Adam Ondra has made the first ascent of Eagle 4 at St Leger du Ventoux in France. He suggests 9b* which would make it the 3rd (after Akira and C.R.S.) of that grade in the country.
© Bernardo Gimenez
In this interview he says his plan for the rest of the trip is to make St Leger project-free and if he's not done yet, he's at least well on his way. According to Fanatic climbing success came after six days of attempts and on the 3rd go of the day after falling just below the top on the previous try.
This is how he describes it himself on Instagram:
Interesting process of working this route. I got really close on my second day of trying, when only foothold break stopped me from sending. Then, I tried maybe 5 days more, but it was never completely dry. Today, it was dry, I felt strong, made through the hard part and fell 5m from the anchor from totally easy terrain. Luckily, I could do it even second time in the late afternoon.
For Adam, this was the 22nd route of 9b or harder.
*I originally said Adam suggested "hard 9b". This was a misunderstanding of mine as I thought he had called it "gros 9b", which would imply it was a hard 9b. My bad.
Adam Ondra is sponsored by: Black Diamond, La Sportiva, Montura and Tendon
Comments
Why is that?
According to Fanatic Climbing:
"The Czech offers a big 9b for this new extreme route which will have asked him about 6 days of work and intense tries. Indeed, the Czech has put a big mental fight in this route, including tries where wet holdes here often took him down. "
I seem to remember CRS didn't take him very long and he's presumably, if anything, a better climber now. As for Akira it's something of an unknown quantity.
Also on this trip he's also done a new 9a there, that's been a project for some years and no one else has been able to do the crux move on, and a new 9a+. So with the 9a+ flash that's 4 grade 9 routes, including what is probably the countries hardest route in just the past couple of weeks. I wonder what will be next.
Lot of info, thanks. To add, I think it took him so long because the route was wet, he nearly did it very quick. And Akira is unknown. Not important really, I'm not looking for a soft 9b to project, just wondered if it was hyperbole.
Yeah it would be disappointing to do it and then get told it's a soft one. I don't think this one will be soft so an ideal project for your next trip ? ;)
Video of the ascent now up on the other channel.
It definitely doesn't look soft!! :)