UKC

For more than a year now, Czech film maker Petr Pavlíček has been gathering material for his film about Adam Ondra:

"Having spent a whole year of filming together, travelling tens of thousands of kilometres into various rock climbing destinations, never ending days and weeks of waiting for...

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=55387

In reply to UKC News:

Just when IS the "best climber in the world" going to raise the bar ? Surely it has to happen soon ?

In reply to UKC News:
http://www.dcine.org/blog/5000/imagenes2/napoleon.jpg

In reply to UKC News: This looks great.

I love it when he falls on his head at 0.44 though. Lol.

In reply to UKC News:

"I got to know him not only as a phenomenal climber, but mainly as a person. For me personally, this is the more interesting part of this story!"

Not for me buddy, show me the climbing!

In reply to GrahamD:

I believe he's already raised the bar significantly? Take, as the most obvious example, his recent long weekend in Yorkshire where he got the second ascents of two 9a's and did the first onsight ascents on numerous Malham classics.

If you mean putting up new big numbers, it seems that at the moment he prefers quick repeats of stuff just below the level of hardest-in-the-world, rather than getting stuck into proper long term sieges, which seems fair enough given how time consuming making hard first ascents is and the fact he's still at school. In terms of hard repeats, however, according to his 8a.nu logbook he's done 38 routes at 9a and above which is pretty staggering.

Keith Sharples sums up the weekend in yorkshire:
http://blog.keithsharplesphotography.co.uk/blog/_archives/2010/5/8/4524247....

basically, he assembled the most impressive ticklist on UK sport ever in a weekend, but the very hardest routes (in the UK and the world) are hard, hard routes which will take a long time to repeat even for someone of Ondra's calibre.

Trailer looks good, and he's obviously really talented.

But...

The "Best climber in the World" tagline seems undeserved. Ondra climbs sport routes and boulders, yet there are others who do that plus trad and ice climbing (Dave MacLeod comes to mind).

In reply to UKC News:

OK amazing climber an all that aside, are the little hissy tantrums really necessary? It's really hard to be in awe of someone when they do that.

In reply to plexiglass_nick: he has projects too.

Doing loads of 9a's shirley puts him in a good position for comparing when he grades new routes?

In reply to turtlespit:

Maybe, but how many of them have assembled such a huge list of super hard climbs, in such a short period of time, at the age of 16?

Maybe it should read best sport climber and boulderer in the world, but it's not quite as catchy now is it?

I'm more impressed that someone like Ondra can onsight so many super hard routes than if someone ups the bar by spending 6mths on a project. I can't watch Vimeo in work but do they call him the 'best climber in the world'? 'best sports climber' would be more relevant IMO?

No doubt he'd do some amazing trad stuff but from what little I've seen or read he's not interested in that mentality and I doubt he could have what it takes psychologically to be put up against the top trad climbers if he hasn't been doing that side of stuff?

In reply to plexiglass_nick:

You are right - by "raise the bar" I mean establishing the undisputeably hardest climb - at least beyond Akira.

I'm not detracting from the style of repeats so far, I hope.

In reply to Steve13:

Shows that he's just a little kid still, no?

In reply to UKC News:

i like the title

In reply to GrahamD:


I think it'll happen when he leaves school and can climb full time. He's basically still a w/e warrior and holiday bolt-clipper.

In reply to turtlespit:

Whether you have to trad climb or ice climb to be the best climber in the world (aid, alpinism, where do you want to stop?) I think theres few who would argue that dave is operating at anywhere near the same level as ondra in ondras genres of climbing.

There was an article a while back that I read which suggested that all rounders get bigged up despite fairly modest achievements in each discipline because we are impressed that they do everything. Whilst I couldn't ever describe mcleods achievements as "fairly modest" they aren't world beating (world class in some perhaps) in many of his disciplines, and I think that a comparison with ondra shows this in the bouldering and sport climbing fields.

I hope there will be subtitles because I dont understand a word of what he says in czech...

:-D

Cant wait for it - is there a vague estimate on the date?

In reply to UKC News:
Awesome.
Will there be English subtitles?
James

In reply to AJM:

Agree on the whole, I would think the levels of his performance together with his seeming ability to repeat such levels all around Europe at will give him possibly a better claim than anybody else to the title 'best climber in the world'. You don't have to be best at everything to allow comparisons to be made - in the same way Usain Bolts achievments probably allow him to make a good claim as best athlete in the world.

BTW read Steve Macs blog for a realistic (and modest) review of AO's flying visit to Yorkshire.

In reply to archiecb: Little bit of translation (without claiming any special translating skills):

1:06 'When I first came to the cave, it was the first line that caught my eye.' (I think he is referring to 'Grotta San Giovanni in Sardinia' where 'Marina Superstar' is)

1:22 'This time I improvised a little in the crux. Instead of going quickly from the intermediate hold, I waited a little, fixed my thumb properly on the other hold and went for it.'

1:46 'Training for the weekend World Championship. I've been climbing outside for 3 weeks so I need to catch up a little.'

In reply to Owen W-G:



I'm not sure whether to be awed or depressed by this

In reply to GrahamD: It's terrifying isn't it? If he lived in the UK he'd be in my year at school. Mental.

In reply to stewieatb:

And do you throw tantrums like that when you can't do something?

Thought not.

In reply to atbboy:

I think you will find a lot of climbers get frustrated when they are working something and it just isn't happening, even the adults *shock horror*.

In reply to atbboy: I've come out with some pretty impressive strings of expletives when things have inexplicably not been going my way, I admit usually not quite as loudly.

In reply to atbboy:

if your experience of climbing is mostly onsighting stuff within or just outside your limit and not really working things you can't already do, it's probably difficult to imagine how frustrating it is to fall off for in the same place for the nth time, perhaps on the last day of your trip. Cut the lad some slack.

In reply to UKC News:

Yeah, I know it's easy to get frustrated.

In all honesty, I'm just jelous of the guy, he's a machine and I most certainly am not.

In reply to atbboy:


I saw a guy who was probably twice Adam's age throwing several hissy fits whilst working a route at Bowles rock last weekend.

Tantrums aren't exclusive to teenagers or good climbers