[kingholmesy]

Maybe I should give failing in grotty caves a go, then I can get stronger.

Fixed that too.

[SA Chris]

all the fucking knobends on here jumped down my throat li

Deep Throat you must have.

[jwi]

Good interview with Ondra in Alpine mag
https://alpinemag.fr/legende-escalade-adam-ondra-interview-exclusive/

On the men's side, I think the current elite climbers are not fundamentally much stronger than the Jerry Moffatt or Ben Moon of the 90s. In terms of strength on a campus board, we don't really do any better. But you need a lot more than pure strength, and fortunately, today we don't have to train on the shitty walls of those days!

[remus]

Pushing the boundaries of dirty limestone cave linkups

[monkoffunk]

Is there a knee bar thread??

[Nibile]

A neoprene clad Ondra grunting over the perfect kneebar. That could be some proper pr0n for someone...
 

[Coops_13]

Ondra flashing 8B:

[remus]

Couple of laps on a 9a while waiting for skin to recover, just another day in the life.

https://adamondra.com/updates/tierra-de-nadie-9a

[Bradders]

One for the kneebar thread that!

Also, love how in Spain their "obscure roadside cave" would probably be one of the best crags in the UK 

[Ged]

I'm always a massive fan of the Ondra vids, but these latest ones are doing my head in a bit with all the moaning about conditions.  It seems a bit distasteful given the current state of the world to be calling a video about high humidity "get me out of this hell".

[T_B]

I think you’re in a minority Ged looking at the number of likes on YouTube for that vid. He’s not the only pro sportsperson who comes across as somewhat, er, let’s say too self-absorbed to be taking a step back and looking at the big picture. At least he can get on his project unlike lots of sportspeople who cannot compete at all, or very little due to Covid. I’ve more sympathy for their frustrations.

Anyway, I’m going to send him a very small violin for Christmas.

[JohnM]

I agree with Ged that it come across a bit OTT with everything else going on in the world. However, I can see how it must be frustrating for him as it can be for any climber at any level. Given his pedigree and his huge amount of success it seems he has found a really battle both physically and mentally and with conditions. It is in contrast to Jakob's repeat of the route where although it seemed that he also had a bit of a battle but did it relatively quickly with minimal fuss. He may have had good conditions though IDK. 

[JamieG]

Having gone down the blog style video series route, I suspect the pressure on him must be immense. All credit to for him for trying to show us an insight into the process of climbing at the absolute cutting edge, but I don't envy him. I manage to put enough pressure on myself and (almost) nobody cares what I do and don't climb. I thought the 'hell' comment was quite tongue in cheek anyway. I don't think he was being that serious.

[Bradders]

Such is the life of the professional athlete, it's always going to look a bit petty to people with "normal" lives/responsibilities. Especially so during a pandemic. That's hardly their fault, although sometimes there does seem an alarming lack of self-awareness.

As another example, I see Nalle Hukkataival has spent the last few weeks in Peru developing a new bouldering area, despite Peru having one of the worst coronavirus crises in South America. I mean, he's literally just doing his job, but is it a good idea?

Going back to the debate we were having before about Ondra's film crew etc., you can now read about the team.....

https://adamondra.com/updates/wolf-pack?fbclid=IwAR0R7xrvo8LCI9wQzT9A43uX-q1h-B5Wg4c_fvBfwD1Vg4LXZQV5dNPSK5o

[JohnM]

Such is the life of the professional athlete, it's always going to look a bit petty to people with "normal" lives/responsibilities. Especially so during a pandemic. That's hardly their fault, although sometimes there does seem an alarming lack of self-awareness.

As another example, I see Nalle Hukkataival has spent the last few weeks in Peru developing a new bouldering area, despite Peru having one of the worst coronavirus crises in South America. I mean, he's literally just doing his job, but is it a good idea?

Going back to the debate we were having before about Ondra's film crew etc., you can now read about the team.....

https://adamondra.com/updates/wolf-pack?fbclid=IwAR0R7xrvo8LCI9wQzT9A43uX-q1h-B5Wg4c_fvBfwD1Vg4LXZQV5dNPSK5o

Nalle seems to have gone down some annoying anti-capitalist route on his social media. His whole life is funded by capitalism. 

[Fiend]

Having gone down the blog style video series route, I suspect the pressure on him must be immense. All credit to for him for trying to show us an insight into the process of climbing at the absolute cutting edge, but I don't envy him. I manage to put enough pressure on myself and (almost) nobody cares what I do and don't climb. I thought the 'hell' comment was quite tongue in cheek anyway. I don't think he was being that serious.

I think that's fair enough. It's a video blog more about climbing than overall global issues (although as Bradders says, a bit of self-awareness is good). Maybe there's a bit of escapism for the viewers too, just like a lot of media viewing, forgetting about larger concerns and watching the ups and downs of something "less" important but identifiable-with. No worse than being tempted to throw yourself off Malham after persistent redpoint tribulations anyway!

[Doylo]

This 3 video a week regime that Ondra’s on will eventually suck all the life and joy out of it for him. The sad but inevitable conclusion will come after 50 days on Bibliographie - after 6 weeks of vlogs about being tired from the walk and Ceuse being 10 degrees warmer than usual due to global warming he’ll be so riddled with anxiety and stress he’ll throw the cameras down the hill and fly around the hill on his drone wailing like a banshee.

[Will Hunt]

This 3 video a week regime that Ondra’s on will eventually suck all the life and joy out of it for him. The sad but inevitable conclusion will come after 50 days on Bibliographie - after 6 weeks of vlogs about being tired from the walk and Ceuse being 10 degrees warmer than usual due to global warming he’ll be so riddled with anxiety and stress he’ll throw the cameras down the hill and fly around the hill on his drone wailing like a banshee.

Can't wait to see the vlog of that.

[teestub]

Ondra complaining about 78% humidity, I’d settle for a couple of days under 90% right now!

These vids are pretty turgid affairs, I wonder if every pro near his level are quite so analytical, or if some are a bit more A Muerte...

[Doylo]

Ondra complaining about 78% humidity, I’d settle for a couple of days under 90% right now!

...

He wants the moon on a stick ! All this fuss and it’s prob 9b now with 3 kneebars 

[petejh]

What I find more fascinating than the route - which seems to boil down to one boulder-problem move to catch a pinch very much like the move on that local's classic 7c+ 'Wirral Whip' at Llandullas Cave - is watching Ondra turning into an cynical old man in front of our eyes, learning the bad habits of negative self-talk and moaning about conditions. At this rate of advance by the time he finally leaves Margelef he'll be talking about optimising returns from his pension fund and how kids these days never had it so good.     

[Ged]

Bloody hell 4 people filming from ropes plus a drone. He must be very good at shutting out the noise. And pretty convinced YouTube is a good money maker!

[spidermonkey09]

Ondra complaining about 78% humidity

Correct me if I'm wrong but I wouldn't turn my nose up at 78% humidity in the middle of summer. Whats considered normal?

[jwi]

if it is around 15C, there is not point tying in for a hard project if the humidity is above 65% according to some people I talked to who should know.

In Spain it seems like every decent climber bring one of those combined thermometer / hygrometers to the crag nowadays.

I dunno, I can feel when it is sticky or not. Don't really think a measuring device other than the skin is necessary... but maybe I am missing a trick here? Maybe a hygrometer is the secret to unlocking the next grade

[m.cooke.1421]

For a more accurate measure of how condensed the rock will be I think you need to look at; air temperature, relative humidity, air pressure (these three are what determine the dew point), rock temperature, wind speed and direction.

I don't know the crag but I would imagine a still day where it has been cold at night and is pretty warm and humid in the day with the crag being shaded could give shit conditions whereas a breezy day on the catwalk in June when it has had the sun on it in the morning would be mint in the afternoon. Both days could be 78% relative humidity.