Adam Ondra Rests to Attempt to Send The Nose in Yosemite
Adam Ondra climbed to pitch 16 on the Dawn Wall, noting how difficult the crux 5.14+ pitches are. Statement from Ondra released from Black Diamond: “Yesterday was another day on the Dawn Wall. We had our fixed-lines on the top of pitch 10 and we wanted to move as high as possible. But we would face some of the crux pitches of the whole climb. Fortunately, the pitches were better protected and it was not such a big problem to climb through the next five pitches, including the crux traverses.
“I would like to emphasize that I am not free climbing everything yet. The goal right now is only to go ground-up to the top, free-climbing and using a little bit of aid climbing, to fix the whole line with ropes and start working on the pitches properly to have them ready for the final free push later.
“So if the crux is around the protection, I just touch the holds to see how the sequence would be and continue. The first crux-pitch looked definitely super hard to free climb. Almost impossible. I will have to take a look at all these razorblades more closely. Finally, already in the dark, I was pushing through pitch 16 (Dyno Pitch), but I was stopped by the final bold section of the route, where I felt I needed the light for climbing this tiny layback high above bad protection.
“So we just called it a day and went down back to Camp 4. Now it’s two days of rest to heal my skin and I will try the Nose.” Ondra has been in Yosemite for about a week. The Dawn Wall was his first Valley big wall attempt and he made it to pitch 16 with plans to return next week.
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