[Ged]

That vertical sailing series was just brilliant.  Puts it all into perspective I think.  Makes you want to go and do some proper climbing.  The Skipper seems like an absolute hero

[Ethan]

[Ethan]

[slackline]

 

[Doylo]

amazing looking routes!

[biscuit]

amazing looking routes!

And only half an hour from my house - as of 2nd August. Sooooooo excited, but 9b may be a bit off yet 

[ducko]

ondras endurance is incredible!

[grimer]

And his mind control. Exposure and runouts don't seem to effect his performance at all.

[Neil F]

I think it is fantastic that we are able to download – for free - high quality videos of contemporary, cutting edge climbing.  As one who resisted the temptation to hot foot it to Malham recently, I’ve not had the privilege of watching the Ondrawad cranking for real.  So this is very much the next best thing.

I know he is prone to the odd power scream – perhaps the only aspect of his climbing I can fully relate to – but for capturing the sheer effort and difficulty involved, that footage of the upper section of La Planta de Shiva is the best of Ondra I’ve seen.

So far, so good.

But, is it just me, or does anyone else find the short burst editing on the Chiliam Balam part of the film incredibly irritating? Short crucial points of the climbing are missed out – what about the huge horizontal runout he must do at some point.   We see the aftermath, as he hangs gracefully from a tufa, with the rope stretching uselessly to a bolt which looks about 20ft horizontally to his right, but I’d love to have seen how he got there.

I really hope a fuller edit gets released at some point.  And given the speed he climbs it probably won’t be that much longer anyway.

Actually, watching these recent films of Ondra, the thing which strikes me the most, isn’t his superhuman strength and stamina, it is the way he reads the rock, and the sheer speed and fluidity of his movement.  Most of the time when you watch people doing hard routes, particularly when they are onsighting, they adjust on holds all the time.  But the Ondrawad hardly ever does, which makes watching him climb so unusual, and so much more compelling.

Last point.  Who else remembers when Chilam Balam was first climbed, and did you think the ascent was credible at that time?  I remember it well, and I certainly believed Bernabe had climbed it at the time – and I still do, as it happens.  The reason was that the reports at the time described a history of attempts which seemed way more extreme than anything I’d ever heard of before (something like trying it 5 days a week for 2.5 years – the detail may be wrong, but you get the point).  I don’t think Bernabe’s credentials as a cutting edge sport climber were ever in doubt, so it seemed logical to me that it you tried something that much, it was probably a couple of grades harder than what you had achieved with a more conventional approach.

There was also the issue of the length of the pitch – which was almost unprecedented at the time.

I thought that the climbing looked exceptional, conceiving of a pitch so long was revolutionary, and it was a great shame that it became mired in controversy as a result of a possibly over-inflated grade.

Of course others may disagree, and I only formed this opinion based on what I read and saw at the time, rather than any first hand knowledge of the places or the people involved.

But I was chuffed to see Bernabe in the film, sitting watching Ondra roasting his life’s work, and resurrecting it from the dead in the process…

Neil

[slackline]

But, is it just me, or does anyone else find the short burst editing on the Chiliam Balam part of the film incredibly irritating? Short crucial points of the climbing are missed out – what about the huge horizontal runout he must do at some point.   We see the aftermath, as he hangs gracefully from a tufa, with the rope stretching uselessly to a bolt which looks about 20ft horizontally to his right, but I’d love to have seen how he got there.

I really hope a fuller edit gets released at some point.  And given the speed he climbs it probably won’t be that much longer anyway.

I found the jumping a bit irritating too.

Could be it was footage pieced together from earlier attempts working the route, and then the last section topping out from the full ascent (although I'd expect a professional camera man to be in place and ready for each attempt)

Or....

I think it is fantastic that we are able to download – for free - high quality videos of contemporary, cutting edge climbing.

....perhaps they're keeping the full edit for a more traditional full-length feature which you might have to fork out a few fuck-alls for.   

[Kingy]

Yeah seeing Bernabe sitting there was refreshing, he obviously doesn't care about the naysayers one bit. I personally believe he did the first ascent and I guess Ondra may do too seeing them chatting below the route.

[Ged]

wow.  Good to see he knows how to try hard.  Phenomenal.  Just completely unfazed by running it out a bit.  Amazing focus.

[willackers]

 

La Planta de Shiva looks so hard!, he was giving it everything on the last few moves!

What a monster! 

[grimer]

I bet there's a known amount of time that people will look at free videos on the web for, even ones like this, and overall it's best to keep it within the time frame. In that video my interest didn't lapse for a moment which is a real achievement and great skills by Bernardo i think. Lots of times have there been people's videos on here and you can see it's 8 or 9 minutes long so as soon as it lags I click away, and that can be after 20 seconds sometime.

I think brevity is a great aspect of anything like that. And maybe, like Neil, i too wanted to see the section under the roof (fuck me  ) but when creating something surely that feeling of wanting to see more is one of the most desirable outcomes. And maybe that's the thing: Bernardo is trying to create an impression of the climb, not record an ascent?

[clgladiator]

amazing looking routes, La Planta de Shiva looks utterly desperate, and is the first ascent still up for grabs? I dont know if anyone else noticed, but he pulled on a tree 

[Baldy]

Ashima sure wouldn't have counted it...
And I seem to remember SteMac voiding his onsight of something a while back,
but I think that he gets to choose the style and the grade...Imagine what it would be without the tree! 9c+ at least 

[Joe]

It did seem as though he thought the route was over before he grabbed the tree, even if he wasn't at the lower off.

[Ethan]

That "rest" he milks on La Planta de Shiva is an absolute piss taker! Such a monster!

[Clart]

Last point.  Who else remembers when Chilam Balam was first climbed, and did you think the ascent was credible at that time?  I remember it well, and I certainly believed Bernabe had climbed it at the time – and I still do, as it happens. 

Yeh, I remember that. I often wonder if many of the climbers around that time would have gone on to achieve greater things if they had been believed and given the recognition/ sponsorship money they deserved. People like Bernabe and Fred Rouhling got a bit of slating at the time but seem to be having the last laugh.

[SA Chris]

True, just a pity laughter doesn't pay the mortgage.

[JayJ]

[biscuit]

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/25808567?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0" width="400" height="225" frameborder="0"></iframe><p><a href="">Adam Hocking The Keswickian E8 FA   The Ego Has Landed E8</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/wildcountry">Wild Country</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

Hope the embed works properly. Should be Adam Hocking making me feel all scared just watching him on a new E8.

[SA Chris]

You didn't need to do all the embed stuff. Just past the url in and it embeds automatically. Can see it fine though. The rope drag on that first route is worth a few E points alone.

[biscuit]

cheers. i'll know for next time.

[slackline]