Carlo Traversi Instagram – I’ve always been drawn to climbs that have both historical significance and an air of mystery surrounding them. In today’s day and age, that combination is getting harder to come by, with every piece of stone captured a million ways and cast out into the daily feed without a moments thought. While this sharing of information satisfies our immediate arm chair curiosity, it has the potential to rob us of a real experience complete with the trials and tribulations of understanding something for yourself. In American climbing, there is no route more shrouded in mystery than @tommycaldwell ‘s Flex Luther at The Fortress of Solitude. He made the First Ascent in 2003, proposed it as the first 5.15 in America and save for a couple snaps from @timkemple, there’s nearly no information about the route. Over the years, whispers of broken holds and unclimbable choss have dominated the narrative, but I always found that information to be speculative and incomplete. It continued to draw me in, to discover the truth for myself. Finally this year, I decided to put everything into climbing Flex. I spent a month in the Spring sorting the moves but was thwarted by wet holds and a lack of partners. I returned at the beginning of October to continue my efforts. It’s been a long month of hot days, wet days and everything in between, but finally yesterday I was able to clip the chains on one of my dream routes. It’s definitely the hardest thing I’ve climbed on a rope so far.
The whole process has been captured on film and I’m looking forward to telling more about this story in a future release. For now, I must extend a massive thanks to everyone who has supported this journey. To my sponsors @blackdiamond @fiveten_official @frictionlabs, my wife @marymeck for always supporting my wild dreams and everyone who ventured up to the cliff this month @honngy @margojain @jon_cardwell @christian_adam_ @ethan_pringle @ryanolsonk @broncopeters @nelsoncarayannis @agrphoto and Jeff Achey @wolverinepublishing .
Looking back I will cherish the days spent at the cliff with such a wonderful collection of talented and supportive people. 📸 @christian_adam_ | Posted on 10/Nov/2021 23:46:16
