Ondra on the Dawn Wall

I guess it comes down to what you admire more in climbing. Boldness or sheer athleticism.

For what its worth, going ground up on .14a above fixed heads even if you don't onsight combines both which is why I find Ondra's efforts in particular very impressive. Add in his inexperience with wall climbing and Yosemite granite and I think this is very cool.

USBRIT If you say the first ascent (aid) of the Nose was done onsight, and then compare it to Ondra's free attempts on the Dawn wall then what the hell is Ondra doing? Sounds like he onsighted to pitch 14 and then bailed. Weak sauce for sure.

Aiding a big wall and freeing one are two different sports entirely, it's shameless trolling to compare the two. I do like a good troll though.

The first free ascent of the nose was certainly not done onsight.

What is up with those hand jammies on Generator crack? Pure aid I say.

Also multi-day big wall aid climing isn't a sport. It is vertical camping, kind of like driving your RV to Yellowstone for the weekend. PDL the monkeys are sending.

Patrick Vernon wrote:The first free ascent of the nose was certainly not done onsight.

Arguably (after a lot of beers), the Nose still hasn't gone 100% free. There's that small matter of the traverse that bypasses the King Swing shenanigans...the traverse with the chiseled holds that brings it down to low/mid 5.12 (which might have gone free in its original state at 5.13something).

And +1 to everything else Patrick wrote.

Marc801 wrote: As a reminder, here's the pitch by pitch grading of the Dawn: Dawn Wall (VI 5.14d) Pitch 1 (5.12b) Pitch 2 (5.13a) Pitch 3 (5.13c) Pitch 4 (5.12b) Pitch 5 (5.12d) – Anchorage Ledge Pitch 6 (5.13c) Pitch 7 (5.14a) Pitch 8 (5.13d) Pitch 9 (5.13c) Pitch 10 (5.14a) PORTALEDGE CAMP Pitch 11 (5.13c) Pitch 12 (5.14b) – Molar Traverse Pitch 13 (5.13b) Pitch 14 (5.14d) Pitch 15 (5.14d) Pitch 16 (5.14a) – The Loop Pitch OR Pitch 17 (5.14c) – The Dyno Pitch (5.14c) Pitch 18 (5.14a) Pitch 19 (5.13c) Pitch 20 (5.13b) – The Canoe Pitch 21 (5.13d) Pitch 22 (5.13d) – Wino Tower Pitch 23 (5.10) Pitch 24 (5.11) Pitch 25 (5.11) Pitch 26 (5.11d) Pitch 27 (5.11c) Pitch 28 (5.12c) – Ship’s Prow Pitch 29 (5.12b) Pitch 30 (5.12b) Pitch 31 (5.13a) Pitch 32 (5.12b)

Not to mention a lot of this is over pretty tenuous protection...

FROM Patrick >>>I guess it comes down to what you admire more in climbing. Boldness or sheer athleticism. For what its worth, going ground up on .14a above fixed heads even if you don't onsight combines both which is why I find Ondra's efforts in particular very impressive. Add in his inexperience with wall climbing and Yosemite granite and I think this is very cool. USBRIT If you say the first ascent (aid) of the Nose was done onsight, and then compare it to Ondra's free attempts on the Dawn wall then what the hell is Ondra doing? Sounds like he onsighted to pitch 14 and then bailed. Weak sauce for sure. Aiding a big wall and freeing one are two different sports entirely, it's shameless trolling to compare the two. I do like a good troll though. The first free ascent of the nose was certainly not done onsight. What is up with those hand jammies on Generator crack? Pure aid I say. Also multi-day big wall aid climing isn't a sport. It is vertical camping, kind of like driving your RV to Yellowstone for the weekend. PDL the monkeys are sending.</qu
USBRIT
Read Ondra's description of his efforts so far on UKclimbing.com he says he is aiding and checking out the holds etc....has not on sighted much at all to pitch 14/16... I agree the FFA of the Nose was not onsight ..the usual top rope practice .. I was talking about the FA's of the Nose and Dawn Wall 28 days staying up there is real .. Sorry I find that way more impressive than Sport climbing tactics with massive amounts of support from above and below.Once again the traverse in Patagonia was VERY impressive....it had what used to be in a true climbing experience.... Risk.

I bet he is having a mojito at the Majestic Yosemite Hotel right now.

Kevinmurray wrote:Yup ho-hum. 3000' sport climb.Scope the route, fix lines practice, bring your team and poop bag guys. What Caldwell and Honnald did on the Fitzroy traverse was much more impressive than the circus on the Dawn Wall

Straight Outta The Deli!!!

Dawn Wall = apple
Fitzroy traverse = orange

Good thing you all are here to keep climbing bold, wouldn't want the sportos like Ondra and Caldwell to take over the sport.

^^^^Seriously^^^

I'd imagine 9 out of 10 people denigrating the lack of "adventure" and "boldness" of the dawn wall would crap their pants if they had to lead even a 5.10 with 20 foot runouts over copperheads.

So is he aiming to repeat Tommy/Kevin's feat? Or is there something different about his goal.

He has two other objectives. The Nose free and Salathe onsight.

USBRIT wrote:I was talking about the FA's of the Nose and Dawn Wall 28 days staying up there is real .. Sorry I find that way more impressive than Sport climbing tactics with massive amounts of support from above and below.

The Nose had massive amount of support from below, was not on-sight, and was not done in a single push - in fact it was spread out over a year and a half.
Yes, the original Dawn Wall FA was done in a single 28 day push, almost all aid, with enough drills and bolts in the kit to significantly lessen the possibility of not getting to the top. Remember that Robbins set out on the second ascent with the intent of erasing the route since he was so offended by the extensive drilling and bolt ladders. Interesting how you find that "more impressive" than free climbing the route.

The free Dawn Wall - which uses huge chunks of Mescalito - is a completely different kind of climbing, and utilized very different style and tactics than in the past. This will eventually sort itself out after it sees more repeats. Maybe let it get at least one repeat before climbing on your morally superior high ground to denigrate others' achievements?

Marc801 wrote:Maybe let it get at least one repeat before climbing on your morally superior high ground to denigrate others' achievements?

Agreed....

Sure a clean trad onsight free first ascent is about the cleanest type of ascent one can manage. But for plenty of climbs it has this is not how it goes.

Personally I'm not a fan of sport and I'm not a fan of projecting climbs. But if that is what it takes for somebody to get a FFA or even just a free ascent then so be it.

Eric Roe wrote: Don't worry man, we all know you're too cool to care

Not too cool. I just don't really care about professional climbers. Explain to me why I should? (Though, now that I met him and know who he is my care is now slightly higher than the zero it was beforehand.)

Benjamin Chapman wrote: Life under a rock must be so liberating.

Um, well yeah.... Isn't that why we climb? ;-)

He tried to onsight free the nose yesterday. Didn't fall off til the great roof. After seeing him climb live... I have nothing but respect for the guy

JeffL wrote:He tried to onsight free the nose yesterday. Didn't fall off til the great roof. After seeing him climb live... I have nothing but respect for the guy

lucky to witness that

Marc801 wrote: Arguably (after a lot of beers), the Nose still hasn't gone 100% free. There's that small matter of the traverse that bypasses the King Swing shenanigans...the traverse with the chiseled holds that brings it down to low/mid 5.12 (which might have gone free in its original state at 5.13something). And +1 to everything else Patrick wrote.

If you really want to discount the Jardine Traverse, you also have to discount all the pinned out cracks done "by accident" or on purpose on this route (to say the nothing of other routes in the Valley). Like it or not, there's quite a bit of artificial engineering on the route, even if it's because of pre clean climbing.

JeffL wrote:He tried to onsight free the nose yesterday. Didn't fall off til the great roof. After seeing him climb live... I have nothing but respect for the guy

Impressive.

patto wrote: Impressive.

How did he do after the Great Roof? Was he doing this as a day climb? I'm curious to know how the Changing Corners went...

So impressive and audacious.

According to his friend from Instagram:

Adam finished the route around midnight and actually had to bivouac on his way down - it was too dangerous to walk down in the rain and dark.
.
I'm curious if he is gonna give it another try as he unfortunately didn't free climb the Great Roof. I haven't talk to him yet but I guess it was way too wet as the other climbers comming up said.

And from the BD facebook page:

“Yesterday was probably the longest climbing day of my life. We went with my dad up on The Nose, wanting to free it in a day. We started at first light and up to the Great Roof it was going well, onsighting all of the pitches in a few hours. But the Great Roof shut me down. I had a pretty good flash go, got the beta, lowered and gave it a second shot thinking I would fire it off easily, but I had not realized how important the feet are on this climb. After climbing so many pitches and taking no rest after my flash, they went super shaky and weak. I fell, gave it even a third go and fell in the end of the traverse. There was no point in giving it more tries and we just wanted to top out. Time to switch to night climbing and onsighting all of the pitches except for Changing Corner, topping out at midnight in the starting rain. Full alpine experience, as we did not find the descent route in the pissing rain, and had a wet and cold bivy in the little cave, before we finally got to the car at 9 a.m. The Nose is one of the most famous climbs in the world and I am super glad to have climbed it with my dad, even though not free. A big day out.”

That is just bonkers.... freeing and onsighting all but 2 pitches of the Nose on his first go? That's just silly, and a testament to his skill and just wacky endurance. There's a lot of 5.11 and several 5.12 pitches mixed in there before you factor in the 2 crux pitches of the Great Roof and the Changing Corners. As someone who has done the Nose, freed a lot of those pitches, and felt all of those holds... I'm impressed for sure. This is so much more impressive to me than the current fad of NIADers who are simply seeing how fast they can french free and pull their way up the route.