Adam Ondra didn't waste much time in the Yosemite valley before he jumped on the Dawn wall and began putting up a fixed line. I guess he was super keen to see for himself what all the fuss was about and if it could really be as difficult as the numbers suggest.
The young Czech has been clear from the start about the fact that still has a lot to learn when it comes to multi-pitch climbing of this scale. Jumaring and hauling technique and tactics. Kevin Jorgeson has been happy to assist with this as well as beta. In Pavel Blazek's photo below, he has drawn the beta for pitches 11-15.
Regarding he difficulty, Adam seems very impressed so far, and he described the first couple of crux pitches as almst impossible looking. Hardly surprising as the line between possible and impossible must be very fine on this level. Remember the three crux pitches all weigh in around or just below 9a!
Sure, Adam has been known to onsight 9a sport climbs, but hardly in this style where almost invisible miniscule razors in all the wrong angles seems to be the rule.
So far, he has fixed the ropes almost up to the top of pitch 16 (the dyno pitch). This does not in any way mean that he has free climbed those pitches:
I would like to emphasize that I am not free climbing everything yet. The goal right now is only to go ground-up to the top, free-climbing and using a little bit of aid climbing, to fix the whole line with ropes and start working on the pitches properly to have them ready for the final free push later.
So if the crux is around the protection, I just touch the holds to see how the sequence would be and continue.
Adam has now taken a short break from the Dawn wall, and after a couple of rest days, the plan is to deal with his main objective of the trip: his onsight attempt of Lynn Hill's legendary Free Nose.
Fingers crossed!
Adam Ondra is sponsored by: Black Diamond, Entre-Prises, KIKU, Hudy Sports, La Sportiva,Montura andTendon
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