UKC

Adam Ondra is in fine bouldering form at the moment and has climbed a new Font 8C+ at Moravian Karst in the Czech Republic. This is his second Font 8C+ after emerging from lockdown in May and both problems are likely to be some of the hardest in the world.

Clearly the lad needs to get on something harder! Burden of Dreams must surely be on his radar?

I think I'll stick with the couch my arse is on at the moment rather than the kneebar one.

Just loves climbing doesn't he?

The fact that overall he's the best climber in the world is almost irrelevant.

In the interests of discussion only....

Surely though we don't know whether this is a correct grade for the climb as he doesn't attempt many of the US boulderers routes and they don't do his. He hasn't gone for Burden of Dreams or a third attempt on No Kpote Only so we don't know if his boulder grading is spot on. I reckon if he gets on Sleepwalker and some of the others that Webb, Huckkataival and Woods have put up then we'll know for sure that his routes are on par with those boys.

Just seems to me there is a lot of 8C+ being thrown around at the moment.

One thing I do know is its great to watch when he does put up a new route.

So the past bouldering world champion doesn’t know when a problem is at the cutting edge. I guess you learn something everyday.

He climbed his first 8C+’s 9 years ago, one of the first ones was Gioia which I don’t think anyone has offered a downgrade for. He’s also done 15 8C’s and 35 8B+ at various venues around the world, so you could say he’s quite solid in the upper grades. 

Always one sarcastic comment!!!!

Agreed and i'm not questioning his ability. I'd like to see others try his stuff and for him to go against the US boys to see who is better. At this grade a + makes a big difference. Nalle was reluctant to give the 9a but Charles quite quickly graded his. I'd like to know who is more right.

He's flashed 8B+ and done a lot of 8C's.  He's probably got a reasonable idea.

Although I'd imagine it's quite hard to compare these 30 move endurance problems with the 6-8 move power problems.

I don't keep enough of an eye on hard boulder repeats to know but taking what you say as red, the reverse could easily be true - it might turn out that all Ondra's boulders are sandbags for the grade and Huckkataival and the Americans have been putting up new routes that are a bit soft

(obviously all just armchair musing) I would say "well, clearly world class boulderers are not going to make a special effort to go to some grotty little hole like the crag where Ondra put up those 8c+s recently just because the climbing is hard" but I already know that loads of climbers came to Dumby to repeat Rhapsody despite the crag (in my opinion) being a nasty grotty hole. Ultimately it seems a shame that so many of the "hardest" are not in nicer situations with beautiful views and surroundings (I'd rate Flatanger as being solidly in the beautiful places category though, judging by the videos).

(disclaimer - yes, I have been to Dumby, yes I have climbed to the top of one of the easier routes, yes I do still really dislike the crag. No I've not been to Czech but the tiny limestone outcrops Adam is climbing on look incredibly underwhelming and I think he has even said as much at least once before.)

I'll make a prediction: Charles' problem being downgraded after 1, or at most 2 more people have sent it. Just my personal prediction from this comfy armchair though

I'm not too interested in who is better in a willy waving sort of way, but yes it would be interesting to see how the grades compare at the top end which will only come from folk repeating each other's routes.

Indeed, probably difficult to compare and I get the impression that even the top boulderers are struggling to decide what grading means for the shorter problems with real difficulty getting past the 8c/8c+.   

Both his recent 8c+s have involved adding harder starts into an existing 8c climbed by Martin Stranik (an 8a+ in case of Brutal Rider, an 8b in this case) so adding a 1/2 grade seems pretty fair.   He also proposed a hard 9b route  grade for Brutal Rider, which again sounds like an 8c+ boulder problem (based on things like Wheel of Life at 8C and 9a/9a+)

yes absolutely. The difference in length is a massive thing. The US boulderers are good for maybe a dozen moves whereas his stuff does seem to be a mini sport route as opposed to a boulder problem. Interesting to see if the U.S coould do that many hard moves. He may be head and shoulders above anyone else.

As the best sport climber in the world, it does seem likely that his long endurance problems will be as hard as any of their type. That doesn't necessarily mean they will be harder overall than some short problems.

It's very interesting how many 8C+ boulders are out there. Since this is still kind of the top grade (apart from two unconfirmed 9a, one of them got repeated a bit too quickly) it makes me wonder about the reasons. If you think about how few 9b+ sport climbs are redpointed every year it seems strange.
I'm not saying this boulder is not 8c+, on the contrary, it makes me wonder if there are many more 9a boulders out there.

Then again, what do I know about bouldering...

Boulder 8C+ has been around longer as a grade than route 9b+, so just on that basis it makes sense that there are more of them (~20 compared to ~6). There does however seem to have been an acceleration of 8C+’s being climbed in the last few years, so maybe we will see some more 9A’s pop up soon. 

Now you mention it, I didn't think it looked all that hard either.

Looks longer than many of our sport routes!  Looks like a route to me so a route grade seems more meaningful  

Never mind that, Squire has just done a new f8C in the Wye Valley!

Obviously you are joking, however, have you touched the holds (ahem), I say holds. I've seen 8C and 8C+ problems and they generally made sense. Kpote left me astonished anyone could use any of the features to gain the lip. Kameyama's ascent makes sense. He is quite petite and suits the nature of the features. Kameyama has been quietly knocking off plenty of hard problems the last few years in fairly short time and is a credible repeat. I do agree that bigger names repeating or better still, failing on these hard problems is needed before the rest of us can make sense of it all. I couldn't imagine anyone over 6ft doing this or anyone with larger than average fingers.

The move into the undercut is quite frankly ridiculous in that his right hand is on what can only be called a dink in the rock and his toe on a crease. The fact he maintains tension gets my vote. The accuracy is also quite amazing and that hold he uses as an intermediate before hitting the lip, well that's facing down.

Is it 9A? Like the rest of us, what do I know? I'd say Nalle is probably a good contender, based on his height and the fact he is possibly the strongest climber in the world when it comes to straight down pulling.

I'll bet two things. One, is that we will wait some time before those repeats hit the UKC news pages and two, is that if Charles's problem gets downgraded, it will only be to 8C+. I suspect it won't.

Incredibly strong and motivated, obviously, as always.  But I would like to see him use that potential in a  proper boulder problem, a nice stone  with a triumph top out, not a traverse  by the base of a bunch of routes and a nasty drop-off  of an arbitrary hold...

Wow, this armchair analysis is at least 8C/+. Some serious blow hard smack down is going down here.

Keep pushing and maybe you'll hit 9A in the next news thread.

Hope y'all can get out on some real rock soon. Cheerio!

Ondra flashed 8B+. LOL 

And a solid one on top of that.

Tell that to COVID.