Babsi Zangerl & Jacopo Larcher vs Zodiac (5.13d)

It's cool what we are doing. I never got really pushed from my parents. She wanted me to go skiing or go to cinema and shopping like normal girls do. My name is Barbara Zangerl. I'm from the western part of Austria. I'm here together with Jacopo, my boyfriend. I'm from South Tyrol, somewhere between Italy and Austria. I don't have much of a choice for a partner. We are like always climbing together and we work super well also as a climbing team. Our goal is to free climb El Cap, the most impressive fall here in Yosemite. We wanted to do a route which wasn't so famous. Zodiac was first climbed by Charles Porter in 1972. Many years later the Ubers brother free climbed it. After them I think just Tommy repeated. He still waits for a third ascent. It's the main goal for every climber who is coming to Yosemite, to climb one time on El Capitan. It's just unbelievable how solid the rock is. We just pack for 10 days and we will just be on the wall. At the beginning I really don't know if it goes or not. This unknown makes it really exciting for me. The plan on Zodiac is to do swinging leads on the pitches easier than 5.12 and then to both lead the 5.13 pitches. We both know that we can climb the single pitches but I think the really tricky part is to try to climb them all in a row. All the difficulties in Zodiac are concentrated in the white circle. When we first tried we had like no idea how to climb them and it felt impossible. It's really technical. It was only possible to climb in good conditions like in the early morning or in the night. During the day it was too hot. We reached the day goal. Climb to this belay without the fall. It would be good to try the next pitch. This is the first hard pitch of the white circle. It's a day day plus. Sometimes I'm really scared and the moves are not really hard but I'm on my limit because I'm scared. I was super scared to stand in front of a big wall but I was so excited to just try it. Send it! Really cool! It's not easy in the dark and I worked out! Maybe the hardest pitch for me is the open book pitch. A really short corner. Really weird climbing in a completely polished dihedral. For sure possible but it will be really hard. I'm really not sure if I can do it or not. You never know if you slip off or not and I always need luck for that. Now I feel lighter. The climbing on Zodiac is way different. Involves a lot of technical climbing, stemming and feels really really hard. Now we have one really hard pitch left. So you have like this long corner which ends with the nipple pitch which is supposed to be the hardest pitch. It's like this really thin like long undercling. This route is so hard to remember the single moves because everything looks the same and this can make me crazy sometimes when I have the time to think about it. It's like I want to do it perfectly and I know I have to do it perfectly otherwise I can't climb it. When you feel you get closer and everything feels better you know okay now I can maybe do it. I think the most important thing in big wall climbing is that you have to know your climbing partner really well. You just have to work well as a team and understand the needs of the other. We have no beers, we have no wine. We have nothing for a vodelic party. We just have eggs. Sorry. The plan for today is just to go to the top. We have now two more pitches to go. It feels like it's almost done. When you stand on top your big wall project is always different than to stand on top of a boulder of a sport route. For me when I have a really specific objective in my mind I can't just forget about everything else. I can just focus on what I'm doing. I like to give everything for a big goal. The first film I send is not really important for me. For me it's more important how I choose my project. It's more a confrontation with the route and with myself. What I remember is always the experience and the fact that we share something together. Not just about the climbing. It's also about the life on the wall. It's like a complete experience. It's even more quality time together when you can share what you love the most. All these ingredients make the adventure. When I was a child I loved to sleep in a tent in front of the house and now I love to sleep on a cab with a portaledge. When I always feel happy about what I'm doing then it can't be really wrong.