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Adam Ondra in Oz

onsight

15-Sep-2008
1:41:09 PM

On 3/09/2008 maxdacat wrote:
>Sounds great but did anyone show these young guns around some real crags.
> Seems a shame for them to come all that way and not experience some nice
>Bluies sandstone.

Experience it Adam did but unfortunately he only had one day and it didn't turn out entirely nice for him...

You can see a selection of my pics of Adam from the day here.

The day after the competition Zac Vertrees and I took Adam and his parents to Diamond Falls. Adam warmed up on Superweak (26) then casually onsighted Hairline 2000 (28). Then he had a go at onsighting Mr Tickle (32), read the sequence well and came very close to nailing the last hard move. Unfortunately trying to latch the hold cost him by badly splitting his finger tip.

After taping his split finger Adam went to work on Sneaky Old Fox (34), the link-up which combines Fantastic Mr Fox with the crux finish of Grey Area. It took him about 10 minutes to work out the intricacies of the first crux then he cruised onsight through the hard climbing up to the final Grey Area crux. It took him three tries to nail the final crux move of Grey Area and he then worked the move once more and found way to do it virtually statically with a different foot position. This obviously turned the finish of the route into a high percentage move for him.

So then after a good rest Adam had a go at sending Sneaky Old Fox on his second shot. He approached it positively as if he had the expectation of doing the route but he came off at the first crux. By now the Bluies rock had taken its toll on several of his fingers and so he pulled the plug on further attempts at this route. Personally I think that given how Adam earlier cruised the middle of the route and how well he worked out the finish he could have been pretty close to doing the route second shot and on another day it could have easily been different.

Adam finished up the day trying to onsight Mr Meaner (30) and came close – just barn-dooring off the upper dyno – while his split finger was leaving little pools of blood on the holds…

I sensed Adam might have been a bit disappointed with his days climbing. I guess it's all relative as I think he had a great day -- and it’s not as if he’d had any time to adjust to the rock. If things had gone a bit more his way he might have gone home with more big ticks in his swag. It’s clear he’s a phenomenal talent but I also like that he seems to be a nice kid with a great attitude.

And here's a shot of Zac (on Super Goo 28) because Adam wasn't the only one climbing well there that day...

IdratherbeclimbingM9

15-Sep-2008
2:08:23 PM

Thanks for posting this news-report Onsight.

Loved the horizontal format dyno-sequence in your photo link ...
Impressive climbing and great photography to capture it!

maxdacat

15-Sep-2008
6:55:06 PM

Thanks for the write up Simon....good to hear the Bluies getting some international attention.

Just wondering if Mr Tickle would have been the hardest OS in Ox to date?

onsight

15-Sep-2008
8:27:21 PM

You are welcome...

On 15/09/2008 maxdacat wrote:
>Just wondering if Mr Tickle would have been the hardest OS in Ox to date?

My understanding, from the climbers I've talked to about it for the guidebook etc, is that Better Than Life (onsighted by Garth years ago) is probably consensus 32 even if the grade has fluctuated a bit over the years. So maybe Mr Tickle would have roughly similar to that - if he'd succeeded.

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