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JAMIE FOY
JAMIE FOY
JAMIE FOY
ADAM ONDRA
STRIKES AGAIN!
Sends SILENCE a.k.a. Project Hard!
World's Hardest Rock Climb 9c - 5.15d (9c)
Adam Ondra
“I call it Silence. When I was climbing through the crux of this route, I felt like if I was in my own world, with my mind in complete silence, my body relaxed and flowing up the moves in complete harmony despite the extreme difficulty of the moves. When I reached the anchor, I wanted to scream, but I could not, too overwhelmed to break the silence."
SILENCE a.k.a. Project Hard!
ADAM ONDRA, the 24-year-old climbing phenom from the Czech Republic, has struck again, just eight months after his mind blowing ascent of Dawn Wall (5.14d Class VI) in Yosemite Valley, California, which only took eight days, just two days after blasting up the Nose, the most prominent featured on El Capitan in just under twenty four hours.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Adam just days before his historic ascent. We talked about everything, from his ascent of Dawn Wall, his thoughts on Alex Honnold's unroped free solo of FREE RIDER, a 34 mega-pitch route on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley, his training preparation for this route, the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, when we might expect the world's first 9c+ / 5.16a, and what he believes is the secret to his success.
It's important to know Ondra is the only rock climber to win both the lead and bouldering competitions in the World Cup. He was also the first person to established the world's first 9b+, CHANGE (watch video), which has remained unrepeated. Since then, Adam has been on a tear, onsighting numerous 9a's - 5.14d's and capturing the first ascent of La Dura Dura, another 9b+, just a month before Chris Sharma captured the 2nd ascent. (watch video)
So it's no surprise that Ondra would return to the massive cave in Flatanger, Norway, where he established Change, to work on a route he bolted back in 2013 known as Project Hard! For two years, Adam traveled back and forth to the Norwegian cave, practicing and building specific muscle groups with physiotherapist Klaus Isele, to give him the strength to power through the multiple overhanging boulder problems.
According to Adam, Silence had a total of six kneebars. The first four were shared with Nordic Flower, an 8b/5.13d route, before launching straight into a V7 boulder problem on Silence, a.k.a. Project Hard, to really bad knee bar rest. From there the route gets really hard. The first major crux, is a henious V15 boulder problem that required Ondra to contort his body into upside down position. See video below.
"The strangest moves are on the V15 crux 1, which is very physical, but the most precision-demanding climbing I have ever seen in my life. It is very hard to turn upside down, “stab” my left foot super high into the crack, doing it 100-percent precisely, finish the sequence with this foot jam, doing the last move while doing the most extreme drop-knee I have ever done, which feel like it would tear my knee and back apart. "
Adam Ondra
The 2nd crux is a V13 boulder problem to a not-so-good rest, followed by a V10 problem to a bucket rest, the last one before launching into the final V5 problem just below the anchors. When asked if we'll ever see a 9c+/5.16a, Adam replied..."Maybe in another 10 years!" But if my Spidey senses are correct, I'm willing to bet we'll see our first 9c+/5.16a by 2020 - the year climbers will be peaking for the Olympics.
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THE WORLD''S GREATEST CLIMBER
ADAM ONDRA
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