo cave which still hadn't been freed. It was a lucky day and I managed to send Adidas third go, 30m, 8b+, with a marked boulder crux in the middle.

Back at the bar, over one beer and the next, Simone told me about a route at Terlago, equipped by the locals Bonvecchio - Larcher and freed by the extremely strong Nicolas Favresse a couple of years ago. It had not yet been repeated, despite the attempts by numerous other climbers. I was taken in by the idea and remembered times gone by. A week passed and then I was abck, beneath the route, a fantastic line of micro holds from start to finish. I set off to check it out and, resting at every bolt, immediately managed all the 40 moves which separated me from the top. The route was beautiful and didn't let up until the finish. Attempts followed, some good, other less so also due to temperatures which weren't always ideal, but this didn't matter because it was just great to spend a nice day at a beautiful crag in fantastic company. Then the day arrived that all climbers wait for, the day in which everything slots into place perfectly and you find yourself at the top with an ease simply unheard of in the beginning. That day arrived on 23 April 2009, a great day which will be stuck in my memories like those I experienced twenty years ago!