Vision Quest 9a/+ FA by Chris Sharma

Chris Sharma did the first ascent of Vision Quest 9a/+ in December 2024 after some 30 sessions and endless falls from 10-15 meters.

”When I’m up there, it’s just me, a GriGri, and the moves in my head. Rappelling down solo like that—it’s pure exploration, but yeah, sometimes I’m hanging absurdly high over the water, burning an hour on just a couple of moves, and thinking, What the hell am I doing up here? This is just crazy 😀

When I start climbing from the ground, I always have someone with me. I’ve taken a few 15-meter falls—those were fine—but my worst fall? Easily when I slammed on my back from 10 meters. That one was brutal.

DWS is often characterized as vacation climbing. It’s certainly super fun but it’s also seriously hard, challenging work—especially in December.

The route itself has an 8B boulder crux, followed by relentless 8b+ climbing. It might only be 28 moves, but man, they’re sustained and seriously pumpy.”

Deep Water Soloing has been practiced for close to 50 years, but it wasn’t until 2006 that the discipline gained widespread attention, following Chris Sharma’s landmark ascent of Es Pontas (9a+). The climb helped define modern DWS and set a new benchmark for the style. Since then, the 44-year-old has continued to raise the bar, establishing first ascents of Big Fish (8c+/9a), Alasha (9a), and, most recently, Black Pearl (9a+). With these ascents, Sharma has done the first ascents of the five hardest Deep Water Solo routes in the world, each of them located on the island of Mallorca.