Black Diamond’s Adam Ondra Yosemite Climb – Update
Published by Mountainblog on .
The world’s greatest rock climber, and Black Diamond Athlete Adam Ondra, 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.
Great news! We have received updates from Adam Ondra having spent his first week in Yosemite. These are some fantastic photos of Adam making his first attempt at ascending the Dawn Wall, alongside comments below from the man himself below:
“First day on the big wall in Yosemite, and straight onto the Dawn Wall! Foolishness, lack of respect or boldness? Well, not necessarily any of it. The Dawn Wall just dries up quickly after the huge rain on Sunday. And it went all right. Definitely scary and adventurous. Tiny footholds and insecure climbing, smearing my feet onto glassy footholds of Yosemite granite and all that with poor protection by copperheads, peckers, tiny cams and occasional bolts.
I ripped some copperheads, took some falls but made it to the top of pitch 7 and fixed our ropes. Leading the pitches with all the fear definitely felt super hard, but once I had the rope from above, the moves felt OK. But grades on the Dawn Wall are definitely not overrated. Great success for today and 5 pitches to go tomorrow to have our ropes fixed under the crux pitches.” – Black Diamond Ambassador Adam Ondra, Oct. 17, 2016.
“We started pretty late yesterday and the fact we are very inexperienced was obvious right from the beginning – I did a lot of jugging up in my life, but only sport climbing and always using one GriGri and one ascender. Bad technique resulted in being super slow and tired after having jugged up the first 7 pitches. It was 3.30 PM by that time, so I managed to get to the top of pitch 10 until it got dark. It was quite intense, a lot of bold climbing again, especially on pitch 10, which is another horrendous layback with poor protection, but combination of aid climbing, french freeing and fear made me go to the top with none of my pieces of pro being ripped off. I din not feel like going for more adventure in the dark, so we just fixed our ropes and I tried pitch 7, 8 and 10 (5.14a, 13d and 14a) on the top rope with head lamp. These pitches are not only bold, but freaking hard too! Definitely no easy grades for these ones, Tommy and Kevin are tough guys! I tried the moves all over again to get some confidence and we got back to the camp by 12.30 at night. Big day for sure” – Black Diamond Ambassador Adam Ondra, Oct. 19, 2016.
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:
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.
