Update: Black Diamond’s Adam Ondra Yosemite Climb – 21st and 24th October

Published by Mountainblog on 10/25/2016.

As you know from our last post, the world’s greatest rock climber Adam Ondra (Black Diamond Athlete) is currently in Yosemite with ambitious plans to climb the Dawn Wall from 12th October to 30th November. With little to none big wall or crack climbing experience, Adam has ambitious plans to to set a new high bar for previous standards set in the Valley. He will be joined by Heinz Zak, veteran shooter and valley climber, who will be capturing this visit in the hopes of making a seminal documentary on the state of the art of climbing in 2016.

See below Adam’s latest update from 21st October:

“Yesterday was another day on the Dawn Wall. We had our fix lines on the top of pitch 10 and we wanted to move as high as possible. But we would face some of the crux pitches of the whole climb. Fortunately, the pitches were better protected and it was not such a big problem to climb through the next 5 pitches, including the crux traverses. I would like to emphasise that I am not free climbing everything yet, the goal is only now to go ground up to the top, using free climbing and 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. Crux pitch 1 looked definitely super hard to free climb. Almost impossible, I will have to take a look at all these razorblades more closely 😉

Finally, already in the dark, I was pushing through the pitch 16 (dyno pitch), but I was stopped by the final bold section of the route, where I felt I needed the light for climbing this tiny layback high above bad protection, so we just called it a day and went down back to camp 4. Now it is two days of rest to heal my skin and I will try The Nose”.

Black Diamond Ambassador Adam Ondra, Oct. 24, 2016:

“Yesterday was probably the longest climbing day of my life. We went with my dad up on The Nose, wanting to free it in a day. We started with the first light and up to the Great Roof it was going well, onsighting all the pitches in around hours. But Great Roof shut me down. I had a pretty good flash go, got the beta, lowered and gave it a second shot thinking I would fire it off easily, but I have not realized how important the feet are on this climb. After climbing so many pitches and taking no rest after my flash, they went super shaky and weak. I fell, gave it even third go and fell in the end of the traverse. There was no point of giving more tries and we just wanted to top out. Time to switch for the night climbing and onsighting all the pitches except for Changing Corner, topping out at midnight in the starting rain. Full alpine experience as we did not find the descent route in heavy rain and had a wet and cold bivy in the little cave, before we finally got to the car at 9 AM.
The Nose is one of the most famous climbs in the world and I am super glad to have climbed it with my dad, even though not free. A big day out.”

Before heading to Yosemite, Black Diamond Ambassador Adam Ondra stopped through Salt Lake City to visit the Black Diamond HQ to see first-hand how the team create the climbing gear he uses to live his life, you can watch it here:

Credit for all photos – ©Heinz Zak

INFO: Black Diamond

Here at Black Diamond it’s all about climbing and skiing. We share the same experiences that you do on rock, ice and snow and these experiences push us to make the best gear possible for our worldwide family of climbers and skiers. What began with a backyard anvil and a hammer has grown into a global company with offices on three continents that’s not just for rock climbers, but one that stands for the spirit of the sports we live, their values and goals, past, present and future. Since 1957, our innovative gear designs have set the standards in numerous areas. This is partly the result of dedication, desire and diligence on the part of an incredible team of people. It’s also the result of each of us being climbers and skiers ourselves.