Pietro Vidi fires Free Zodiac on El Capitan in Yosemite

Pietro Vidi has found his second home in Yosemite. Following his second free ascent of Lurking Fear in spring 2025 (25 years after Tommy Caldwell's first free ascent) and a repeat of the Pre‑Muir Wall last autumn, the Italian climber has now completed a fast repeat of another historic El Cap big wall: Free Zodiac. Located on the mountain's southeast face, the route was established solo by Charlie Porter in November 1972 and freed in 2003 by the Huber brothers, Thomas and Alexander, with difficulties up to 8b. Tommy Caldwell grabbed the first repeat just a few weeks later, while Jacopo Larcher and Barbara Zangerl followed with the second in 2016. Vidi climbed the route supported by Alessandro Larcher, ground‑up and in only four days, after pre-hauling gear to the first camp. Here are all the details.

ZODIAC FREE

The goal of the trip, actually, was The Nose. Last year I abseiled in from the top, did the Changing Corners very quickly, and felt motivated — I knew I could do it. So I convinced Alessandro Larcher to join me for a two-week mini-trip.

As soon as we arrived in the valley, we went straight up The Nose. We spent a day on the lower section and then reached the Great Roof. Unfortunately, the roof was completely soaked, with algae growing on the holds. So we had no choice but to switch routes.

By that point, between one thing and another, we'd already used up 5–6 days of the trip. Trying a really hard route — like Magic Mushroom or something even tougher — was out of the question. At the same time, I didn't feel like doing one of the easier big walls, such as El Niño, Golden Gate, or Freerider. The only real option was Zodiac.

I'd never been particularly drawn to the Southeast Face and the right side of El Capitan — it's a bit lower and less iconic than the rest. But I knew Jacopo Larcher and Babsi Zangerl had climbed it, that it was mega symbolic, and it had always been on my mind. It seemed like a great project. We started seriously considering it. But on the very day we made the decision, it rained and soaked the entire first part of the route — it was a mega waterfall!

To save time, we decided to aid the first six pitches. They're completely different from the free variantion, but they join back up higher. The only common pitch is the seventh, which Ale led while I jugged in sneakers. We pre‑hauled to that pitch — which ends on a nice ledge — then abseiled and started the push. I consider it a ground‑up ascent because I'd never climbed the normal route, and the aid route is completely different. All we'd done was the pre‑hauling.

During the push, there's a fairly easy 5.13a pitch, but I blew the on‑sight and got it on my second attempt. Aside from a few completely soaked pitches — interesting, shall we say — everything went smoothly up to the first camp on that big ledge, where we spent the night. That evening, I even managed to lead the first 13b, in the so‑called White Circle. The route has four hard pitches, all in a row inside the White Circle: a system of corners and face climbing to follow for four crack pitches.

On the evening of the first day, after a good fight, I did the first crux pitch on my second go. The second day, I led the second 13a, again on the second try. There's no chalk, they're tricky to protect, you have to place some peckers, and on‑sighting them is practically impossible. Also on the evening of the second day, I climbed the third pitch, one of the two hardest. It's a corner without holds, all stemming — very short actually, only 5–6 meters of hard climbing. It reminded me a lot of the Pre‑Muir: lots of smearing, feet always on nothing. The corner has an easier exit, but it was pretty intense because there's a mega flake that had been reinforced with sika years ago. Over time the sika broke, and the flake flexed like crazy — it was really scary. In the end, I avoided it with a harder sequence.

On the morning of the third day, I tried the Nipple Pitch, the 8b crux. It's a slightly traversing pitch, on a super thin crack with a few poor pins in the little roof. Very physical, very bicep‑intensive, with nonexistent footholds — pretty much like the rest of the route really. On my first attempt, I worked my way up because placing the pro is quite complicated. On the second attempt, a foot slipped at the start. Then on the third attempt, unexpectedly, I sent it after a great fight. Like all the other pitches, really: I did every pitch on my second go without having studied the beta properly. They were all good battles!

We abseiled and, as always, rested all day on the portaledge. During the day it was 30°C — some days it was truly unclimbable. We could only climb until 10 a.m. or after 4 p.m. Later that day we did a couple more pitches, including a 5.12d that Ale led.

On the last day, there was another 5.13 left, an incredible pitch with campus moves. That went well too. I have to say we topped out without major issues — everything went very smoothly, unexpectedly smoothly I might add. I'd expected it to be hard, also after reading Jacopo and Babsi's report and that of the American who spent 14 days of his push. Instead, it was very much my style: technical, with bouldery, very physical moves.

The route is incredible. And it's very unusual for El Capitan: the wall overhangs quite a bit, almost all the pitches are overhanging, the haulbags barely ever touch the rock. So yeah, quite atypical for El Cap, but the pitches are still very technical.

This was Alessandro's first trip to Yosemite. He also had a half‑idea of free climbing the route, but very quickly switched into support mode. He was a huge help. As for me, I'm getting used to the style of climbing here in Yosemite. I'll have to try The Nose in the future, I think. I have a lot of projects in the valley, and I'll definitely return for a longer trip this autumn.

- Pietro Vidi, Yosemite

Vidi thanks: SCARPA, The North Face, Lyo Food