Matteo Della Bordella, David Bacci free The Pirate in Valle dell’Orco, Italy

During the last few days the Italian Ragni di Lecco climbers Matteo Della Bordella and David Bacci established a new multi-pitch climb on the obvious Casetti wall located above the hamlet of Casetti, right at the entrance to the Orco Valley.

The six-pitch line was climbed ground-up and is marked by a large roof in the middle, which goes free at 8a. The belays are all bolted and the pitches are protected with a mix of bolts and cams: 1 bolt on pitch 1, 3 on pitch 2, 6 on pitch 3, 6 on pitch 4, 2 on pitch 5, and none on pitch 6.

"We liked the idea of creating a line that was challenging, but not extremely difficult to protect, doable by the many (strong) climbers who come here..." stated Della Borella on his Facebook account "time will tell if we've succeeded in our intent..."

In any case it is possible to avoid the crux roof pitch by traversing leftwards below the roof and finishing via three pitches graded 6b, 7a and 6a.

The new route was freed with Mauro Zoppo and Davide Visconti and, called Il Pirata, is dedicated to Marco Pantani who "made us both dream when we were kids, with his breakaways and his climbs".

Links: ragnilecco.com, FB Matteo Della Bordella, Karpos, Kong, SCARPA, Vibram