Before Adam Ondra and After

Adam Ondra visited the Canadian Rockies this summer and helped to put things in perspective for locals, just as he’s done in climbing areas around the world. When he was old enough to compete in the lead and bouldering world cups, he became the first climber ever to have won both disciplines. He was climbing’s first multidisciplinary world champion. The following year, he visited Spain and became the second climber to onsight 5.14c after Alex Megos. He went on to onsight five more within a few days. The following year, he visited a crag called Flatanger in Norway and climbed the first-ever proposed 5.15c with Change.

In 2012, he f lashed one of the Red River Gorge’s hardest routes called Southern Smoke Direct 5.15a and downgraded it to 5.14d. He then onsighted two 5.14ds, Pure Imagination and The Golden Ticket, and downgraded them to 5.14c. After hundreds of 5.14s and new 5.15s, Ondra visited Yosemite for his f irst time. On Nov. 21, 2016, he completed the second free ascent of The Dawn Wall, a 30- pitch 5.14d on El Capitan, a route widely regarded as the hardest big wall in the world. He became the f irst person to lead every pitch.

In 2017, he returned to Flatanger and made the first ascent of Silence, his long-time project that he graded 5.15d, the first-ever of the grade. A few months later, he visited Saint- Léger du Ventoux and f lashed Super Crackinette, the first f lash of a 5.15a in history. His next stop this year was Canada.

Once in Alberta, he wasted no time and got to work onsighting some of Canada’s hardest climbs, including First Flight 5.14c and Ojas, a 5.14a slab, both at Acephale. He made the first ascents of two new 5.15s: Disbelief 5.15b at Acephale and Sacrifice 5.15a in Echo Canyon. Sacrifice is found on The Coliseum wall and was one of Evan Hau’s projects. Hau had previously made the first ascent of Honour and Glory on Coliseum and graded it 5.15a, thus making Hua Canada’s first 5.15a climber. Like many 5.15s around the world, Ondra was quick to repeat it and downgrade it to 5.14d. “A really tremendous effort to open and clean this line into a gem,” Ondra later said praising Hau for his route developing efforts.

Everywhere Ondra visits, he reshapes what locals thought possible, opens new 5.15s, downgrades existing routes, is nice to everyone he comes in contact with and is keen to support others no matter what crag he visits. The Canadian Rockies single-pitch sport climbing scene can now join the many which has a “before Ondra visited” and “after Ondra visited” chapter. And while Ondra gave Canadians 5.15 projects, he will have to return for his own, as he was unable to make the second ascent of Alex Megos’s Fight Club 5.15b in Banff. There’s always next year, Ondra.