I agree, it is such a crazy climb with all those mini tufas and pinches. It's basically a huge boulderproblem on steroids and then some! It'd be awesome to see this go down! So the speculation is that it will go at 9b?
I think I understood that he was taking a "break" from it to regroup and perhaps to allow some other strong climbers a chance to try it (what with the controversy).. I'm somewhat surprised that Nalle hasn't gone to have a few go's at it (perhaps he has and I just haven't heard) or Mr. Ondra? All I know is they all better hurry before Mr. Roughling or Mr. Fernandez start sniffing around! ha ha. Iker? Rick Simpson? Paul Robinson? Dai? So many great climbers come to mind that I would love to see try a route like this! Maybe many are holding back to respect a "virtual" red tag? It seems that Mr. Sharma, always the easy going guy, was perhaps backing away to allow others a shot? How great would it be to see the who's who, of all I've mentioned, plus many others all come together on this route or perhaps a harder one, not a long endurance route, but a 60'-70' 9c, and all work it together! They could probably funnel the strength of the "many" into the power, for "one", to send! Love to see that!
as i heard this route is actually quite short (at least compared to jumbo love...) the climbers you mentioned are incredibly strong, but i seriously doubt that any of them would have any chances, except maybe for ondra. it appears it will be at least hard 9b, it looks like it is two (ondra, dani) or three steps (all the rest of '9b' and hard 9a+ climbers) further than any of those guys ever been, not to mention, maybe edge breaking in bouldering, but average (for the pro climbers) guys like nalle or robinson. it seems it a step further for sharma himself and he is the one who sent the hardest redpoints in the history of climbing. it also looks like he wouldn't be really happy about someone else seriously trying FA, look this article: http://www.bigupproductions.com/#/blog/1020/ i also heard somewhere that he took a break due to weather conditions. the past few moths were too hot.
I thought I had seen something like this:http://climbingaction.com/blog/?tag=chris-sharma , but, I wasn't sure where! If you read, Chris seems to indicate that he is "worn out" on it and talks about others trying it and it needing to be done if not by him then by someone else.. And of course, I think there is someone out there who could rise to the occasion.. Mr. Woods perhaps? Many others.. Chris has, in the past asked for his "chance" at this route but it seems that perhaps he feels that now he has had it.. I mean if someone other than Chris were to get the FA on this route it would be a first for Chris to not get it on one of his mega projects, but I can't imagine (not that I know Chris) that he really harbours an attitude that all great lines are his or that he is not big enough to to endure a "rare" defeat; which even that could hardly be called.. or share in the glory of such a hard climb even if he did equip it! I think a saying goes something like this: If you own something and you don't share it; it's like you never had it.. Life is full of events and Sharma relinquishing a project is one that is bound to happen some day. I think the experience might help Chris climb harder than ever and give the world a "couple" of new stars to look at. Sounds like to me he was prepared to go down that road but, he's back, and I'm sure he'll do FRFM one way or the other! I read somewhere that he "shys" away from competative situations but, Chris being the super performer that he is might benefit from a little external pressure!?
Sounds perfectly reasonable - he was super close to sending and asked Nalle not to try it, but when he still wasn't able to send after a while, he said that he would be ok with other people trying it.
Sharma working on FRFM again.