Ondra Climbs F9a+/b First Ascent

16 year old Adam Ondra has climbed what he considers to be his hardest route yet, completing a project at sector Bronx in the Domusnovas area of Sardina, Italy.

Vojtěch Vrzba, the Czech climbing photographer who has captured Adam on various hard routes and kindly supplied UKClimbing.com with many superb images, described the route and Adam's ascent:

"The 35m long, extremely overhanging route, called 'Marina Superstar' is an extension of the existing route 'Marina' (F8c/+) and was bolted by Matteo Marini. It is situated in sector "Bronx" near Domusnovas village about 40km from Cagliari in Sardinia.

Adam tried this project last year already. It starts as a F8b+ pitch, 45 degrees overhanging, then continues past 4 quickdraws to another chain (F8c/c+ - 'Marina') and after that, without any rests, comes a boulder problem of Font 7C+ in a near horizontal roof to the edge of the cave.

Several hard moves with heel-hooks and one good rest hold leads to another boulder problem on the edge of the cave - switching from a horizontal roof to a vertical wall. The distance between the last bolt and the chain is approximately 6m!

Adam sent this route on Tuesday evening after 4 days of working on it. During his tries there were broken two tufas in the roof, so he had to change his sequence and needed to use a wet tufa and match on it too! That probably made the "slash" in the grade of the route. Adam was thinking about the grade for couple of days before coming to his final verdict of F9a+/b.

During his brief stay in Sardinia he managed to make first ascents of other hard routes in sectors Bronx 'Death Row' (F8c+) and in Ruota del Tempo 'The Voice' (F8c+). He also onsighted seven routes from F8a to F8b."

• You can check out extensive galleries of Adam Ondra on Vojtěch's website: www.climb4fun.cz

Photo Gallery: Adam Ondra on Marina Superstar F9a+/b

(Click the photos to enlarge)