After an ascent of „La Voie Petit“ (450m, 8b) on the Grand Capucin, the strong Belgian Sébastien Berthe was able to climb the 500m long route ‚Bellavista‘ (XI- / 8c) on the north wall on the Western Peaks (2,973 Meters) in the Dolomites, South Tyrol, Italy. He climbed the route on this first day in the wall. He could climb the crux pitch in his 2nd go and downgraded it to 8b +. The first ascenter Alex Huber says about it:„In its original state it had been 8c, but today it is 8b+ since crucial holds became enlarged soon after the first ascent in 2001.“

All other pitches Sébastien climbs onsight.

„Woooaw, I can’t believe it! Yesterday, I could send „Bellavista“ on my first day on the route With David Leduc, we had all the week to work and hopefully send this beast… Well, It looks like we can spend the rest of the week, enjoying the pizza-icecream-italian-life .

Starting the day at 6 in the morning and finishing it at 9pm, it was busy climb!⠀This route is a typical boldly Dolomite’s one and only rely on pegs (exept from the anchors where you can find good bolts) which make the whole climb really interesting.⠀

I could climb the 8b+ (original 8c) crux pitch on my second go, fininshing it completely pumped, shouting to hold on! This pitch is one of the craziest one I’ve ever climbed: 55m of traversing overhang and sustained climbing on good holds. Terribly exposed, if you fall, you find yourself at the end of the rope, in the middle of the void, far away from the wall. You better take a jumar with! One of the main challenge about this pitch is to go back to the belay anchor after your try I don’t think the pitch would be 8b+ on the ground, but the atmosphere around it make it very hard! Moreover, I must say, fixed draws and chalkmarks made it way easier.

I led all the pitches until it joins the „Cassin“ where we swapped lead. I onsighted all of them exept the crux and the following 7c+ (where I fell at the second move before starting again and onsighting the rest of it).⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

It is so impressive to notice that @alexander_huberbuam opened it over a four-day period of solitary climbing in winter 1999! Then, he freeclimbed it in 2001, and he didn’t have thickmarks and fixed draws in the crux pitch… Bravo! Thank’s David for this day! I am so happy about my ‚multipitch flow‘ right now! What’s next?!“ ⠀⠀⠀