Pietro Vidi does Meltdown (8c+) trad

Pietro Vidi, who two weeks ago sent an 8b+ big wall on El Cap, has repeated Meltdown (8c+) in Yosemite (CA). First established by Beth Rodden in 2008, Meltdown has seen only a handful of repeats in the 17 years since and is widely regarded as one of the most difficult trad routes in the world.

Approaching the climb in headpoint style, Pietro spent his first two sessions working out the individual moves before beginning to link sections on day three. It took two additional sessions of lead attempts before Pietro finally clipped the chains on his sixth day on the route and third day of redpoint efforts. (c) Daniel Gajda

How was it to hang dog it the first time, any long falls and what about the grade?
It definitely felt hard for the grade! Took some falls on the upper crux to get to the chains the first time but luckily you can easily aid all the first crux😅

“I started making some good links on top-rope on day 3 where I realised I would probably need to skip some gear in the first part and also a crucial nut placement on the second crux - in order to save energy. This made for quite a big runout but still seemed relatively safe. I made my first lead tries on session 4 and got through the first crux, only to fall right after, when I struggled to place a cam properly and got too pumped to continue. That afternoon I actually watched a video on Ethan Pringle ripping the gear in the hollow flake, which is right below the nut I had decided not to place. He almost decked out. This made me quite nervous! The following day, I tested the gear in the flake myself, almost breaking a nut, which I was convinced was bomber and thus, further multiplying my nerves. Luckily I found that a bigger nut would fit and my confidence slowly came back.

On day 6 I started up the route, feeling really confident, only to dry-fire right after the crux move and breaking the trigger wires on the cam. I managed to temporally fix the cam with some tape and then sent the route on my next try, with quite a battle against numb fingers and pump! Meltdown is, for sure, the hardest trad-route I have climbed, apart from ‘Tribe’. The climbing is super insecure with horrible feet, extremely technical but still really physical. Beth’s first ascent, more than 15 years ago, was truly incredible and ahead of its time!”