Paolo Sartori

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Odyssee - Eiger Nordwand

In August 2018 I was asked by La Sportiva to document Jacopo Larcher and Barbara Zangerl in their single-push free ascent of Odyssee, the hardest free climb on the Eiger North Face and one of the hardest in the Alps.

I followed them on the first two days of the climb; pressure was quite high since they were totally focused on climbing the route and there was no time to waste, so I had to shoot on the fly as the action happened. I left them after the crux pitches and I started abseiling down the wall while they kept climbing for three more days making a remarkable ascent in a near perfect style, so later we decided to go back and make a little film about it.


Last August, La Sportiva ambassadors Barbara Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher made a four-day ascent of Odyssee (8a+/5.13c), a 33 pitch, 1400 meter long route on the legendary Eiger north face, Switzerland. The route was originally established by Roger Schaeli and Robert Jasper and then completed with Simon Gietl in 2015.