In reply to UKC News:
He posted a detailed report on the Black Diamond Facebook page:
“It should have been a rather easy day with only four pitches to do, but it turned out to be the opposite. We started in late afternoon, when the wall was getting into the shade. I must admit that I felt the pressure. I hate pitch 10 (5.14a, but I would almost say 5.14b). It is all laybacking—smearing your feet against nothing (sometimes wet nothing)—and the harder you try, the harder it gets. I knew it would be good to send the pitch first go, which almost worked out. I had my face at the belay, but I wanted to move my foot more right and stand up onto the no-hands rest. And somehow—I still do not know how it happened—I was in the air. Devastating. The pitch always gets progressively more wet. And it did. The middle section turned much harder due to wet footholds (some holds are perma-wet on this pitch). I was nervous as hell, climbed quite poorly, but my determination was stronger and I somehow made it up to the belay! I was very relieved!
“I was pretty sure I could finish the schedule of the day. The next pitch is a hard stemming corner at 5.13c, but fortunately, no mistakes on this pitch. Pitch 12 is the Molar Traverse at 5.14b. It is one of the hardest pitches on the whole route (French 8c), but I never found this pitch very hard. Mainly because the crux is just a powerful boulder problem, which fit my style, and the rest of the pitch is technical, though not too bad. But it turned really epic. On my first go I fell off two meters from the anchor, because a little crystal broke. The next go, I slipped on the same move even though I was relaxed, very careful and focused. On my third go, I fell on the lower boulder problem. It was obvious that I had to send the pitch next go, otherwise I would be stuck! I entered the zone, focused, and despite the fatigue I fired it off.
“Pitch 13 (5.13b) was quite OK—one of the few pitches that doesn’t feel sandbagged:-D
“All in all, it was pretty good training! Climbing basically five times 5.14b = 8c (if you count pitch ten as 5.14b). Not a bad day at the crag. Hopefully I will make use of this training Thursday on the crux pitches, after taking a rest-day on Wednesday.”
–BD Ambassador Adam Ondra, November 16, 2016.
Adam Ondra has started his attempt on the Dawn Wall. He started climbing at 3am on 14th November and plans to use the next two days to climb the first 13 pitches. From then he will use a forecasted rainy day to rest, before using 'perfect' conditiond for the crux pitches on day...
