[Luke Owens]

...and 16! Unstoppable... So impressive !

https://twitter.com/EveningSends/status/800077183154880512

[petejh]

Brilliant! Unbelievable skills! Can't remember ever being so psyched about a repeat ascent.. maybe Moon on Rainshadow haha but this is something else.

[Luke Owens]

Brilliant! Unbelievable skills! Can't remember ever being so psyched about a repeat ascent.. maybe Moon on Rainshadow haha but this is something else.

Agreed, proper psyched for him!

[Johnny Brown]

'It's in the bag now' - Kevin on Twitter.

[Doylo]

Couple of 8b pitches left. Nice for a warm down.

[moose]

the evolution of the supertopo thread on Ondra's season in Yosemite is entertaining.  It starts off with lots of American / Yosemite exceptionalism - his skinny sport climbing ass will be no match for our knarly granite.  When it's clear that he is adapting quite well, there's a lot of carping about style and sponsorship and motives, with glorying at his every (minor) set-back.  But then the tide starts to turn; most contributors now seem won over by his just-get-on-it attitude, honesty about the problems he's having, and seeming delight in occassionally getting his ass handed to him in unexpected ways.   

Personally I love what he is doing and how he is going about it - it shows how great he is at climbing, and also how unprecious he is about it.

http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=2887560&tn=0&mr=0

[andy popp]

https://www.instagram.com/p/BNBO-W4A4WC/?taken-by=adam.ondra&hl=en

[bigironhorse]

https://www.instagram.com/p/BNCa_XIgde-/

 

[Will Hunt]

I'm a bit puzzled by what's going on with the loop pitch and the pitch after. The end of the loop pitch is at a no hands rest, with the next pitch being the layback, with no belay on the rest.
Surely a pitch is only over once you've reached a belay, as opposed to a hands off rest? Why is this deemed to be two separate pitches? What info am I missing here?

[submaximal gains]

I'm a bit puzzled by what's going on with the loop pitch and the pitch after. The end of the loop pitch is at a no hands rest, with the next pitch being the layback, with no belay on the rest.
Surely a pitch is only over once you've reached a belay, as opposed to a hands off rest? Why is this deemed to be two separate pitches? What info am I missing here?

I'm not sure where I've read it, but for the rest of the Dawn wall all the pitches are from one no hands rest to the next no hands rest.

[duncan]

I'm a bit puzzled by what's going on with the loop pitch and the pitch after. The end of the loop pitch is at a no hands rest, with the next pitch being the layback, with no belay on the rest.
Surely a pitch is only over once you've reached a belay, as opposed to a hands off rest? Why is this deemed to be two separate pitches? What info am I missing here?

From his sponsors:

“Pitch 16 can be climbed via the dyno or the loop. ... The loop pitch or dyno pitch is followed by a 5.14a layback. In between, there is no belay, only a no-hands stance. My original goal was to connect the loop pitch into the layback, making a 60-meter mega-pitch at 5.14c at least.⠀

“The loop pitch is an extremely hard pitch mentally. The down-climb is awkward, powerful and insecure and is the crux of the pitch for sure. At the bottom of the loop, there is a good ledge, but I could not sit down. As you start climbing, you get into a tiny layback with pin-scars, which is super easy to slip on. This section is probably at 5.13c, but it is really devastating if you slip and have to climb the down-climb again. I was lucky to fight through the down-climb, took a rest at the ledge and climbed super carefully through the layback into the no-hands stance—the end of the loop/dyno pitch. I continued into pitch 17 (5.14a layback), but after climbing for 45 mins, my feet were just gone. I took a little rest and did pitch 17 from the no-hands stance.




All the following refers to Erik Sloan's topo above. My understanding is Caldwell climbed from 15-16 via the loop, then 16-17 as a separate pitch. This suggests Caldwell's belay 16 is the ‘no-hands stance’. Perhaps 16 is a natural belay: this is on the Wall of Early Morning Light aid route and elsewhere Caldwell scrupulously avoided adding bolts to existing lines. Ondra might be meaning there is no [fixed] belay, only a no-hands stance.

Ondra aimed to climb from 15  to 17 via the loop but stopped some way up pitch 17 and retreated to the hands-free stance at 16. It's unclear if he set up a belay on gear here or just took his shoes off and rested for a bit leaving Pavel at 15. It's irrelevant to my mind since he was at a hands-off rest.

It's all great stuff and getting up the thing without completely pathing it is the perfect outcome (assuming it's 'in the bag') for all concerned.

[IanP]

It's all great stuff and getting up the thing without completely pathing it is the perfect outcome (assuming it's 'in the bag') for all concerned.

Not quite in the bag yet:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BNFBBIXBHOG/?taken-by=pavelblazek

'pavelblazekThe weather isn't perfect as of right now, we go for it anyway. Wish us good luck! '

Agree completely that it's looking like a great outcome for all. Ondra shows complete commitment to take on the biggest challenges and again demonstrates his mastery of climbing in all its forms while the difficulties he faced show the route to be definitely the most difficult of its type in the world and a really great achievement by Caldwell/Jorgesons.

Ian 

[Paul B]

Assuming he's successful, doesn't that constitute 'pathing it'? A multi year project climbed very fast with far less support?

Notwithstanding the vision Tommy must've had to persevere year to year...

[James Malloch]

 

Assuming he's successful, doesn't that constitute 'pathing it'? A multi year project climbed very fast with far less support?

Notwithstanding the vision Tommy must've had to persevere year to year...

He's waiting to post in the burn off thread...

[Footwork]

He's four pitches from the top 

[Lopez]

 #dawnwalk

[remus]

The deed is done (according the the BMC.)

[Luke Owens]

Job done!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BNF3AQzh3rD/?taken-by=pavelblazek

[Nemo]

Indeed - Ondra on Victor's Ledge.

Turned up in the Valley for the first time on 15th October.  Topped out on the Dawn Wall 22nd November.

Wad.   

"I'm a bit puzzled by what's going on with the loop pitch and the pitch after." - Will Hunt

What Duncan said about pitches 16 and 17.

Think the issue is that "belay" 16 is so close to belay 15 that it feels a bit absurd (even though it's perfectly valid as it's a no hands rest).  Not sure, but I think maybe none of them have bothered moving the actual belayer (the leader has just taken a "belay" and had a rest for a while.)  Probably the main reason for that is to avoid adding extra bolts to an aid route (that bit's on New Dawn) just for the sake of a belay that's so close to the previous belay.  (I'm just guessing / reading between the lines though).

TC and KJ said prior to their ascent that they would have liked to link pitches 16 and 17.  But in the end decided against even trying it as it was clearly adding considerable extra difficulty.

Similarly Adam said he wanted to try to link them, and had a go on the actual ascent.  But when he dropped pitch 17, he unsurprisingly just started pitch 17 again rather than redoing 16 and trying to link them again.



Best post from the supertopo thread:

"...

while i might be +/- 1 day, [at most +/- 2], as best as i can tell there were:

 23 days from when ondra first got on the dawn wall to when he started resting up [on nov 10th] for the push that he just started [on nov 14th]
 15 days during which ondra actually worked the climbing on the dawn wall and wasn't either resting, sitting out storms or attempting to onsite the nose...

ie. while i'm sure the original quote above wasn't an intentional understatement by a competing sponsor's spokesperson [ ], and i'm sure it was intended genuinely, saying that ondra projected the route for nearly a month, when that near month seems to have consisted of 15 days of actual climbing over the course of 23 days [during which he also attempted an onsite of the nose in a day with his old man] doesn't quite capture the ridiculousness of what ondra is doing here.

oh and during that time he also learned how to jumar properly, his partner did his first multi-pitch climb and they set up and stocked a base camp...

jayzeus.

..." - Some guy on Supertopo

"Assuming he's successful, doesn't that constitute 'pathing it'?" - Paul B

Not really.  To be honest, I think he had to put a fair bit more time and effort into this than I'd expected.  I'd kinda expected him to struggle on some of the wierd laybacky type things - ie: pitches 10, 17 etc.  But the two crux pitches, I thought he would do much more easily than he did.   He did have hot weather all time he was there up till the third day of the push.  But from then on, including both days spent on the crux pitches it cooled down loads.  They are clearly properly hard.

[Moo]

Nah he pathed it................. the best rock climber who has ever lived?

[Lopez]

There's a good article over in rock & ice. http://www.rockandice.com/climbing-news/adam-ondra-sends-the-dawn-wall

This bit puts things in perspective:

On November 14, day one of the final push, Ondra and Blazek began at 3 a.m., and before 9 a.m., they had blasted up the route’s first nine pitches (5.12b, 5.13a, 5.13c, 5.12b, 5.12d, 5.13c, 5.14a, 5.13d, 5.13c). On Day two, Ondra dispatched pitches 10, 11, 12 and 13 (5.14a, 5.13c, 5.14b, 5.13b), which brought him to the bottom of the crux pitches. He rested for a day, before attempting pitch 14, the first 5.14d crux traverse, on Thursday, November 17. Pitch 14 shut him down that day, and after eight failed attempts, Ondra began to have doubts about the climb.

He described Thursday, his fourth day on the wall, as a "complete disaster" and told Black Diamond that he “still felt a lot of pressure as I knew that sending pitch 14 is almost a must." But on Friday, "my mindset was different,” he said. “I tried to make jokes, being relaxed and focused only just before the climbing.”

After warming up, Ondra fired pitch 14 (5.14d) on his first attempt of the day and jumped on pitch 15, the second 5.14d traverse pitch, right after. He took one “heartbreaking fall” a few moves below the “jug of glory,” he reported, but sent the pitch on his second go.

Despite having climbed two back-to-back 5.14d’s on razor-sharp holds, Ondra took no rest day and cranked through Caldwell’s cryptic 5.14a “Loop Pitch” variation the next morning, his sixth day on the wall. He kept the momentum charging and that afternoon, completedpitch 18 (5.13c), 19 (5.13c/b), 20 (5.13c), and 21 (5.13d) to the top of Wino Tower.

He took a “forced rest day” on Sunday, he reported—only his second out of eight days on the wall—to wait out the rain. Today, November 21, he tackled the route’s last 11 pitches to the summit of the big stone.

Outrageous 

[jwi]

   He's more sober than Mr. Zak. They are talking about going and do midnight lighting now. I'm sitting at the next table over.

[Duma]

Great stuff. And top reportage from our man on the scene!

[shark]

  He's more sober than Mr. Zak. They are talking about going and do midnight lighting now. I'm sitting at the next table over.

 

[Nibile]

I imagine that Chris say hi.