Badile Speed – Dani Arnold – 2016
In summer 2016 Dani Arnold achieved two incredible new speed records: at Torre Trieste on the so-called „Carlesso“ and at Piz Badile on the famous „Cassin“ route. On the second ascent I was responsible for the documentation together with the filmmaker Guido Perrini. We were there live during the ascent – in contrast to almost all previous records of this kind in the world. This means the pictures were not taken as usual in the aftermath and in peace, but directly on the spot when Dani climbed through the 800m high, quasi vertical wall in a fabulous 52 minutes. Our original plan was that I would go with Dani from the hut to the entrance and Guido would pick me up with the helicopter to take pictures from the air. We had planned a break and to turn off the chopper for a while – but it never happened.
Dani was so incredibly fast that we couldn’t afford to take our eyes off him for even a minute.
This project has followed me for a long time. It was a premiere for everyone involved to document such a record attempt live. Since the risk of a speed ascent is naturally extremely high, I often wondered, especially in the aftermath, whether it is justifiable to be a spectator here. On the other hand, I also struggled with recreating the scenes and putting Dani in danger again in the exposed terrain. A real dilemma. In the end, however, it was also an incredible privilege to experience such an action on location, as well as it was also a gesture of mutual trust and it increased my admiration for Dani’s skills considerably.
