Final Push – Day 6: Ondra Sends Crux Pitches, Reaches Wino Tower

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With the two traverse pitches down, Ondra called it a night to rest before taking on pitch 15, Tommy Caldwell’s
cryptic 5.14a “Loop Pitch” variation, in the morning. Ondra described pitch 15 as “an extremely hard pitch mentally. The down-climb is awkward, powerful
and insecure and is the crux of the pitch for sure.”

The next morning, on day six of his final push with , Ondra went for the Loop Pitch despite feeling “quite wrecked,” from the day before, he said. Nevertheless,
the sky was overcast and Ondra said his skin felt sticky. He started the tenuous down-climb, balancing on micro edges to the small ledge at the bottom
of the loop. After a short rest, he entered the upside of the loop—an insecure layback with pin-scars.

“This section is probably at 5.13c, but it is really devastating if you slip and have to climb the down-climb again,” Ondra told Black Diamond. “I was
lucky to fight through the down-climb … and climbed super carefully through the layback into the no-hands stance—the end of the loop pitch/dyno
pitch.”

Ondra continued climbing into pitch 17, a 5.14a layback, like he originally planned (linking pitch 16 and 17 into a longer, 5.14c pitch), but after 45
minutes of climbing, his feet were “just gone,” he reported. He returned to the no-hands stance to rest, and then climbed pitch 17 from there, as in
the style of the first ascentionists Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson. “Doing the whole 16 plus 17 link seemed impossible at that moment,” Ondra told Black
Diamond.

With the hardest pitches behind him, and plenty of day left, Ondra cranked through pitch 18 (5.13c), pitch 19 (5.13c/b), pitch 20 (5.13c)—“one of
the best pitches on the wall,” he reported—and pitch 21 (5.13d) to the Wino Tower.

“Weather forecast said rain later during the night, so we did not risk it,” Ondra told Black Diamond. They rapped back to the portaledge for the night,
and took a “forced rest day” on Sunday because of the rain. They plan to finish the climb on Monday.

“The weather isn’t perfect as of right now, [but] we go for it anyway,” Blazek reported on Instagram this morning. “Wish us good luck!”

Stay tuned for more updates.

The weather isn’t perfect as of right now, we go for it anyway. Wish us good luck! 🙂 . @adam.ondra @blackdiamond #dawnwall #elcapitan #yosemite #liveclimbrepeat #blackdiamond

A video posted by Pavel Blažek (@pavelblazek) on
Nov 21, 2016 at 8:09am PST