[finbarrr]

that's how i read his non native english blog
" . I am measuring 184cm and have proportionally long legs as well, but I can only clip and chalk there. I can hardly take the left hand off the wall. And I worked a lot on my knee pad engineering in there. A lot. And as the average high end climber should be about 10cm shorter, Adam’s downgrading argument seems highly personal. (Applying only for about 3% of potential aspirants.)"

ondra is 185, according to his wikipedia page 

[HaeMeS]

9a+ flash...?

Adam Ondra toujours historique avec le premier 9a+ flash
http://www.grimper.com/news-adam-ondra-toujours-historique-premier-9a-flash

[Danny]

Fucking wow.

[submaximal gains]

That article says that the only previous ascent was by Megos in 2016, who graded it 9a+, but Ondra hasn't offered any opinion on the grade.

Fanatic climbing's report on the first ascent is:

"Project freed. After his quick ascent of "L'enfumette" in St-Léger du Ventoux, Alexander Megos has tried and finally done the first ascent of an old project of Quentin Chastagnier, "Supercrackinette" in Praniania, the direct start of "Crackinette" who becomes the hardest route freed in the whole crag !
"It took me 3 days and I think it's 9a+. About the sends in the East face, I did l'Enfumette but I think it's 8c+ (originally graded 9a by the man who did the first ascent Kevin Aglaé). Took me 4 tries.
I did as well too "Concept Extension", 8c+." Nice job for a lightning trip !"

From: https://m.facebook.com/fanatic.climbing/photos/pb.1525466421097215.-2207520000.1478993612./1674391672871355

[Danny]

Unless Megos missed a trick or two (always a possibility) I can't see it being a gift at the grade.

[Doylo]

He’ll say it’s 9a now Ondras flashed it . #beef

[Danny]

Just need to get the Permanent Beetle in there on the siege to give it 9b, and then take the middle value.

[Danny]

Informally confirmed as 9a+ on the other channel.

[andy popp]

He seems to be taking the grade.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BfB9t9VltpV/?taken-by=adam.ondra

[Doylo]

Looks a bit thin

[jwi]

Great but unsurprising. 9b+ rp = 9a+ flash.

[finbarrr]

Great but unsurprising. 9b+ rp = 9a+ flash.

what a slacker, if that's the science he should be flashing 9b by now

[remus]

A few words from the man himself

I’ve been thinking about trying to flash a 9a+ for quite a long time but the problem is to find the perfect route because there are not so many 9a+ routes in the world. And at the same time there are not so many 9a+ routes that I had not tried before and that are good routes to flash - meaning that are not super complicated and super tricky.

I saw this route two years ago and it seemed like a perfect candidate to me so I had it in my mind and waited for the right moment. This year we went for a long trip to St. Leger here in France and I thought this was the time.

Nevertheless, I had a lot of doubts whether I should or shouldn’t go for it. I wasn’t very confident because I thought that the route is so resistant, and I did so much climbing without any rest, and I was wondering if I was really fit enough to do it. And there were moments during this trip when I was sure that I would not try it because I felt like it would be a waste. Because, you know, - on a flash you have only one go. Once you try it, it’s not possible to try the same route again as it would always be a second go.

In the end, I decided to call Bernardo, he came here to film, so at that point I could not really back away from it. I just had to give it a try. I took two rest days which definitely helped. As I was warming up, I started to feel more confident that it could actually work out.

Then I started climbing according to the perfect beta of Quentin Chastagnier who gave me all the beta. He bolted the route so it was very very important. The first half of the route, I was just flying up the route. It was like I was feeling cosmically strong and that boosted my confidence a lot. Only towards the second half of the route were there a couple of moments where I felt like I was losing my confidence a bit because there were two pockets where my fingers were just too fat to dig deeper but I still somehow made it and then I had just enough energy to do the last hard move on the very top.

Getting to the anchor was really emotional and I see this 9a+ definitely as one of the best accomplishments that I have ever done. This was really hard especially mentally due to the reasons I explained before - there are very few routes that are good candidates to be flashed and you always have only one go.

[Doylo]

Look forward to that footage.

[bendavison]

 

[Teaboy]

"cosmically strong" 

[Fiend]

He's a bit good isn't he. Great stuff. Funny that what he says about the one chance applies to normal onsighting at whatever level, in my experience.

On the thankfully increasingly distant subject of P.Beetle, it seems what happened that one of PB's routes got confirmed as roughly in the grade ballpark he had given it, with a small downgrade partly due to kneebar reasons, from the world's best sport climber who had trained kneebars specifically for the world's hardest sport route. Seems like it should be fairly uncontroversial, both for the Beetle and any 'joyful' spectators...

[duncan]

Good interview on planetmountain. €0.01 for Megos' thoughts.

[finbarrr]

just to go back to "meiose" for a second:
ondra put down as a "soft" 9a+ on his scorecard, commenting:
"One day ascent, third go. Nice short power endurance on tiny holds. Low end 9a+ with kneepad."

also another interview about 9a+ flash on ukc
am i allowed to type those letters?
it seems people always write "the other channel" or something. as if it a thing that can't be named.

https://www.ukclimbing.com/news/2018/02/adam_ondra_about_his_flash_of_supercrackinette_9a+-71480

[jwi]

Seb Bouin and Cédric Lachat have both tried Supercrackinette and they think it is 9a+. Alex Megos said 9a+. I would be well surprised if it turned out to be easier.

[Sarnian]

Good interview on planetmountain. €0.01 for Megos' thoughts.

"With his flash ascent Ondra has now raised the bar by half a grade"

I don't know why this bugs me so much but it does. If you convert it into the UIAA or Australian system it's a whole grade. I've not heard the Americans saying they've gone up by a quarter of a grade, or do they? 

[andy popp]

9b FA at St Leger - https://www.instagram.com/p/BfJYOhDlKIl/?taken-by=adam.ondra

[andymarshll]

Surely really a sixth of a grade, a, a+ etc just being subdivisions of the whole number...

[jwi]

half a letter grade and half a letter grade makes a letter grade, there are three letter grades in a number grade.

What an increadible machine Ondra is. FA of the only two French 9bs (in the same valley as well).

[Wil]

One day we'll go decimal.

How does Ondra sustain this output? Just incredible.