9a Project Climbed After 27 Years | Absolutorium 9a FA | Adam Ondra

Without a doubt, this is the most beautiful route in this difficulty in Czechoslovakia. And to this day, it hasn't been climbed. G-Con, which I may never see again. For sure. Czechoslovakia. I'm ready. Great. Tea, coffee, food. Upstairs, everything. Shit, we'll pull it out. We'll pull it out. Great. I'll pull out a backpack with a bench, a rope, and we can spend a romantic day there. Last year, if I came here, nothing. The whole of October, completely dark, grey, wet rock. Not in Oros. And I'm lucky to be here now. I think this underwinter is the best in the last 10 years. Do you think they have a chance this year? What, me? No. What? No. 17 years ago, I fell over the last wall. Then things changed, but life is like that. I just went away from it. We're talking about absolute consciousness, which is the first Czechoslovakian 8b+, which I didn't climb on site. And now I'm trying to extend from the bottom. I see. And it's my life project, which I had close to the fall, and then life arranged it differently, so I didn't get there. I've been here a few times, but... And you know, this year you're climbing. It's never in such a form that I have a chance. But in the spring or in the future, it could be real. How many years has it been? It's been 17 years. So I would say it's the last remaining project from Czech climbing legend Tomáš Pilka. And it's this amazing side overhanging wall, and you're just climbing in the middle of it for, I don't know, 25 meters. It's just awesome. Awesome rock quality, awesome movement. It's really long and homogenous. It's like 12 meters, maybe 8a+, into Bohler Braun. And then you just have to keep going and climb the first Czechoslovakian 8b+. Absolutely awesome. How hard it will feel? I'm really curious. Let's see. Adam is just climbing an approach route to this project. The project starts in the second length, after about 30 meters of higher climbing. So now we're climbing route 7a+, which will take us to the stand where the project starts. Hey, I have to turn it. Wait, good. Are you going to sit in it now, or are you climbing? Yes, yes. I'll take it off. When? The next one, when are you coming? Yes. Good, good. OK. Do you remember anything, Adam? I remember here that it was unpleasant. Hey? And a bad leg. And you want to avoid that? No way! It's a bit harder, isn't it? Yes. From the slant? Yes. OK. Good. So. Hop. Sorry. Good. Let's go. So Adam, at the beginning, the first attempt was that he would sit in every position, look at all the boulders, and really think about the route, come up with the programs, so that he would have it well thought out. Now you're asking how I'm going? Aha. The right one. The left one, the good one. The right one, the small one. The left one, the big one. Yes. The right one, the big one. The right one. The left one. The bottom one, the thumb opposite. When we last saw each other, I actually started training on this route, absolutely consciously. It took six months. And the sixth month, the last one, my neighbor asked me to help him carry the concrete, and I got hurt. So it all went, so to speak, into the gutter. So we decided that we were going to travel a little and closed Slovakia, or COVID. We left the country at four in the morning, for a month, and in the end it was four months on the Peloponnese. It was one of the most beautiful trips of my life, so so far we've had a record of six weeks, and I couldn't imagine that you could be in a caravan for four months. And the places were like this. You are five meters from the beach, you have a parked caravan, you get up in the morning, have a coffee, there are rocks behind you, you climb out, you climb in. Beautiful, beautiful. I haven't strengthened my neck in a long time. Hey, how do you see it? We'll turn it off later. I'll put it down from my head. How do you see it? I see it, so it's even nicer than I remembered. The conditions are good, it's a little warm, but I think it's going to be good. I'll try to keep it up for the training. And a nice route. Wow, absolutely incredible. Very good. If it goes well, the steps don't seem difficult, but we'll see in the test. But it won't be like 8C. As you feel that you can climb it today, I feel that it won't be like 8C. The first moves are definitely no gimme. They are long, powerful on tiny incut holes, and the footholds are not so good either. Plus those bolts, they are there for about 25 years. I guess the route should definitely be rebolted, and it will be rebolted soon, but I just didn't want to waste my precious energy by rebolting it. So, you get to this first rest of the route. It's actually quite short up to here, so you don't spend here too much time. The right hand hold is good, but the left hand hold is quite slopey, and the footholds are quite low down, so you're hanging off the hands quite a lot. Then a few moves with this kind of awkward two-finger pocket, where I couldn't really squeeze middle finger and ring finger, so I had to go with the pinky. You get to these last two crimps, you make a clip, and from here the business starts. I don't think you should fall up to here if you seriously want to attempt the route. The first move of the crux sequence is quite insecure. You have to hit this two-finger pocket perfectly. Big move to the left gas stone, really high foot, and now you need to get here right hand. You kind of make this complicated sequence to get it right hand, left hand gas stone intermediate, left drop knee, bad slopey left hand crimp, and you need to have enough energy to make this big crossover move into a sloper. That is probably the linking crux of the whole route. Now the crux sequence is not kind of over. You still really have to focus. This right hand hold is kind of a flake. It's okay, but the footholds are not so good and you still need to do this low percentage move into the slot, which is good, and you gain another rest on the route. This rest is better than the one before the crux. You definitely gain some fatigue. On this try I was quite surprised how freshly I got feeling into this rest. I mean I had to really try hard in the crossover move, but then I got to this hold and recovered. This sequence is alright and just in a few moves I will join Absolutní Vědomí, the 8b+, which gets into exactly this hold, into this flat rail by climbing into the left. If you climb Absolutní Vědomí up to this point it's like 5 meters of climbing of maybe 7a, so you pretty much from this point have to climb all of the 8b+. In terms of difficulty of the moves, the next moves are definitely the hardest moves on the 8b+. Again, quite complex sequences. I have to get left hand into this weird gas stone undercling, which feels completely illogical, but it's definitely the way that works quite efficiently. And making big move into this OK crimp marks the end of the crux one of Absolutní Vědomí. So right here I'm gaining the final rest of the route. I got here feeling quite fresh and at that moment I was 100% sure that I was going to send the route. But then I was planning on doing this strange heel hook rest position, which I thought would work really perfectly, but it just didn't work. I was somehow trying to find a different position, but I was kind of feeling the longer I was staying in this kind of weird rest, the more I'm getting tired. And I just knew that sooner or later I need to set off. So the crux two has a couple of intro moves. Not so hard, but definitely get some energy away. Right hand tight pull, left drop knee, intermediate and big move into this slot. It's definitely quite easy to mess it. Now the crux two is over, but still you have a few moves of power endurance. And here, especially if you do all those 25 meters below, I was getting a total flash bump. The holds are good, my fingers were opening up and my forearms were just totally stiff. It's kind of last move, this bump into this final sloper. I almost fell off. People started clapping their hands. I was actually fighting for my life. And then it happened to me that I almost didn't do it. I grabbed the pole and said to myself I'd rather not do it, I'm going further. Then I was happy that it was good. People were clapping their hands and I was like, I'm going to fall, I'm going to fall. It was good all the way to the top. And now, I was like, I've got more, I've got more. I'm going to grab the pole and it's going to be good. Pole, I'm going to fall. Super, super. The absolute awareness of going down and up was a big battle, the whole conclusion. When you're up there, you can still fall. And that was confirmed today when Adam thought that the absolute awareness of going down and up And when he got to the last boulder, the game suddenly changed and every step was a battle. The wing was already pulling him. Even when he caught the last peg from which he was supposed to jump from the rope, the whole restaurant was shaking. And then it was clear to Adam that he was already at the end. So he'd rather climb up as if he were to risk his own life. Super, that was beautiful. It was quick. To come, to try it and to do it immediately. This route is really unique because it's so long and so consistently hard and you really have to fight to the most bitter end and it makes it really, really amazing and quite definitely visionary to see such a line and it's amazing climbing, it's amazing line but you know the exposure, the fact that you're starting like 20 meters off the ground and when you're like right there below the chain you're actually 50 meters off the ground right above this nice bar while people are having lunch they are cheering on you makes the experience pretty special that's for sure. And it's like to climb on that wall and just to spend the time there and spending their time with Richie was amazing. My goal for the next few months is clear. To train what's missing in that route and next year to finally try the 8b+, which was here for 17 years in my head where it sometimes dug out and I put it back in the bag so now it's 100% that I have to put something into it so it dug out. So now just to train in winter and in spring maybe it will be better. So that's probably the most important program for the next few months that everything is in order.