UKC

Three degrees of separation repeated by OndraUpdate 2

© Pierre Délas/Kairn
Björn Pohl UKC

This has been read 21,321 times

Adam Ondra © Pierre Délas/Kairn
Adam Ondra
© Pierre Délas/Kairn
In 2007, Chris Sharma made the first ascent of Three degrees of separation in the Biographie sector at Céüse, France. The only(?) way to get passed the three blank sections on the ~25m route is to dyno. Until now, no one has been able to repeat the route, and it's not due to lack of attention.

Between the World Cups at Briancon and Imst, Adam Ondra spent some time on rock in France. He didn't feel in great outdoor form as he has spent so much time on plastic lately, but Ondra is Ondra much like Bolt is Bolt and he still pulled off some remarkable feats.

Actually, already before Briancon he stopped at Ailefroide where he managed to onsight Face bouc, 8c, in rather hot conditions...

At Céüse, he made the first repeat of Sharma's Three degrees of separation, ~9a, a line he had been working previously without suceess. 

I asked Adam about the grade, and here are his thoughts:

It is just too specific to grade, and I know for big dynoers like Jan [Hojer] the dyno is not that hard, but to get there fresh is quite a different story.

To me it felt like the hardest route in Céüse, but that doesn't mean that it is definitely at least 9a+, because it doesn't fit me that well, but my suggestion is 9a+ and we will see.

Moving on to Verdon and the steep Ramirole sector, he onsighted Spanish caravan, 8c, and Une chatte brulante sous un toît, 8b+, after falling at the crux of Promotion canne à pêche, 9a, when trying to onsight it (of course). The following day he did L'enculeur de moches, 8c,  2nd try.

Clearly he needs to get out more... 

Source: Kairn

An email previously published here has been removed as it turned out there is a lot of confusion and different opinions about what actually took place. 

Dave Graham: "People need to remember history clearly, as this hersay detracts from a very inspirational, and historic FA by Chris, and an incredible repeat by Ondra!"

According to both Dave and Chris Sharma, the route was always 8c or 8c+ up to the dyno, and they highly doubt any hold broke. "The truth is that Three degrees has changed very little if at all..."

Adam Ondra is sponsored by: Beal, Black Diamond, Entre-Prises, KIKU, Hudy Sports, La Sportiva and Montura

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Comments

nich959
27 Jul, 2015
I'd been wondering when this route would be done for a while.... Sharma put it up ages ago, would it have been the hardest route in the world at the time?
Brendan
27 Jul, 2015
I remember hearing something about a hold breaking, making Three Degrees harder?
stp
27 Jul, 2015
It's possible. Sharma put up Es Pontas, the deep water solo across the arch, in 2006 and that was graded 9b. But IIRC I think Ethan Pringle figured out a static way to miss out the dyno so don't know if that would change the grade. There was also Chilam Balam from 2003 and Akira, the Fred Rouhling roof from 1995, both of which are graded 9b but may come down in grade at some point. Anyway great effort by Ondra. I know he tried it some years ago but I wonder how much time he spent on it recently? Be interesting to see if he gets back on Neanderthal later this year, another Sharma 9b that he's tried and may turn out to be really hard.
thebigfriendlymoose
27 Jul, 2015
IIRC Sharma never gave Es Pontas a grade. 9b was just a wild guesstimate - proposed by that Jens chap who runs the 8a website - purely on the basis that it had not been repeated and Sharma took a while to RP it (to my mind, likely based more on the logistics of working it as much as its inherent difficulty).
stp
27 Jul, 2015
Ah OK. Good point. Of course there were also other 9a+s around at the time, Realization for example, that presumably Sharma thought was harder. Though Three Degrees does look like pretty much his ideal style of route. Hope there's a video of Ondra doing it, preferably an unedited one. Even after all his successes he never fails to impress. I wonder if he'll get on Megos's new 9a at Ceuse. That might turn out to be another very tough route for the grade.
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