Gallery of Ondra's 9a+

Vojtech Vrzba reports with pictures from the last 9a+ by Adam Ondra, Marina Superstar at Sardinia.

A 35m, extremely overhanging route bolted by Matteo Marini in Domusnovas village about 40km from Cagliari. Adam tried this project last year already. It starts as a 8b+ pitch in 45 degrees overhang, then it continues over 4 quickdraws to another chain (8c/c+) and after that, without any rests, comes a boulder problem of 7C+ in nearly horizontal roof to an edge of the cave.

Several hard moves with heel hooks and one good resthold and comes another boulder problem on the edge of the cave - going from horizontal roof to a vertical wall. The difference between last bolt and the chain is approximately 6m! Adam sent this route after 4 days of working on it. During his tries two tufas broke in the roof, where he could rest a bit so he had to change the sequence as well and was obliged to use wet tufa and match on it too!

That made probably the "slash" in the grade of the route. Adam was thinking about the grade for couple of days to say the final verdict - 9a+/b. During his stay in Sardinia he managed to make first ascents of another hard routes in sectors Bronx (Death Row 8c+) and in Ruota del Tempo (The Voice 8c+). In the meantime he had onsinghted seven routes from 8a to 8b.