Adam Ondra Sending Quickly Up Dawn Wall

Adam Ondra and Pavel Blazek are back on the Dawn Wall and have climbed the first nine pitches, with a 5.14a pitch, in only six hours. They left early in the morning and by 5 a.m. had reached the top of pitch five. Ondra is free climbing the route and Blazek is jumaring the fixed ropes. The two climbed the route and fixed ropes at the end of October. They returned a few times to work on crux moves over the past few weeks.

On Nov. 13, Ondra said, “Tomorrow going for the push! First two days of heat and climbing the first 13 pitches, then one restday of rain and then perfect conditions for the crux pitches on day four.” Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson freed the route in 2014 after 19 days on the wall. The 32-pitch 5.14d took Caldwell seven years to piece together. Watch Ondra’s update below by clicking on the clip.

First day, good day. 9 pitches in the bag after 6 hours of climbing. Conditions were not the best, but I could still reach the goal of the day. Now hopefully we will survive the heat on the portaledge and take a 28 hours of rest untill we continue tomorrow, starting with pitch 10. @blackdiamond #Montura @mytendon @lasportivagram #elcapitan #yosemite #dawnwall

A video posted by Adam Ondra (@adam.ondra) on Nov 14, 2016 at 10:05am PST