79 Onsights of 5.14b for Adam Ondra, So Far

Adam Ondra is arguably the world’s best all-round rock climber in terms of difficulty. And he just onsighted Cominazione 5.14c at Pontebrolla.

The climber’s site 8a.nu announced that the onsight is Ondra’s 79th of the grade. Yes, Ondra has onsighted 79 5.14b routes. That’s one away from 80 onsights of 5.14b and he’s only 24.

More than a month without touching any rock, just training… Yesterday I took the advantage of a little bit of time in between the events and visited Ponte Brolla in Ticino with @klausisele. I onsighted "Combinazione" 8c. Today was another nice day in Pietra di Bismantova in Italy. Very aestethic spot, this place is even in Dante's Divine Comedy. @montura_official @lasportivagram @mytendon @blackdiamond

A post shared by Adam Ondra (@adam.ondra) on Jan 22, 2018 at 2:44pm PST

Very few climbers have onsighted 5.14b and none are close to catching up to Ondra in terms of quantity.

The first 5.14b ever was Wallstreet in Frankenjura, first climbed in 1987 by Wolfgang Gullich. The first onsight of a 5.14b was by Yuji Hirayama of White Zombi back in 2004.

8a.nu noted: “It might be good for all the youngsters to know that Adam’s focus has always been onsight no matter the grade and the same goes for Alex Megos.

“It seems that the guys going for the onsight challenges in the end have better chances to become the best. Overall, Adam has onsighted over 500 routes 8a+ [5.13c] to 9a [5.14d].”

After Ondra made the first ascent of Silence, the world’s first 5.15d last year, he said, “I love being out there and feeling the air below my feet.”

Ondra is from Brno, Czech Republic, and climbed hist first 5.14d at age 13. He’s won gold three times at the World Championships and in 2012 was the first to climb 5.15c, with his route Change.