Now it's time to reprint an interview of Dino Lagni and wife, published on the Rivista della Montagna nr. 203, August 1997. A different way to get to know better tranquillity, humility and determination of the new Sport Climbing World Champion.

Protagonists of Sport Climbing: Lisa Benetti and Dino Lagni.
By Oscar Durbiano

Definitely products from Vicenza are fashionable in the recent period. From the success in soccer, to the wonders of Guidolin, sportive example of equilibrium, modesty and competitive determination, to the results reached by the vertical couple that we are going to introduce you, all together, there isn't such a big difference. Both have a huge motivation, a particular predisposition for sacrifice and work, together with rectitude and absolute behavior modesty. This isn't a public elegy of the perseverance, in this case in sport, of the venetian people, but just a stating of facts, the discovery of a reality that is definitely unexpected by people coming from outside and therefore the consequential manifestation of the pleasant reality.
Lisa and Dino are two exceptional climbers, about whom very little has been told, in spite of the sportive successes of first rank (in the overall ranking of the Coppa Italia '95 Lisa won the women's category, and Dino got a fourth place). They have been together for six years, married three years ago and live in Schio. Our two friends climb very well in competition, but particularly outside: Dino has climbed a certain number of 8a on sight and Lisa a 7b+ and several 7b, always on sight. Until this point, congratulations, but, all together, that isn't different from the other top climbers. The good thing is to watch them in action on the rocks, two true climbing machines, that flog tens of routes each day, and all at a high level. And then the fact that they are also married is definitely pleasant, the so-called "cherry on the cake". It is beautiful to watch them climb, particularly on sight: they are both very spontaneous, natural in their progression, definitely very technical, but also "powerful", if needed. They work their routes in the home crags instead, preferably in Covolo, an overhanging limestone wall located in the colli Berici. We wanted to get to know better this young couple and to take advantage of them for exploring the reglettes of Covolo, undoubtedly one of the most beautiful and performing Italian crags.

Bonnie & Clide

Lisa and Dina married three years ago, but first of all they seem to be two great friends and climbing partners. They climb together, they incite each other, and they are clearly "accomplices", before being husband and wife.
Do you often climb together?
Lisa: practically always, since I have left my job as shop assistant, which I was until a year ago. Before we had many more problems to be together, to climb together, because we had different timetables that seldom coincided.
The choice to stay at home from work has solved undoubtedly many things, also if it brought some difficulties of financial order. This has been definitely a positive choice, both for life quality level and for my climbing performance.
A little less for the family budget health, but this isn't everything, also if it is very important. It is always the same story, when you have the money you don't have the time to go climbing, and vice versa: it a question of choices. In the next month I am going to begin to work again, but in an adequate way, looking for a job that lets me a little time for my private life and for the life quality of our couple story.
Dino, what do you do for living?
Dino: I am accountant in a company in Schio. It means I have a job in the office, that allows me a traditional timetable: get up at 7.00 AM, work until 5.00 PM and afterwards straight away I go home to climb on the climbing wall. A working routine in which climbing is fundamental to digest the accumulated tensions of the sedentary activity.
Therefore climbing becomes a safety valve for the daily tensions?
Dino: Also, but not only. You know, I started climbing many years ago and today seems to me perfectly normal to continue to do it, it lets me feeling well and at the same time I continue the exploration of my interior verticality. I continue to be extremely motivated to do better, to improve and because of that I absolutely don't feel training as a burden.
Lisa: When I worked I were always looking forward to finish, to go climbing, outside or on the climbing wall. I liked it very much, it gave me satisfaction and let me feel well. Since then nothing changed. The fact of being able to train regularly, of being in perfect balance with Dino and with climbing lets me feel really well, physically and inside. All the rest, let's say, is relative and counts much less.
What do you usually do in your training session?
Dino: usually we begin at 5.30 PM and continue for 3-4 hours. This for three evenings a week, while on Friday I usually rest. Saturday and Sunday we climb outside, in the crags.
Lisa: I climb in the climbing wall three times a week, that means that I rest also on Monday, if we have climbed intensively on the rocks during the weekend.
Do you follow a training program or do you act basing on your personal experience?
Lisa: we are rather autodidactic in our training; we help each other and do both, more or less, the same things. On the artificial wall we boulder and train endurance. Sometimes we also develop pure power on the training board.
Outside instead we climb on sight or work routes. To have the possibility to climb on sight we are obliged to travel a little, but we have also the great luck to live in a strategic location. To work routes or to train endurance we go the home crags, usually Covolo.
How important are the climbing competitions in all this?
Dino: Very important. Personally they constitute the main argument of a strong motivational push, that justifies all this effort in training. I find anyway that this is a situation rather common among climbers with sportive mentality: to reach any interesting results today you can't live without training, also in climbing. This new reality has brought, within a few years, to a remarkable improvement of climbing general level, because each climber, someone more, someone less, has the intention to compare, first of all with himself and his own limits. After overcoming this primary factor, we have the equally important one of the sportive comparison among athletes, the appeal of the true and real competition. The one where, at the end of the game, there will be only one winner.
How important have been competitions in the evolution of your climbing?
Lisa: Very important, I would say, because with the excuse of the competitions, to succeed competing many trained a lot and therefore they became better: a big and undeniable advantage for everybody. I found the level has risen remarkably in the last years and I think that the reason is due to competitions, big motivation and above all the development of the home-climbing wall.
Is this theory valid for you too?
Dino: Definitely. Think that the climbing wall has been one of the first things that we have built here, before moving in. Today we have even doubled it and now have two home climbing walls: one slightly overhanging, more for finger training on the ground floor, and one definitely more overhanging and physical under the roof. With this system we were able to complete our climbing area, and now we can train even better than before.
Lisa: Having a home wall is above all a very practical thing. Without a wall inside or close to your house, it would be inconceivable to think to the huge amount of training we do. Further it is also a huge saving of time and money. Only a few years ago we had to drive hours and hours to climb in the crags half or even less of what we do today.
All this work is finalized to precise goals or you just try to improve your physical qualities?
Lisa: To be fit is good for many things: crag, competition, mind. If you are fit and stick the holds, you have the possibility of excelling in all the sectors of climbing that appeal you. With the training for competitions, the level of on sight climbing has improved a lot, because the climbers have worked particularly in that direction. Further, who is fit for on-sight routes, with a little adaptation, can have good results also in worked routes, without too many problems. The competition is the reason to train well, but then all the work is automatically transmitted also to the other aspects of climbing, and this lets you feel well, it's a big gratification.
How long have you been together?
Lisa: We got engaged six years ago and think that we met, not so strange, during a climbing competition in Turin. One day then we met again in a climbing area. At the end of the day we exchanged our telephone numbers and today here we are, with a ring on our fingers!
Don't tell me that you spent also the honeymoon climbingŠ
Dino: We have been a week in Paris to celebrate and we haven't even gone to visit Fontainbleau. Afterwards we have been some days in Arco, where we turned over a new leaf, both with climbing and with a strict diet to repair the damages of the marriage.
Which kind of holidays do you make? Only and exclusively dedicated to climbing?
Lisa: Practically yes. We make, often with friends, a nice round trip in the summer, may be visiting the areas around the locations of the summer competitions. The importance is to plan itineraries that can interest also the other friends who like following us during the vertical travelling.
My impression is that here in Schio there is really a nice group of climbers very fond of their activity, or am I wrong?
Dino: It is really like that. There are many of us, who like climbing; so that we have even founded a sportive club, called "El Maneton", with the goal of providing incentives for the promotion of sport climbing, organize the competition transfers, etcŠ Today we have more than 25 members and the number is increasing constantly every season.
Lisa: At the basis of all there is, among us, a wonderful friendly relationship. When, for example, somebody succeeds redpointing a hard project in the crags, or climbs a hard route on sight, usually we celebrate with a nice meal together, or with a drink in the small bar under Covolo.
Do you eat in a special way?
Lisa: nothing particular. Of course we pay attention to the quality of food and avoid most of the fats. Lately we began to have also a little meat, let's say once a week. Unfortunately we are rather greedy and this makes our sacrifice bigger. Nutella is our second great love!
Today in the crags there were really a lot of people climbing on 8a routes. How do you explain this phenomenon, a mass performance explosion?
Dino: You know, anyway those are people who cut a fine figure everywhere. People like Davide Zavagnin and his brother, Luigi Billoro and the friends from Padova. There was also Marco Savio, the "Lord" of Covolo, the one who discovered and equipped it. Think that he climbed the first 8b+ in the long gone '87, ten years ago. You should also keep in mind that Covolo is the best climbing area around here (and not only, Editor's Note) where you find this kind of climbing and is logical that many good climbers concentrate on the bottom of these overhangs. And if we add the fact that today many train regularly on the climbing wall, here is explained the reason of this great improvement of the average level. Only three-four years ago very few climbers from Vicenza could climb consistently routes harder than 8a. Today they are definitely many more.
To watch Dino in action in Covolo is definitely impressive. On his home rocks for him it is normal to link 25-30 routes a day, more than twenty of them harder than 8a, and many 8b! I agree, he knows every wrinkle and small hole, but nevertheless it's always a huge amount of routes of high level, which many climbers dream to be able to link in an entire life! And Dino climbs them in one single dayŠ.
It is definitely impressive to watch you climb up and down these extreme overhangs; what is the secret of this endurance?
Dino: You must keep in mind that I know the wall and all the routes really well, therefore I can save a lot of energy while climbing, preserving the power and giving it away during the whole day. I train anyway a lot also at home, above all with the goal to improve my autonomy, to be able to succeed in some hard on sight routes, one of the activities that I love most.
Which is the level of your performance in crags?
Lisa: I climbed a 7b+ and some 7b on sight. Two worked 8a, "Incantesimo" and "Beauty", both in Covolo.
Dino: A few 8a on sight and an 8c yet to be confirmed: "Nagay".
Which kind of climb it is?
It's a really beautiful and complex line that requests a great, really great finger endurance. I would like it really much, if any of the "bosses" would come to try it, to listen to his opinion about it. In this moment I am trying a monstrous project near it, that seems definitely harder and that will request me a huge commitment. This is the real reason, why you saw me climbing all these routes in these days: I am training hard on the field to try it with a little chance of success.
All together, a life spent looking for the world's smallest hold or for the victory in the most important competition? Where is sport climbing going, in year 2000, for the couple Lagni?
Lisa: just towards the directions suggested by the personal instinct of any of us. Modern climbing is so appealing exactly because of this: everybody can find the vertical direction he likes more, to try to win the challenge with himself, the most important of all.
Dino: I think that anybody has the right to make the activity he likes more. I love polyvalence and behave correspondingly, trying to make the maximum to improve continuously. Everything starts from the mind, for more than ten years climbing has been the center of my life and lets me feel good inside. I have had the great luck to meet the ideal partner for my life, who shares the same emotions with me. I consider definitely myself a lucky and happy person.

BOX
Who is Lisa Benetti.
Name: Lisa
Family name: Benetti Lagni
Height: 160 cm
Weight: 54 kg
Born in: Valdagno (VI), 25 October 1971
Civil status: married with Dino Lagni
Studies: middle school
Profession: athlete and worker
Best competition results: 1° final ranking of Coppa
Italia 1995, 1° Coppa Italia Bolzano '98
Best performances outside: several 7b+ on sight. Two worked
8a, "Incantesimo" and "Beauty" both Covolo (VI), a 8a+, Supertitti, in
Covolo (Vi).

Who is Dino Lagni.
Name: Bernardino called Dino
Family name: Lagni
Height: 170 cm
Weight: 58 kg
Born in: Schio (VI), 27 August 1968
Civil Status: married with Lisa Benetti
Studies: accountant
Profession: accountant in a large private company
Best competition results: 2° Longarone '95; 2° Marina di
Ravenna '95. 4° final ranking Coppa Italia 1995; 1° final ranking Coppa Italia '99; 2° Italian Championship '99; 1° World Championship '99.
Best performances outside: several 8a on sight in Italy,
Switzerland, France. Two 8a+ on sight in Spain. Worked "Nagay", 8c, in
Covolo (VI).