Carlo Traversi—Empath (5.15a)

Watch Carlo Traversi go on the journey to discover and establish Empath—now one of America’s hardest sport climbs.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2020

To find the perfect line is a never-ending search. A quest that becomes meaningful only for the sake of the journey. But every now and then, if you continue looking, the chance of finding something truly spectacular becomes real. BD Athlete Carlo Traversi knows this feeling. He’s tasted this fruit and has touched this stone. In a chance of fate, he recently unearthed a marvel. This line contains all the emotions, holding within its granite a lifetime of empathy for a wandering seeker like Traversi. Perhaps that’s why this line, now a testament to the search, holds the name Empath. Watch Traversi establish what is now one of America’s prized 5.15’s.

Video: Ben Neilson Photos: Christian Adam

The search for new rock is the ultimate lesson in curiosity and acceptance. You walk aimlessly through the woods for hours on end motivated by this vision of something in your head, an idealistic representation of the perfect boulder problem or the perfect cliff band, and you never find it. But on the search, you usually find something else. Maybe it’s something abstract, like peace of mind or a solution to a life problem that’s been occupying head space. Sometimes you find something physical, like a piece of rock that inspires you or a new vantage point from which to explore the world around. Chances are what you find is never what you were looking for, but it’s exactly what you were meant to discover.

In developing Empath, the journey followed similarly. This incredible line existed outside my imagination. With its intricate web of vertical seams, tufa-like pinches, and rounded slopers, it defied what I thought was possible in a piece of rock. And it arrived in my life at a perfect time, just following success on other projects and when local areas inadvertently became the only areas. The style of climbing was a perfect fit. Almost no down-pulling holds and a careful focus on body positioning to link sections together. All those years of lie-backing in the Valley had a new purpose. But it was really hard and its style and difficulty pushed me further than anything I’ve tried before and that’s all you can really hope for when you walk into the woods in search of something new.

--Carlo Traversi