The World’s Largest Artificial Climbing Wall

Diga di Luzzone – The world’s largest artificial climbing wall 

And now for some totally off kilter shenanigans. Rumors got to the Thrillseeker addicts that Switzerland housed the world’s largest artificial climbing wall, Diga di Luzzone – umm yeah, a functioning dam! This rumor did not fall on deaf ears. So, in a quest to climb everything awesome and weird, this definitely satisfying both categories, we tacked this on to our Matterhorn (yeah, we climbed that too) road trip as a slight detour/rest day activity while en route to the Dolomites in Italy.

The Diga di Luzzone, near central Switzerland, houses this 165m (540′), 5-pitch plastic pulling, vertical playground. Access to the Dam is controlled via a pay for play system that costs 20 CHF per climber, which anyone who has visited $witzerland knows that you can’t even eat a sandwich for that cheap. The 20 CHF gives you access to a ladder used to gain the first 20′ or so of the featureless dam to the holds of the first pitch.

From there on, its you versus plastic accessorized dam for the weirdest 540 feet of your life. The pitches are long enough for you to feel the weight of the rope as you clip the higher bolts and when you look down, the exposure is mind blowing. The top out is where you gain your 15 minutes of fame as tons of tourists are cheering you on, nothing is more exciting to them then seeing two crazy people (ahem, you and your partner) climb the dam beneath them and exit over the railing. It’s weird and fucking rad all in one ‘crank the rainbow’ style ascent.

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