The Swiss climber Nils Favre - most known for the ascent of hard boulders - did an ascent of the trad route Darbellay (8a) at the Petit Clocher above Martigny.
For Nils It was only the fifth trad route of his career. Nevertheless, he dared to attempt a difficult multi-pitch route: Darbellay with difficulties up to 8a.
“When I first tried the route by leading, I was fucking shit. I didn't know if my placements were good or not. To make matters worse, you can only place small Camalots. When you start climbing, you quickly have a lot of air under your feet. At some point, of course, I fell into the rope and gained confidence in the material and the placements. "
Nils Favre on his trading experience in the Darbellay route
Nils often had to access the route by himself
Nils Favre Not only did he struggle with the route itself, but he also had trouble finding belay partners. Therefore, Nils often undertook the long approach without a rope partner in order to practice the various climbing sections and placements alone. To do this, he had to reach the summit of the Petit Clocher Rope solo climb (see video above).
All in: Nils removes pitons
Nils decided to lead all his placements for the climb and forgo the two pitons in the crux. This would have resulted in a 15-meter drop in the event of a fall. Fortunately, this didn't happen. Nils climbed all pitches without falling and got the redpoint ascent of Darbellay (8a, 5SL) on Petit Clocher.
“I removed the two hooks that previous rope teams used and used when climbing through. It's trad people! "
Nils Favre
Nils during one of his attempts in DArbellay (8a)
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Credits: Cover picture Julia Cassou