Adam Ondra Continues Work on Dawn Wall Cruxes
A few days after climbing The Nose in a day with his dad, Adam Ondra is back on the Dawn Wall. From the sounds of it, the crux pitches are putting up a fight, but Ondra is working through them. He updated Black Diamond with his progress: “Another day in the office. We hauled up and set up the portaledge on the Dawn Wall yesterday. I got to the top of pitch 16 and worked the moves of pitches 14, 15 and 16 ‘til late night.
“These are three of the hardest pitches on the whole climb, and on every pitch I missed one little piece of the puzzle. But with better skin and colder conditions (which are on the way), I will hopefully have these pitches super wired soon. Pitch 14 [5.14d] has this really mysterious last boulder problem—seemingly blank—but offers a few razorblade crimps that are just horrible. The previous boulder problems on this pitch felt very good.
“Pitch 15 [5.14d] has this really small razorblade that I did not want to pull, since in the warm conditions I would cut my skin open. The rest of the pitch felt good. Pitch 16 [5.14c] has this crazy dyno that definitely felt hard. I did not do the single move, but there is always an option to make the loop variation. The rest of the pitch is tricky and insecure but I found my way.” Watch Tommy Caldwell on the 5.14d pitch-15:
