Freerider: Della Bordella and Bacci in Yosemite

Video by OpenCircle of Matteo Della Bordella and David Bacci climbing the route Freerider in Yosemite.

The climb is one which many dream about, an important reference point on El Capitan; almost 1000m up to 5.12d (7c) freed in 1998 by the brothers Thomas and Alexander Huber and repeated last autumn by Italian climbers Matteo Della Bordella and David Bacci.

Notes by film director Peter Bagnara
"When I travelled to Yosemite last autumn to photograph of David and Matteo on Freerider (5.12d - 1000, El Capitan) on behalf of Adidas I also took with me Sonycam belonging to the Ragni club, a fairly old video camera but one that does the job and films in HD. to be honest, we thought we'd use the stuff for interviews... But then we all agreed to make a video of the ascent - even though our focus remained a photo shoot - and during the two days prior to our filming I started to think about a screenplay for the story. We had plenty of ideas and we started filming, stealing time from the photo shoot. It was lots of hard work for everyone, the troop was minimal (just me) and we had little time at hand. The result of this "journey notebook" is now here for all to see. All music is original, composed by Simone Morandotti; my thanks go to Ragni di Lecco group for its support and to David and Teo and their patience."

by Pietro Bagnara

TOPO: Climbing in Yosemite - 5 Super Classics