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24 September 2026

There is a goat in the Alps that seems to have a very different understanding of the word “difficult.”

Give it a steep mountain and it climbs.

Give it a cliff and it climbs.

Give it a nearly vertical dam wall and, apparently, that will do nicely too.

Alpine ibex have been filmed climbing the Cingino Dam in northern Italy, sometimes reaching astonishing heights on the steep wall. They are looking for mineral salts on the surface.

The secret is in their feet.

Their hooves are split into two parts, with hard outer edges and softer inner surfaces that help them grip tiny irregularities. Researchers have also recorded ibex using careful zigzag routes while climbing steep artificial walls.

Looking at a photograph of one standing halfway up a dam, you might reasonably wonder whether somebody has forgotten to tell the goat that gravity exists.

But the ibex seems perfectly comfortable.

For us, a wall is something that keeps us out.

For an ibex, sometimes it is simply another road.

Rajat Chandra Sarmah, Guwahati, Assam, India, Instagram @rajatchandrasarmah, YouTube: conversewithasmile, email rajatchandrasarmah@gmail.com