Look out Yosemite: Ondra is coming!

Leading the pitches with all the fear definitely felt super hard, but once I had the rope from above, the moves felt OK.

Oh yeah right, so far he's just ...

Oh yeah right, so far he's just scrambled up choss at 12b, 13a, 13c, 12b, 12d, 13c(R), and 14.

So, does anyone know if he has really led these first handful of pitches placing his own gear.

Update: Ondra Climbs to the Top of Pitch 10 on the Dawn Wall

“We started pretty late yesterday and the fact that we are very inexperienced was obvious right from the beginning—I’ve done a lot of jugging up in my life, but only sport climbing and always using one GriGri and one ascender. Bad technique resulted in being super slow and tired after having jugged up the first 7 pitches. It was 3:30 p.m. by that time, so I managed to get to the top of pitch 10 until it got dark.

“It was quite intense, a lot of bold climbing again, especially on pitch 10, which is another horrendous layback with poor protection. A combination of aid climbing, French-freeing and fear got me to the top without ripping out any of my pieces of pro. I didn’t feel like going for more adventure in the dark, so we just fixed our ropes and I tried pitch 7, 8 and 10 (5.14a, .13d and .14a) on toprope with headlamp. These pitches are not only bold, but freaking hard too! Definitely no easy grades for these ones—Tommy and Kevin are tough guys! I tried the moves all over again to get some confidence and we got back to the camp by 12:30 at night. Big day for sure.

–BD Ambassador Adam Ondra, Oct. 19, 2016.

===

Update: Ondra Jumps on the Dawn Wall

“First day on the big wall in Yosemite, and straight onto the Dawn Wall! Foolishness, lack of respect or boldness? Well, not necessarily any of it. The Dawn Wall just dries up quickly after the huge rain on Sunday. And it went all right. Definitely scary and adventurous. Tiny footholds and insecure climbing, smearing my feet onto glassy footholds of Yosemite granite and all that with poor protection by copperheads, peckers, tiny cams and occasional bolts.

“I ripped some copperheads, took some falls but made it to the top of pitch 7 and fixed our ropes. Leading the pitches with all the fear definitely felt super hard, but once I had the rope from above, the moves felt OK. But grades on the Dawn Wall are definitely not overrated. Great success for today and 5 pitches to go tomorrow to have our ropes fixed under the crux pitches.”

–BD Ambassador Adam Ondra, Oct. 17, 2016.

On Monday, (Ondra's) first day on the wall, he reached the top of Pitch 7, although not without falling. Photographer and climber Dustin Moore reported to Rock and Ice that Ondra onsighted the first pitch (5.12b) and fell once and hung once on the second pitch (5.13a).

tired after having jugged up the first 7 pitches.

They've fixed up high, maybe 12-15 pitches if not more. Heinz Zak was here taking pics too. Even if the Junk Show!

Just him and a buddy belaying.

pavelblazek - Kevin Jorgeson (@kjorgeson) stopped by to give Adam some beta on the climb. The line on the ground is the pitches 11 - 15. That's where we managet to get last night. Adam even tried to climb the pitch 16 in the dark, but it was getting really late and he decided to rather do it during day.

pavelblazek - In my point of view, it's easier for Adam to climb the traverz (pitch 14 & 15), than for me to jug it up (going sideways) .

pavelblazek - We both find it quite funny - Adam never really trad climb, I've never been on multipitch climb, neither of us ever had to jug up or set the fix ropes on big wall ... The learning curve is bit steep :) :) :) .

pavelblazek - We both find it quite funny - Adam never really trad climb, I've never been on multipitch climb, neither of us ever had to jug up or set the fix ropes on big wall ... The learning curve is bit steep :) :) :) .

Anita and I say hi from Lay Lady Ledge.

I'll claim it. And a couple Aussie brothers will claim an on-site NIAD.

"The goal right now is only to go ground-up to the top, free-climbing and using a little bit of aid climbing, to fix the whole line with ropes and start working on the pitches properly to have them ready for the final free push later. So if the crux is around the protection, I just touch the holds to see how the sequence would be and continue. "

adam.ondraAn easy day in #Yosemite, climbing a few pitches with my dad on the Mid Cathedral, just the opposite of the Valley from El Cap. And from the wall itself, we could easily check the line we will climb next. The most obvious one.

Lynn Hill has not onsighted it in a day (reply to the comment above).

Beast mode. Attempting to os the nose in a day and not being too far off the mark shows how incredible of a rock climber he has become.

Did I miss something?

my armchair climber skillz sayz El Cap isn't a slab, but maybe I'm wrong about that.

We went with my dad up on The Nose, wanting to free it in a day.

Update: Ondra Is Back On the Dawn Wall
“Another day in the office. We hauled up and set up the portaledge on the Dawn Wall yesterday. I got to the top of pitch 16, and worked the moves of pitches 14, 15 and 16 ‘til late night. These are three of the hardest pitches on the whole climb, and on every pitch I missed one little piece of the puzzle. But with better skin and colder conditions (which are on the way), I will hopefully have these pitches super wired soon.
“Pitch 14 [5.14d] has this really mysterious last boulder problem—seemingly blank—but offers a few razorblade crimps that are just horrible. The previous boulder problems on this pitch felt very good. Pitch 15 [5.14d] has this really small razorblade that I did not want to pull, since in the warm conditions I would cut my skin open. The rest of the pitch felt good. Pitch 16 [5.14c] has this crazy dyno that definitely felt hard. I did not do the single move, but there is always an option to make the loop variation. The rest of the pitch is tricky and insecure but I found my way.
“For the next few days I think I will work on these three pitches if the weather allows.”
–BD Ambassador Adam Ondra, Oct. 27, 2016. #liveclimbrepeat Photo: Heinz Zak

The other thing that I think about with all this is that as the grades go into the 5.13s even "trad" routes start to resemble the moves typical of a (ahem) sport slab route which I am sure Ondra is adept at. The typical Yosemite .10d is much harder than any .10d at a sport area and the climbing is much different in style but as you go up the grades there are only so many ways to make a crack harder. Speaking in generalities here.

I sent my first 5.11a 5.11 5.11+ and a 5.12- on gear before I sent those grades on sport. All of us are different and my weakness is likely in pumpy overhanging stuff, feel much better on my feet

my best red point was probably 12b at my best (cursed with no power). But I did hang dog Soap on a Rope once

high proportion of climbing ability is purely finger strength to weight ratio.

Look out Yosemite: Vitaliy M. is coming!

I sent my first 5.11a 5.11 5.11+ and a 5.12- on gear before I sent those grades on sport. All of us are different and my weakness is likely in pumpy overhanging stuff, feel much better on my feet

Look out Yosemite: kingtut is coming!

my best red point was probably 12b at my best (cursed with no power). But I did hang dog Soap on a Rope once.

he red-pointed Changing corner from second try.

Oct 25, 2016 - 07:17am PT
Update: Ondra Attempts to Onsight the Nose
“Yesterday was probably the longest climbing day of my life. We went with my dad up on The Nose, wanting to free it in a day. We started at first light and up to the Great Roof it was going well, onsighting all of the pitches in a few hours. But the Great Roof shut me down. I had a pretty good flash go, got the beta, lowered and gave it a second shot thinking I would fire it off easily, but I had not realized how important the feet are on this climb. After climbing so many pitches and taking no rest after my flash, they went super shaky and weak. I fell, gave it even a third go and fell in the end of the traverse. There was no point in giving it more tries and we just wanted to top out. Time to switch to night climbing and onsighting all of the pitches except for Changing Corner, topping out at midnight in the starting rain. Full alpine experience, as we did not find the descent route in the pissing rain, and had a wet and cold bivy in the little cave, before we finally got to the car at 9 a.m. The Nose is one of the most famous climbs in the world and I am super glad to have climbed it with my dad, even though not free. A big day out.”
—–BD Ambassador Adam Ondra, Oct. 24, 2016.

Ondras climbing speaks for itself.

Oct 25, 2016 - 07:17am PT
Update: Ondra Attempts to Onsight the Nose
“Yesterday was probably the longest climbing day of my life. We went with my dad up on The Nose, wanting to free it in a day. We started at first light and up to the Great Roof it was going well, onsighting all of the pitches in a few hours. But the Great Roof shut me down. I had a pretty good flash go, got the beta, lowered and gave it a second shot thinking I would fire it off easily, but I had not realized how important the feet are on this climb. After climbing so many pitches and taking no rest after my flash, they went super shaky and weak. I fell, gave it even a third go and fell in the end of the traverse. There was no point in giving it more tries and we just wanted to top out. Time to switch to night climbing and onsighting all of the pitches except for Changing Corner, topping out at midnight in the starting rain. Full alpine experience, as we did not find the descent route in the pissing rain, and had a wet and cold bivy in the little cave, before we finally got to the car at 9 a.m. The Nose is one of the most famous climbs in the world and I am super glad to have climbed it with my dad, even though not free. A big day out.”
—–BD Ambassador Adam Ondra, Oct. 24, 2016.

Now I see when re-read that there is no facts supporting what I say above, just my interpretation.
He mention that he tried Great Roof tree times and all tree times fall. He mention that he onsite all except of Changing corner, I honestly interpret this as he made it from second try, but now I see that it can be only my fantasy and I do not know if he even tried Changing corner again.

The grades everywhere feel the same to me, gym included. Yeah - styles, rock type, etc, differ and there are always a few sandbags and way over graded gimmes - whatever.

If you take that 10d sport route - if you can even call something that easy "sport" - now climb it with 20 lbs of gear, 19 lbs of which you don't need, add in some gumby clod-hopper shoes and maybe a pack full of candy bars and water - now stop every 3 feet and pick your nose for 5 minutes to simulate your gear placing prowess...

Adam Ondra continues his Yosemite first trip at a relentless pace. A few days ago the Czech climber attempted a one day free ascent of The Nose but after starting at first light, his onsight attempt ground to a halt by the technical climbing on the Great Roof pitch. After three foiled attempts Ondra decided to continue upwards and, falling only once more on the famous Changing Corner pitch, he topped out at midnight in the rain with his father.

... before ... try(ing) to climb the whole route in one single push, I need to ... have every single pitch super wired.

jorgverhoevenDihedral Wall is kicking my ass! This route is hard as nails and as technical as it gets, covering many hard pitches on polished and slippery rock. I did lots of weeding and brushing, since it hasn't seen much freeclimbing action. I also chose to fix ropes on the lower pitches, since they don't seem to bother anyone. If so, give me a shout!
@dustin.007 (shot the 📷) helped me out a bunch, and together with @katha_saurwein made it possible for me to work the route, before attempting a free push. Need to get stronger!

Update: Ondra Dials in Pitch 15 (5.14d) of the Dawn Wall

“After the period of rain and two days of rest, I went onto the wall with Pavel for three days. The plan was to send pitch 15 [5.14d] and 16 [5.14a] the first night. Hauling took us a while, so we got to our basecamp under the crux pitches in the dark. But it did not matter really. It was finally cold enough for pitch 15!

“Unfortunately the very beginning of the pitch was still wet after the big rain, so I had to skip the first 5 meters, which are not very difficult. Finally, on my fourth go I could send this ‘shortened’ pitch 15. Super excited about it! I worked hard on pitch 16 later that night. I got pretty close, trying it via the ‘Loop Pitch’ and tried to continue all the way into pitch 17 (5.14a), which makes sense to me. It is much harder—the whole pitch could be around 5.14c—but I think it is worth it. But let's see what I will think on the push;-)

Right now, we are resting on the portaledge this morning. I would like to work on the 4 pitches (around 5.13c-5.13d) to the Wino Tower tonight and tomorrow. Then we will go to the summit and complete our ground-up free/aid ascent. Cool style in my opinion to justify the use of fixed ropes.

“Life on the portaledge is just great. We’ve just had oatmeal for breakfast, and it is pleasant temperature to hang around in the sun and we even have solar panels to charge our phones. Life is pretty sweet up here. Even using Wag bags when necessary is not as bad as I thought.”

–BD Ambassador Adam Ondra, November 2, 2016.

Stay tuned for more exclusive coverage of Ondra’s Yosemite trip.

good to note that BD is supporting leaving tat all over the valley for Team Ondra media coverage

If I strung up Mescalito like the Dawn Wall, would that be cool?!

They are largely the same route I think is his point.

If I strung up Mescalito like the Dawn Wall, would that be cool?!

Did Ondra have any booze to jettison?

Mountain climber
The Deep Woods

Nov 3, 2016 - 01:33pm PT
Pete bailed but Ondra stayed up there and climbed all night. I thought sport climbers were weenies and aid climbers were the tough guys? Or maybe that's just on the internet. Did Ondra have any booze to jettison?

kingtut, Social climber, carmel, ca. ,Nov 1, 2016 - 07:21pm PT
In my experience the very, very best are humble, secure in their ability and place in the scheme of things.
Yaniro, Price, Kauk, Edlinger, Hill, Sharma; Had nothing but the best experiences from that lot.
even that Peter Haan guy and Werner are nice,
of course, they are cut from different cloth of bad-assedry :P.

Ondra it seems too is solid.

*Its the next rung that is arrogant and obnoxious, probably from insecurity.*

No one would be able to argue much about a 5.15+ pitch at 20 grand.

No one would be able to argue

ST ball-cuppers defending his honor

It's more meaningful for me to draw inspiration from people trying groundbreaking things - like Ondra on the Dawn Wall - then dissing him for ethical infractions, real or imagined.

Overcast day yesterday, so I got to work on the pitches a lot! Pitches 7 - 12 (the hardest pitches of the lower part) feel pretty wired, most of them got sent or toproped, or at least the crux sequences linked.

Update from Adam: "We had two busy day on the wall, but extremely important motivating ones! At first, I tried the pitch 14, where I still had no idea about what to do in the last boulder problem. After a little session, I could finally do the moves and soon after I gave it a go, but I realized that my beta for the intro moves on the last boulderproblem did not work. It took me a lot of time, skin, frustration and swearing to finally find a satisfying sequence, but I was exhausted and my skin thrashed. I still gave it a another that night, slipped on the first boulderproblem but then continued to the anchor. Which gave me a lot of confidence that next time it should work out.
Second day, I was incredibly lucky to get overcast day, so I could make a lot of work. At first, we took some pics with Heinz Zak in pitch 14 (5.14d), then went down and sent pitch 8 (5.13d) and toproped pith 7 (5.14a). After lunch, I went for pitch 11 (5.13c) and linked the whole crux sequence, then linked the whole crux in pitch 12 (5.14b). Then we went down for toprope session on pitch 10 (5.14a) which is always desperately wet in the dark, but I still made it with one hang in toprope. To finish the day, I just re-ckecked the moves on pitch 9 (5.13c).
It seems like I need yet to work a bit more on pitches 10, 12 and 13 (5.13b) and then pitches 1-6 (only 5.12b to 5.13c range) and I would be ready to go for the push. Can't wait!!!"
TENDON athlete Adam Ondra

Euros have them some strange tastes

is he trying to look like Gumby?

Euros have them some strange tastes

Adam would like to thank the ravens, packrats, lizards, swifts, bats and Big Wall Frogs for preplacing his gear for him, especially all of those bomber fixed heads he was using for pro.

adam.ondraOne more day on the wall;-) Pitch 10 5.14a in the bag. For me the hardest pitch besides the two traverses (14 and 15).

@pavelblazek - Just enjoying the rest day today. Adam kept his promise and we went for the Chinese massage 😀 I got special treatment for pulled muscle in the back, Adam asked for extra massage of his forearms. On a bit sober note (in my case) if I don't get any better I won't be able to support Adam on his final push. I would probably be just too slow to follow him - seeing him to work on the route so hard day and night - I'm obviously the last person wanting to be the party pooper 🙂
.
As of right now the plan is to go back to the pitch #3 tomorrow - there was some surprisingly hard move - than have two days rest and start the push on Monday.

if I don't get any better I won't be able to support Adam on his final push

Update: Ondra’s Psych for the Push is High
“Two more days of work on the wall. The first day my goal was to send pitch 10 (5.14a), which is possibly the most difficult pitch besides the two crux traverses because it is long, bold, always wet and with the crux at the very top. I did it and then worked and got very confident on pitches 11, 12 and 13 (5.13c, 5.14b and 5.13b).
“Yesterday I woke up on the portaledge with a pretty bad cold and fatigue. I was even considering going down straight away, but in the end I decided to go up to pitch 20 and 21 (5.13c and 5.13d) to get them dialed. In the afternoon, I wanted to work pitches 1-6 so I would be done with all the preparation for the push. But pitch 3 (5.13c) turned out to be more cryptic than expected and I haven’t found any satisfying beta. So I need a couple of hours to work on this pitch before I feel ready for the push.
“Anyway, the life on the wall, '2 days climbing, 1 day rest' regime has beaten both of us and Pavel and I need a good rest. So we are checking out the weather forecast and planning the push accordingly, but we will definitely not start in two days as we were planning. First I need to get 100% healthy (get rid of the cold) and spend a few more hours on pitch 3.
“But the psych for the push is high! I guess I just need a little more patience. Even though it’s hard to be in such a beautiful place and rest!”
–BD Ambassador Adam Ondra, November 10, 2016.

Tomorrow going for the push! First two days of heat and climbing the first 13 pitches, then one restday of rain and then perfect conditions for the crux pitches on day 4. Starting tomorrow at 3 AM to get done as many pitches as possible before the remorseless sun hits the wall.