Pietro Vidi Sends Meltdown 5.14c Trad in Yosemite
The 22-year-old Italian climber continues to make rare repeats of the hardest trad climbs in the world
Daniel Gajda
On November 11, Pietro Vidi climbed the iconic Beth Rodden route Meltdown 5.14c in Yosemite’s Cascade Creek. First established by Rodden on Valentines Day in 2008, Meltdown went unrepeated for over 10 years. The route is a tips crack with heinous, terrible feet. The gear is small, and the placements are finicky. It wasn’t until 2018 that Carlo Travesi made the second ascent. Jacopo Larcher made the third ascent in late 2022, Babsi Zangerl made the fourth in October 2023, and Connor Herson made the fifth in November 2024. Vidi adds his name to this small list of ascensionists.
Vidi head-pointed Meltdown, and it didn’t take long for the Italian climber to figure out his beta and ultimately clip the chains. He worked out the moves in his first two sessions, and by his third, he was already making links. He sent the climb on his sixth session, on only his third day of ground-up attempts.
“I started making some good links on top-rope on day [three], where I realized 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,” said Vidi of the climb. “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!”
Vidi began working on Meltdown after he freed Pre-Muir, a 35-pitch 5.13c/d, with Camilla Moroni, which the pair achieved only two weeks ago (from October 20 to October 26). Earlier this year, he made the second free ascent of Tommy Caldwell and Rodden’s Lurking Fear 5.13c. It was first freed way back in 2000 and sat unrepeated for 25 years—but incredibly, it was Vidi’s first route on El Cap.
This year, Vidi also racked up an unprecedented list of sends during a visit to the Peak District in the U.K., ticking Appointment With Death E9 6c, The Groove E9 7b, Dynamics of Change E9 7a, Meshuga E9 6c, and Gaia E8. Last year, he repeated two Jacopo Larcher trad climbs: the ungraded Tribe (which is likely 5.14+) and Jeune et Con 5.13d R/X.
