Adam Ondra Cranks 5.15a FA in Three Attempts, Onsights Two 5.14c’s

Claudia Ziegler.” title=”Adam Ondra catches a marginal rest on Move (5.15b) in the Hanshelleren Cave, Flatanger, Norway, on the cover of Rock and Ice issue 215 (January 2014). Cover photo: Claudia Ziegler.”>In the last two weeks, Adam Ondra’s 5.14c onsight tally surged to 17 after he one-and-done
sent Barracuda in Germany and Gimmel Express in Switzerland. In less than eleven days, Ondra visited six crags across the two countries.
He climbed 17 routes 8a (5.13b) and harder, and reported that he established Hyper Finale (9a+ 5.15a), in addition to his two 5.14c onsights.

It took Ondra only three goes to make the first ascent* of Hyper Finale [direct exit] in Rawyl, Switzerland, his 11th 5.15a first ascent.
To date, Ondra has climbed 35 routes 5.15 and higher, 23 of which he established, including all three existing 5.15c’s.

Four days after sending Hyper Finale, with another 9a, 8b+, 8a+ and a rest day under his belt, he took merely 25 minutes to redpoint Black Label (9a
5.14d) in Frankenjura, Germany.

Leading up to his onsight of Barracuda (5.14c), Ondra later wrote on his 8a.nu scorecard that he looked at the route for an hour, “and then executed [everything] perfectly on this five-move boulder problem.” He commented that it felt “soft”
for the grade.

However, Ondra uncharacteristically upped Gimmel Express a grade: “[It’s] 8c (5.14b) in the guidebook,” he wrote on his 8a.nu scorecard. “But it felt like different level compared all the other 8c’s in the last weeks … Amazing fight in a really
desperate warm conditions.”

In addition to his record-holding 8c+ onsight list, the 23-year-old master-climber has onsighted three 9a’s thus far, more than anyone else.

*[UPDATE] Both Adam Ondra and Jonathan Siegrist have reported to
have made the first ascent of a route called Hyper Finale in Rawyl, Switzerland—Siegrist in June, Ondra in July. RI reached
out to Siegrist to clarify:

“There are three ways to finish the route. The left version is to finish on Voile de Maya, which Adam did as his FA Super Finale and graded 9a. The middle option (which is what I believe [Ondra] did and called Hyper Finale I tried originally and I broke a key hold on
a section between two good rests. I thought that this method would be impossible for my height after the break and also this section of the wall was
wet.

“So I turned my attention to a right exit that does the finishing crux of Cabane au Canada (9a 5.14d), which in my opinion is for sure harder
than the Voile de Maya exit (I had done VDM earlier). But honestly, it was just the dry option! So I went that way. After I sent, the equipper
(who also named the routes) wrote me and told me that I had done Hyper Finale. So that’s the name I gave it.”

Ondra, on an 8a.nu forum, confirmed that he had climbed the center exit variation: “I did it with the
original direct finish and I think that if the original direct line as a project was called Hyper Finale, I do not see a reason why to rename
it. (I talked to Bertrand too about it).”

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