Adam Ondra Climbs His First V17
He just made the fourth ascent of Simon Lorenzi's Soudain Seul V17 in Fontainebleau
Photo by: Petr Chodura
Adam Ondra recently made the fourth ascent of Soudain Seul V17 (9A) in Fontainebleau, France, topping the sandstone problem on just his fifth day of effort. The line is his hardest bouldering send to date, and his first of the grade. He has four V16s to his name, three of which were first ascents near his home: Brutal Rider, Ledoborec, and Terranova. The day after topping Soudain Seul, Ondra flashed both Ubik Assis V13 and La Ligne de Bête V14.
Soudain Seul was established by Simon Lorenzi in February 2021. After 25 sessions of effort, the Belgian climber finally unlocked the line and suggested V17, making it the second problem of grade in the world. The month after Lorenzi’s FA, Nico Pelorson topped the problem, suggesting a downgrade to V16. Camille Coudert made the third ascent in February 2022, suggesting low-end V17. Lorenzi went on to repeat Alphane V17 in December 2022, stating after that Soudain Seul was more difficult. He’s since also completed Burden of Dreams V17.
“This winter, I really wanted to dedicate myself a bit more seriously to bouldering, and obviously, I was thinking about which 9A/V17 could fit my style the best,” said Ondra on Instagram. “Fontainebleau is a bouldering place where I climbed very little in the past and I almost feel ashamed about it, considering its relevance for our sport. On top of that, it is the bouldering place where I had enjoyed climbing the most. So Soudain Seul [V17] was an obvious goal. On my 3rd try of the day (5 days in total) I put up some of the most memorable fights and made it to the top.
“I feel very happy and proud about this send, it means particularly a lot to me especially after the last few seasons when I always felt very close to doing some relevant ascents, but it never really quite happened. Sending this in 5th session is the icing on the cake. But I know very lucky with perfect conditions every day, with beta videos available from many different climbers and most importantly [Lucien Martinez] who was sessioning with me on Big Island [V15] who insisted that I should keep trying with “squeezing with the feet” beta. Watching him doing the moves with this beta (as we are the same height and arm-span) made me believe that it could be good beta for me too. Also having the sessions spread into different trips with very good training sessions in between helped me a lot too.
Ondra had this to say about the grade of Soudain Seul on his website: “I don’t feel like I am an expert when it comes to high-end bouldering grades. Most of the hard boulders 8C/V15 or harder I did at my homecrag and most of them are first ascents. It feels like the hardest problem I have ever done. I honestly feel strong at the moment, the problem fits my style perfectly. And it still feels harder than my [V16] first ascents at my homecrag (Terranova, Brutal Rider, Ledoborec). Soudain Seul is definitely power endurance boulderproblem and that is why it fits a sport climber like me.
“So my suggestion is that it feels harder than [V16], but if it is [V16/17] or soft [V17], I really don’t know. It is also difficult with grade proposition as the boulder has a lot different moves where you need a lot of different skills and also size of the climber is important. And none of the skills has to be on the “9A boulder level”, but it is rare to have everything. Plus, the start is definitely morphological, while the top has many different betas that unlock the problem for short climbers too.”
Ondra has been on a bouldering tear lately. At the end of last month, he flashed El Elegido in La Pedriza, Spain. Originally graded V14/15, Ondra suggested V14 for the problem. It was the Czech climber’s second flash ascent of the grade. In 2015, he flashed Jade V14 in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. The day after completing Soudain Seul, he flashed his third V14, La Ligne de Bête. He’s flashed fifteen V13 problems, several of which were proposed V14 that he downgraded post-flash.
Simon Lorenzi’s FA of Soudain Seul
Nico Pelorson’s 2nd ascent of Soudain Seul
Camille Coudert’s 3rd ascent of Soudain Seul
Feature photo by Petr Chodura
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