Some places stay with you long after the first climb. Some walls, once left behind, have a way of drawing you back. For Salewa People Leo Gheza, Furcia Rossa III is one of those places. After opening “Il Tempo Sospeso” on the same wall, Leo returned to the Fanes Dolomites with Luca Ducoli. That return led to “Déjà vu”, a new line across the south face of Furcia Rossa III.
“What brought me back to Furcia Rossa III was the fascination of the rock itself and its quality. I never thought I’d find walls like this in the Dolomites – incredibly solid rock, with sharp, abrasive holds.”
- Leo Gheza
The Fanes Dolomites still hold places far removed from the most travelled routes. “Déjà vu” grew from a simple question, one that often comes naturally when exploring: what if there were still untouched lines here, new routes waiting to be opened? It was this wild, unspoilt corner of the Dolomites that drew Leo back once again:
“Sometimes it’s good to simply listen to the silence, and here you really can. The Furcia Rossa area is incredibly peaceful, far from the crowds of the usual Dolomite passes, where the sound of motorbikes and cars below can overpower the experience of climbing. The wild, unspoilt landscape, together with the warm welcome from the people at Ütia de Gran Fanes, made this place even more fascinating and inviting.”
Every new route is also shaped by the relationship between the people who imagine it and climb it. On a rope team, decisions are shared: finding the line, working out how to protect a pitch, knowing when to stop and when to keep pushing. Together with Luca Ducoli, Leo turned an idea into an eight-pitch route, moving through technical slabs, dihedrals and more powerful sections. This is how Leo describes the adventure he shared with Luca, now a trusted climbing partner:
“Well, by now we’re a pretty established rope team! We’ve shared plenty of adventures in the mountains and opened several routes together. Despite the ten-year age difference, we’ve always been in sync. And that’s really all you need for a rope team to work – sometimes without even having to communicate.”
The result of their commitment and friendship is a varied sport climbing route, with a maximum grade of 8a and mandatory climbing up to 7a. But difficulty only tells part of the story. More than anything, “Déjà vu” is about movement on Dolomite rock – finding balance, staying focused and experiencing the satisfaction of piecing together a continuous line on a wall that still sees relatively little traffic. For Leo, one moment in particular captures what it took to complete the route:
“The moment from this route that will stay with me most is definitely the traverse on the third pitch – the crux. To work it out, we had to tape our fingertips just to save our skin. The abrasiveness of the rock really put us to the test.”
The name of the route evokes the feeling of something already experienced. And yet, in the mountains, every return is different: the conditions change, the light changes, the rope team changes – and so does the climber’s perspective. Returning to Furcia Rossa III wasn’t about repeating the same experience. It was about continuing a dialogue that had begun the year before and rediscovering the value of exploration: not simply chasing the best-known objectives, but learning to look more closely at the places the mountains put in front of us.
Leo explains: “Unlike ‘Il Tempo Sospeso’, the route we previously opened on this wall in trad style, using only a few pitons and removable protection, ‘Déjà vu’ was established as a sport route. By Dolomite standards, I’d call it an incredible line. It runs entirely over excellent rock – almost too sharp in places – and thanks to its south-east exposure, it’s particularly well suited to the shoulder seasons.”
“We decided to call the route ‘Déjà vu’ because, while climbing this new line on Furcia Rossa, it somehow felt like we were doing something we’d already done – a feeling we recognised. We had already opened ‘Il Tempo Sospeso’ and, even though we were climbing an entirely new route, it felt as though we were reliving the same emotions, the same doubts and that particular sense of discovery.”
