5 Uve 8c by Francesca Medici

Francesca Medici has done her second 8c, 5 Uve in Arco. "I think that this route was a sort of "unfinished business" because I injured myself exactly two weeks after my first 8c so I always felt like a sort of need to came back at the exact point where I left two years ago."

How can you describe the route and how was the process taking it down?
It's a physical route with a lot of powerful moves and three kneebars. The first part is easiest if compare to the last 3 quickdraws where is the crux of the route. I think that for me it was more a mental game than a physical one.

I injured myself really bad in May 2019 and needed surgery. Then I started climbing again at the end of 2019 but due to pandemics and my degree in Medicine, I wasn't so motivated to train hard again. Then I started a new job in February 2021 and decided to try this route again in April of 2021 and it became my obsession and in order to do that, I begun training again between my hospital shifts and my motivation slowly came back. So it's easy to say that the reason why I still climb today is because of this route 😅



What kind of accident and surgery did you have in 2019?
I dislocated my elbow in the gym. I fell really bad on the mattress and broke all the ligaments in my elbow's joint. So I needed surgery in order to rebuild both my medial and lateral ligaments. The incident happened in May 2019 and I had surgery in July. Then I started climbing again some months later but due to exams and the pandemic, I didn't have the real-time for a proper recovery. Then I graduated in Medicine in July 2020 and after that, I returned to climb with a little more time. In February 2021 I started my internship in Anesthesia in Padua and I started climbing more seriously again thanks to the beautiful gym that I found there.

What are your winter plans and what is your long time ambition?
I don't know about my winter plan. It all depends on my hospital shifts and how much time I am able to climb. In the next weeks, I hope to find a new project. Maybe some slabs but I don't know really. My only long time ambition is to continue to enjoy climbing as much as possible and to find other routes that can inspire me to improve myself, regardless of the grade 😁