Ice World Champion Angelika Rainer Sends 5.14c in Italy
The epic 40-metre route in Arco overhangs by 20 metres and climbs up a diagonal line of tufa features
Italian climber Angelika Rainer, 36, recently sent the hardest sport route of her life—Solitary Souls 5.14c (8c+) in Arco, Italy. Known for her cutting edge ice, mixed, and drytooling sends, Rainer has been pushing her sport climbing grades in recent years. Solitary Souls is the king line of the Le Piazzole crag, found high above Arco. The line was originally bolted by Nico Favresse, and Alfredo Webber made the first ascent.
On Instagram, Rainer had this to say about the route and her feelings of achieving 5.14c: “A stunning 35 meter ride along tufas, crimps and pockets, some looong moves, a crazy cross move and lots of endurance. A beautiful line in one of the most quiet and most panoramic areas of Arco. [Needless] to say, I‘m happy.”
Rainer is a three-time Ice Climbing World Champion and two-time Ice Climbing World Cup winner. In 2017, she became the first woman to climb the drytooling grade of D15 with her ascent of French Connection in the Italian Dolomites. At the time, D15 was the hardest confirmed drytooling grade in the world. She also climbed A Line Across the Sky D15, again in the Dolomites, later that year. She stopped participating in ice climbing competitions a few years ago, and is now focused on hard rock climbing sends.
In early 2022, Adam Ondra onsighted Solitary Souls 5.14c. A video detailing the beautiful route and his send is found below.
Solitary Souls 5.14c
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