UKH

Just watched a U Tube video of Adam Ondra climbing in Croatia earlier this year, taking 3 attempts (including falls) on a 7A. Then on sighting an 8C just a day later. There is a god after all. 

Not sure how you make a link to the video, you'll have to do a search on you tube if you want to view it. 

In reply to Seymore Butt:

This one?

youtube.com/watch?v=BQMHRQvRmGQ&

In reply to 99ster:

Part one of two is where AO punts off a 7a 3 times. He has the good grace to giggle. 

In reply to Seymore Butt:  I plan to travel to Croatia, redpoint that 7a and film the send.  I will then quit climbing completely and the next time i have the urge to go climbing just sit down and watch repeats of Adam falling on that move followed by repeats of me cruising through it.  I mean why keep climbing when I can already climb harder than the current world number one.

In reply to Seymore Butt:

You just paste the URL to the video in the reply window.

youtube.com/watch?v=Oq2Z4w1UsNg&

I found croatian grades particularly mean

i didn’t get on any 7s the week i was there (rained all but one day) but even the 6a+ pitches on the couple of MP routes i squeezed in needed some concentration/effort

(obvs not sufficient to account for this though!)

In reply to climbercool:

Make sure you squeak your boots before you start, and ensure you have the first clip in before you get too high. Ondra nearly decked it, which could have blown his Olympic dream.

In reply to Seymore Butt:

No he didn’t 

In reply to Seymore Butt:

I wonder if the second fall was at least semi deliberate for the camera. A little joke. Hard to believe he'd make the same mistake twice.

In reply to Robert Durran:

I was thinking the same thing. I don't want to be bitchy because I'm a massive Ondra fan, he is the only climber who's vids I regularly watch, but i am a little skeptical of this one. Slipping once for sure can happen, but 7a is so so far below his limit it's difficult to see how he could fall on this twice.   If I'm climbing really really badly I can maybe fall on something 9-10 grades below my red point limit, this is 16 grades below Adams redpoint limit.

In reply to ashtond6:

What ? 

In reply to climbercool:

I was in no way being bitchy either and I am a huge Indra fan too, partly because he comes across as totally authentic, but I also think he has a mischievous sense of humour. Remember the ballet video......

In reply to Seymore Butt:

My post got some dislikes as i knew it would, but im doubling down.  

Is there anybody on here who has ever fallen twice or witnessed  a friend of theirs falling twice on a route 16 grades below their current redpoint limit, or anything even remotely close to this?   When you have that much strength to spare you can miss every good hold, faff the sequence, not even bother looking at your feet and still pull through.   Falling once is incredibly unlikely but believable twice makes me skeptical. 

I think it is difficult to compare my own climbing with this because 16 grades below my limit and we are talking grade 4, this is really a crazy easy grade and really a different kind of climbing.  more relevant would be climbers i know who can redpoint 8c+, now 16 grades below this is 6a+, i feel their really is no chance of an 8c+ climber falling twice on a 6a+, it aint gonna happen.  

Now i know what the reply to this thread will be, lots of people will tell me that it is entirely possible for adam to fall twice, why would he possibly fake it, why would i question it, lots of people will have stories of people falling of things way below their limit but no one is going to actually have dropped 16 grades twice. 

The only feasible way i can see someone dropping close to that many grades is if a very strong pure sport climber were to try a sandstone splitter crack (i have seen this),  but even then 16 grades is a bit much.

Maybe he really did fall and the whole universe aligned against him, maybe he fell once and then realised it would make a funny video if he did it again?

BTW obviously if someone quits climbing and gains 30 kg this is entirely possible, but ondra is in the middle of olympic training and onsighting 8c the next day.

In reply to Seymore Butt:

I do feel really bitchy writing that last post and i just want to reiterate what a big fan i am of Ondras personality and his achievements.  Im stuck in the house and super bored these days.

In reply to climbercool: ask him if theres film of him falling offa 6a ( happened a couple years ago).  And yes I've seen regular leader fall off a 4

In reply to wbo2:

yep, like i said falling on anything once is fine slips can happen, im sure there is a F4a out there i could fall on, but the idea i could fall on it, then go back to the ground and try the same F4a again and slip again i think would be close too impossible.  7a is probably similarly taxing to ondra as F4a is to me.

In reply to Seymore

I'd be interested to see a table showing the historic likelihood for Ondra to onsight at various grades,

Presuming he is giving a good go and is not totally exhausted from climbing all day i guess it would look something like this.

7a 99.7%

7b98%

7c95%

8a90%

8a+75%

8b 50%

8b+ 30%

8c  20%

8c+5%

9a 1%

but this is absolute guess work

In reply to climbercool:

You don't get many marginal slippy footholds on grade 4's whereas you do on some 7a's. Still anyone can fall, I've fallen off a curb before! 

Whilst your theory is entirely possible it's probably more plausible that he just wasn't paying attention 1st time and then again didn't try hard the 2nd time, thinking it was a fluke.

In reply to climbercool:

I suspect it would be a less gradual curve, I.E. Remains close to 99% up to somewhere around 8B give or take a few grades then drops off more rapidly?

Edit: this assumes his adult pro level form and not all his routes ever done including those while still a kid! 

In reply to Liamhutch89:

yeah probably more likely,being as competitive as he is i cant imagine him wanting to fake a slip,

In reply to ashtond6:

He did actually, he ends up knee height from the ground which in my eyes is nearly decking it. 40cm extra rope and he would have. Good belaying Iva.

E

In reply to climbercool:

He's got absolutely nothing to prove on a 7a though. 

In reply to Robert Durran:

Not a good advertisement for his boot sponsor though. Only joking really. 

Ondra still amazes me, in the second video he speaks Italian. I'm sure I've seen him speaking Spanish as well in other videos. Multilingual as well as a super talented climber what cant the man do?