“It was a tough blow for everyone—the ‘Fessura della disperazione (crack of despair)'’, from whatever angle you look at it. It was truly extreme for its time, because crack climbing wasn’t being freed back then. If that crack had been easier to protect, we probably would have climbed it aid.” Roberto Bonelli “Friends are revealed in moments of despair.” Jacopo “What trad climbing? We call it late climbing.” A guy at the base of the Sergent cliff wall Well, what can I say… for the first time we find ourselves facing an offwidth. After getting our confidence back on Gran Paradiso granite with a cocktail of routes at Torre d’Aimonin, we’re ready to test ourselves. The crack is preceded by its long-standing reputation, and that doesn’t escape us—we struggle quite a bit to sleep that night. In the morning, the die is cast: Rattlesnake, our alternative, is rejected… after all, who would spend a near-sleepless night just to not even go and see up close the cause of all that agitation? We arrive at the base of the wall. Jacopo, in an evident state of confusion, wanders nervously around the start. To calm him down, I send him off on the first pitch. Thirty metres later (to say “above” would be improper for a route that is about 100 metres long with 50 metres of vertical gain), Jacopo contemplates a huge detached block threatening the belay. One aid move and he can clip into two rusty bolts and be safe. Now it’s my turn to tackle the crux pitch. I make a brutal mistake and try it on the outside. After three moves I shamefully hang on the rope and inch my way up until the crack steepens. Here everything becomes easier, although the position is not exactly friendly to one’s anatomy. Soon I reach the point where the crack turns vertical. I place two good cams and prepare to launch our only 6a move to Jacopo on the rope, which I haven’t re-clipped after the horizontal section. Act III: Jacopo takes on the vertical crack. He keeps slipping, but makes more progress up than down. He squeezes into the chimney and begins a long, long epic that will end about an hour later, when he finally decides to exit it, using a dulfer stance on the edge. Our compliments go to Galante, Bonelli and Lenzi, not so much for the difficulty of the route they established, but for the courage with which they climbed it without the gear we have today, which makes it accessible to any climber with a bit of experience in protecting themselves. A great route.