Adam Ondra has made a flash ascent of Neil Gresham's Lexicon (E11 7a), at  Pavey Ark, in Cumbria.

The ascent, Lexicon's sixth, is the hardest trad flash of all time, and took place with no prior inspection of the holds.

At E11, Lexicon is one of the hardest trad routes in the world, and was first climbed by Neil Gresham in September 2021. Two weeks later, Steve McClure made the second ascent, but not before taking taking a huge seventy foot fall from the route's penultimate move.

The following March, Dave MacLeod made the third ascent, Mat Wright made the fourth two months later, and James Pearson made the fifth in June that year, after his own audacious 'flash' attempt came to an end 'a little lower than where Steve falls in the video clip'.

Unlike Adam, Pearson abseiled down the route prior to his first attempt, brushing and feeling the holds, checking options for gear, measuring body positions, and making tick marks.

Speaking on this particular style of ascent, Pearson said: 'I'd be the first to admit that I'm pushing even my definition of 'flash'. To me a flash is not an onsight; it's when you climb a route without pre-practising the moves, but you have all the other information that you'd get. So yeah, my definition might not necessarily align with other people's, and if at the end of the day, people don't want to call that 'flash', it's really no skin off my nose... It's just fun to go try these things in a way that's going to push you and be totally honest about it'.

At the time, Pearson also said 'I think someone who's really strong could flash it without any sort of pre-inspection. It's still totally possible. If you've got a 9a flash level and you're trying to flash 8b+, you've got tons of margin for taking the holds wrong'.

We spoke to first ascensionist Neil Gresham this morning, and he shared some of the details with us:

'Adam made a true and pure flash of Lexicon. No abseil inspection or feeling of holds took place. He viewed the route from Astra (E2 5c) which is three routes and approximately eight metres to the right'.

'This ascent was far and away the most impressive thing I've seen in over forty years of climbing, and it was also the most comitting belay I've ever given. I'm still struggling to process events'.

Speaking of the ascent himself, Adam said:

'It was truly a special day and a moment in the UK, alongside the first ascentionist Neil Gresham, who was on a very responsible belay. I got scared, I tried hard, my heart was beating, but I made it to the final ledge without testing that massive whipper. More info to come, including a video on the YouTube channel!'

'On a side note, I would like to explain precisely the style that I used. I watched all the videos available on the internet, but mostly focused on the footage of Neil Gresham. It was Neil who first rappelled down the route, cleaned and chalked it up for me'.

'Then, I rappelled down from the top approximately eight meters to the right of Lexicon, along the route Astra and watched Neil explain to me how to place the gear in the break and the moves in the upper headwall of Lexicon. Then I climbed back up to the top ledge and warmed up on the finger board. I was lowered down by Craig Matheson to the crux of Sixpence (E6 6b), looking to the right and ignoring the view towards the holds of Lexicon'.

'I started just above the break of Lexicon, doing the three-meter crux of Sixpence and stopping just before I could touch or look into the final slot hold of Lexicon. Then I swung right to finish my warm-up by doing the final moves of Magical Thinking (E10 7a). I did this twice to warm up. After that, I racked up on the top ledge and speed-rappelled down along Lexicon, facing the lake so I would not get any view of holds at all'.

'After a short moment of concentration, I set off'.

Adam's ascent of Lexicon comes just over a year after he climbed James Pearson's Bon Voyage (9a), in Annot, France, a route which he said would likely be 'solid and specific 9a' if it were bolted, and which is thought to be the hardest trad route in the world.

More recently, he has turned his attention to bouldering, where he has made a series of impressive flashes - one at 8B, and a further three at 8B+ this year - in addition to climbing his first 9A boulder, in The Big Island (assis) / Soudain Seul (f9A).