Adam Ondra’s Coffee Table Book
By Adam Ondra AO Production, 2020
At 223 pages, in English, and weighing the same as a small watermelon, Ondra’s book is packed with both beautiful imagery and essays that describe his love for climbing. “The book you’re holding in your hand is about still pictures,” Ondra writes. “Still pictures … have the advantage of taking one single moment of existence and making it eternal.” After a quick introduction by Ondra where he writes about his earliest years on the stone, the book’s full-page eye-candy shots begin. “Since I was a little kid I always wanted to climb as hard as I could,” says Ondra, who by the age of 13, sent 5.14d/9a. Today, with his FA of Silence a 5.15d, in Flatanger, Norway, he’s climbed harder than anyone in the world. His list of hard sends is nearly endless – he’s done more than 140 routes rated 9a or harder. The book reflects his last two years as a full-time professional athlete, including life at the top-of-the-world competition circuit, his preparation for the upcoming 2020 Olympics, and his experiences on the hardest sport, trad, boulders, and big walls in the world.
The coffee table hardcover (12.5" x 10") follows Ondra, starting with Silence in 2017 and continuing to the 2019 Lead World Cup in France. Each chapter, whether he’s indoors or outdoors, at a campfire or in his van, is documented by award-winning photographers Bernardo Giménez, from Argentina, and press photographer Lukas Biba, from the Czech Republic. Many of the images are published here for the first time. Ondra writes about his short-lived attempt to free the Nose on El Cap while belayed by his dad. “The two crux pitches were just too hard to free climb it in a day,” he writes. While on top, unprepared for a storm and unsure of the way down, the two were caught in a torrential downpour and without any bivy gear spent the night shivering.
His next goal in Yosemite was the Dawn Wall, where over a final eight-day push he succeeded on arguably the world’s hardest big wall. Also, on El Cap, he attempted to onsight the Salathé Wall (in a day), and, late in the afternoon, with his energy levels draining, he lost the final fight and became airborne on the 5.13 headwall. Despite not freeing the route, he calls the experience “one of the best days of my entire life.” Ondra’s quest to onsight climbs at the highest level continued as he headed to Smith Rock, Ore., where on his first try he ticked off many of the area’s hardest lines. The next chapter shows him pinching the final hold on top of a bouldering competition in Switzerland. This follows with Ondra holding a gold medal at the ifsc Climbing World Cup. “Competitions set tremendous challenges,” he writes. “I know months ahead that I must prepare myself for the exact day, the exact hour. And I mustn’t fail because I won’t be given another chance.”
Accompanying photos showing both life on the road, and him preparing for and competing in events. Standout shots include Ondra’s groundbreaking crux sequences in Flatanger, his big wall exposure, his moments of stillness during his travels, training on plastic and running the speed wall. The book takes readers from Innsbruck for the Austria World Championships to routes in Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Croatia and Romania. It also takes a tour through the U.S., starting in Yosemite, before heading to Smith Rock, and Indian Creek, Utah. Then it heads down to South America, before finishing in Europe for the Lead World Cup.—chris Van Leuven