More Ondra

Adam Ondra Onsighting Bat Route 8c from UKClimbing.com TV on Vimeo.

This is so absurd I’m making this double psyche week. In this video Adam Ondra, the star of this week’s psyche post, on sights an 8c (14b) route in England, placing draws as he goes and struggling about as much as I do on 5.11. To put this in perspective no American had climbed 8c until 1995. Here’s what British ace Steve McClure has to say about him in a great article on UK Climbing:

Steve: "Adam is a grade ahead of the top of the tree, and two grades ahead of the general hero! So he's a grade up on Sharma/Paxti/Ramon etc and two up on all the other stars. He is in a league of his own on rock."

Jack: Anything else to say?

Steve: "Adam really impresses me in many ways. I can relate to him, he's a climber, a rock climber. Relative to the indoor guys he's weak, but on rock he has all the strengths. People forget climbing strengths are not just about 'strength'. You need power, power endurance, then flexibility, finger strength, tenacity, technical ability, footwork, ambition and more. He has all of these.

Also his attitude is great, he's just a climber like us all, psyched for his mates on 8as, and keeping his efforts in perspective. I heard recently a top hero begrudgingly saying Adam was good, 'but he's weak, he's no good indoors really, he has faults'. Adam would never come out with this, he's just doing his stuff!