Ondra on the Dawn Wall

Ondra:
Pitch 16, trying the loop instead of dyno. Both is equally crazy. No feet and super insecure. Cannot wait for the rain to stop and hopefully send some of the crux pitches. Seems like good conditions are on the way. I found my Antihydral so the skin should be dry too.

USBRIT wrote: Let me know how you would climb a virgin sandstone tower other than ground up on sight ?

Idk, how about ground up aiding? How about ground up redpointing? How about ground up aiding then freeing it afterward?

Your spraying gets really old. We get it. You're a badass. Now you don't have to spend as much time trying to convince everyone. We'll just assume it from now on. K, mate?

I just wish there was video of some of his climbing on these crazy hard pitches - that would be cool.

Chris Rice wrote:I just wish there was video of some of his climbing on these crazy hard pitches - that would be cool.

My understanding is they are filming the whole thing to make a film about the experience.

Ondra's latest update was a good one. He is very honest and humble about the who think he is trying to do. Gives amazing respect to Tommy and Kevin.

I know of three people that were pretty happy Ondra fixed up some ropes back up the Dawn Wall.
After over a week on New Dawn, multiple rainstorms and even colder wet weather coming in, they were allowed to bail from their high-point (7 pitches to go) on those ropes.

Luc wrote:I know of three people that were pretty happy Ondra fixed up some ropes back up the Dawn Wall. After over a week on New Dawn, multiple rainstorms and even colder wet weather coming in, they were allowed to bail from their high-point (7 pitches to go) on those ropes.

This isn't Supertopo.....

Barrett Pauer wrote: This isn't Supertopo.....

So what? What does that have to do with a party that bailed using Ondra's fixed ropes to save themselves?

Barrett Pauer wrote: This isn't Supertopo.....

Ha! I hadn't bothered checking up on them there, as usual, a complete mess on the taco.

Last week, I watched Ondra take whippers at sunset on the Nose. It was (my understanding) a ground up onsite attempt. We could hear his banshee yelling from El Cap Meadow as he came hucking out of the great roof. You could see him climb into the great roof, disappear(due to low light and shadows) then come flying out.

It was F*@^ing awesome! So whoever is armchairing on this site, should remember that the young buck is just trying hard to free climb big walls, stuff most of us dream of aiding.

I also heard it was his old man who was jugging the whole thing. Father son NIAD, with son only pulling through two cruxes is awesome. Yeah, rock climbing! woohoo!

From BD's Facebook:

Update: News from the Dawn Wall
A lot of rain and humidity in the Valley, with some sunny and hot conditions mixed in. We jugged up the ropes in the evening right when the rain stopped, hoping that we would get in a good session of night climbing, but instead we just got soaking wet. Even though we could see the stars, it was still raining on the wall and the water turned into a waterfall. We spent a very cold and wet night in the portaledge, and waited 'til the sun came out and dried our clothes and the wall. As the sun came, it got really hot too. I still worked the traverse pitches, which only just destroyed my skin. We rested on the portaledge and in the late afternoon, I went on pitch 16. I wanted to check the loop instead of the dyno. I found out that the loop is equally as heinous as the dyno itself and super tricky. It was still really warm and my soft skin did not help either. I spent around 3 hours on this pitch, refining my beta all over again. I wanted to send pitch 16 that day, but by the time I had the beta, I was so exhausted that it was not possible any more.
Complexity and difficulty of the whole climb is just shocking to me. I might have been too optimistic, but I definitely expected it to be easier. Every single pitch is so tricky and hard and yesterday on pitch 16 was the most frustrating day so far on the wall. It revealed the real difficulty of the whole climb and crucial importance of good conditions and skin. Hats off to Tommy and Kevin, who believed that the whole climb was possible before they free climbed. Without having the beta, some of the sections look just impossible. I have the advantage that I know that the climb is possible and that helps me to keep the faith that I might be able to do it as well. I am humbled and impressed by what Tommy and Kevin did!
To make everything more clear about what is going on on the wall, I will make a little recap. We spent a few days going ground up, using free and aid climbing techniques to fix the lines and be able to work on the pitches and get up and down easier, which was bold and scary most of the time. So far, we made it to the top of pitch 16. Above that, the climbing is by no means easy, but there are no more crux pitches. In the next week, we will continue to fix our ropes even higher and take a look at the whole route. But before that, I wanted to work on the crux pitches and see if they are possible.
These days, we are using fixed ropes to jug up to the pitches I need to work. Then we go down to the Valley in the evening after one day of climbing or we stay on the wall for two days and sleep on the portaledge. At a certain point, I will decide to give it a try to climb the whole route in one single push. But before doing that, I need to see the whole route (not only first 16 pitches but all 32) and have every single pitch super wired. This will still take at least two weeks. Little intermediate goals before the final would be redpointing the individual pitches, most importantly the crux pitches (14-16).
—BD Ambassador Adam Ondra, Oct. 30, 2016

"Wah he's not doing it ground up on sight in a single push!"

rockandice.com/video-galler…

It has to be awesome having his dad up there with him. He's got to be a proud father.

Big props to Ondra. That kind of climbing really is amazing and pushing the limit. Cool to see if there will be a 2nd ascent of the Dawn Wall.

My only complaint is that this is a free versio. Of Mescalito. That route is. Super classic aid route. I was all prepped to go up mescalito this October until I heard that there were so many fixed ropes on the route.

I also heard of Ondra zippering long strings of fixed heads.

So, I decided not to do it. Luckily there are lots of other routes on El Capitan. I climbed Tangerine Trip instead.

Now, a non famous aid climber fixed 5-6 pitches of south seas (maybe PO Wall) this October and left his portaledge. He got lots of shit (rightly so) from a bunch of climbers and was ordered by the NPS to tire or bail.

Why is there a double standard for famous climbers? Why can Ondra detract from the route w a mile of fixed rope? Seems that there is a well established ethic of not doing this.

That is my only complaint. We all have to coexist on the wall and fixing lines for over a month is disrespectful to others desire to have their own less extreme adventure....

Sam Keller wrote:Why is there a double standard for famous climbers? Why can Ondra detract from the route w a mile of fixed rope?

There has to be a double standard. Obviously you can't just let anyone fix ropes to work any "less extreme" route. But at the same time, routes like Dawn Wall (Free or aid), or The Nose Free couldn't have been done without some fixed rope work.

The NPS understands this, and benefits from the publicity brought by such high profile climbs.

Good up-to-date article from Andrew Bisharat at NatGeo about Ondra on the Dawn Wall

From what I understand most routes can be worked on rappel. Should El Cap become just miles of fixed rope?

Can I go and fix a whole el cap route w ropes running from the rim to the ground? How long can Ondra leave them there for?

I think a double standard for high end climbers is perfectly acceptable. Ondra is way more dedicated than you are. He is doing way radder stuff than you are. Cut him some slack and let him send the gnar already.

Sam Keller wrote:Can I go and fix a whole el cap route w ropes running from the rim to the ground?

This happened to us on the FreeRider a couple years ago. A large group fixed lines from the summit down to Heart Ledge (which had fixed lines to the ground) while we were on route. We had to climb around these fixed lines for 3 days while several people each day TR soloed and rapped over us. One profession climber actually core shot both our lead and haul lines when he rapped over them.

Short Fall Sean wrote:I think a double standard for high end climbers is perfectly acceptable. Ondra is way more dedicated than you are. He is doing way radder stuff than you are. Cut him some slack and let him send the gnar already.

Ok. Where does that double standard end? Can anyone fix ropes to free a route?

Is there a limit to the radness one has to be doing in order to fix lines? Can someone fix lines on astroman and then work it all season?

I forgot to say in my previous posts I'm actually very impressed with the climbing Ondra is doing on the dawn wall. Hard climbing onsight in the dark. It's impressive. I give him credit for fixing the ropes ground up. I just don't like fixed ropes it detracts from the adventure of everyone else who also has a right to climb el cap.