UKC

Ondra just did it. Onsight. 

Mind-blowing. 

Just Do It (5.14c)

It's only f8c isn't it? Surprised he put a rope on

Is this the hardest Onsight to date? How does Pure Imagination & Golden Ticket compare? 

I think Magos onsited 9a. Cant remeber what route 

Wow! Adam actually having to stop, think & make multiple tries on a move. Don't see that every day.

Yes, Megos onsighted 9a.

Ondra has also onsighted 9a himself, twice! https://www.ukclimbing.com/news/2014/05/ondra_onsights_il_domani_9a-68899

(That's not counting Pure Imagination or Golden Ticket, which he onsighted but don't seem to be considered 9a any more. Partly by his suggestion.)

He also flashed a 9a+. https://www.climbing.com/news/interview-adam-ondra-completes-worlds-first-5...

But he did didn't onsite the salathe. Just not up to his high standards no more

That is one really imprsive list. I couldn't even comprehend the holds on grades that high. He is an amazing climber 

He also made the second ascent of Assassin at Smith the day before. That's the hardest route there and is graded 9a/14d.

I'm not altogether he onsighted Just Do It. I suspect it might be easier than the typical euro or British 8c+'s. Nevertheless still extremely impressive. Interesting that he didn't manage to onsight To Bolt. I can imagine that's a much easier route to mess up as it all looks the same all the way up.

Have you done much at Smith then? Which euro crags would you suggest this would seem softly graded by comparison to?

Just Do It was done a long time ago before 8c+ was really established and it was thought by many that Jibe wouldn't of been capable of climbing that grade at that time. If Hubble is 8c+ then I'm sure it's a lot harder. Obviously they're completely different style of routes but by that I mean far more people could do Just Do It than Hubble.

If not Hubble then what other routes? I would think Liquid Amber or Sea of Tranquillity at LPT, or Progress at Kilnsey or Evolution at Raven Tor would all be harder and they were all graded 8c at the time. I think the small number of repeats these routes get and the calibre of climbers that actually succeed highlights the true difficulty more than grades can do.

I'm not doubting that Just do it (then 8c+, now 8c+) might be a touch easier than Hubble (then 8c+, now 8c+/9a?) or Action Directe (then 8c+/9a, now 9a) but in the end it turned out that it was Jibe that had a better understanding of the French grading scale than Moon and Güllich.


 

What gives you that idea? I heard it was pretty benchmark. Smith isn't exactly renowned for soft grades. 

JDI is long and reportedly intricate with powerful crimping, and precise and technical sequences, with a number of nasty dead-points off marginal holds and a few blind moves.  A previous ascensionist's breakdown is:

"The route breaks down into two parts. The first section in the white rock is a low angle 5.13d. Just the first six bolts could be considered a 5.13c, then there are some dead-points to small edges and pockets. It's really off balance and technical."

It then goes "into a 5.12+ section where the rock color changes to purple. Then it gets ruckus with big leaps on slopey holds. There is probably a six move V9 on half pad edges as it gets steeper. Then there's a really hard traverse with blind moves into the final boulder sequence. Going to the last bolt, I was taking 50-footers and clearing the purple rock, landing way down in the w2hite stone."
It wasn't onsightable, until Ondra onsighted it."

Sounds a bit harder than a Euro stamina plod (no hard moves but lots of burl and knee bars for 50 metres).

Have you tried any of these routes? From your reply I'm assuming that this is purely an armchair comparison, but just want to confirm...

Indeed and since the original question that STP answered was 'Which euro crags would you suggest this would seem softly graded by comparison to?', Raven Tor, Kilnsey and LPT does not fit many peoples definitions of  'Euro crags'!

Ted Kingsnorth on the other channel (recent accentionist of JDI) seemed pretty impressed by the os.  Though in reality its not really about how hard it is I think - it's about taking the challenge, going to one the birthplaces and modern sport climbing with the avowed aim of onsighting one of the iconic hard routes of the 90s and delivering.

Sure there are soft 8c+'s in Europe, and many are reported as such. But onsights of consensus ones seem to be pretty rare, even Ondra hasn't done that many. And that's despite the high number of routes at that grade and the overall number of extremely talented climbers.

I would actually bet money that stp is better informed of the relative difficulty of these routes than most of the climbers trying them. He seems to be obsessed with keeping up with cutting edge ascents.

As a punter reading about it, I seem to remember that Just Do It is an endurance climb as opposed to something cruxy like Hubble.

As improved training leads to greater climbing fitness across the climbing community, routes like JDI become available to more people.

Ultimate power is more difficult to improve (I would argue), so routes like H do not have such a large increase in availability.

Considering how long it took Ted to do it (who excels at this style of climbing) I'm rather impressed. 

It'd be interesting to know how long it took Marc le Menestral to do the second ascent - see stp's photo.

Exactly. Ondra isn't just the best climber the planet has ever seen, but he has a great appreciation of its history. Look at his visits to the UK. Malham and Kilnsey. Attempts to onsight Cry Freedom (first 8c in the world possibly), True North and Totally Free. Its not just about doing the hardest route. He's done it all over the world, on many different rock types, in many different settings, on many different styles of route. Truely inspirational.

Andy F

He's onsighted 3 x 9a, 19 x 8c+, and 61 x 8c.

Yeah but Ondra is far and away the world's best onsight climber ever. Who else has onsighted at that level? Alex Megos, Paxti, Ramon perhaps? I'm not sure if anyone else has but regardless I think it's a pretty small number of routes between them all. Also bear in mind Ondra has marked quite a few of his 8c+'s down as 'soft'.

I don't remember exactly but a few days (3 or 4 maybe?). Part of the problem was conditions. I think he did it first try when he got a good day.