Adam Ondra Makes First Ascent of Croatia’s Hardest Route
'B je to!' is a new 5.15b bolted by Ondra in the massive Vranjača cave
Photo by: Kuba Sobotka
On September 28, Adam Ondra made the first ascent of Croatia’s first 5.15b (9b). Located in the limestone Vranjača cave, Ondra originally bolted the line back in August while on a short family trip. He wasn’t able to finish the line during that summer trip so he recently returned to get the redpoint. He sent the route on his second day and named it B je to!
On that first trip back in August, Ondra actually bolted two hard lines. After onsighting a slew of 5.13b to 5.14a routes in the cave, he made the first ascent of the easier of the two lines he bolted. He named the route A je to! (“It is A!” in English) after a popular Czech cartoon and graded it 5.14d/15a (9a/a+). The names A je to! and B je to! are nods to his favourite Czech cartoon as well as a play on the grades of the routes.
On the same day he sent B je to! 5.15b, he also made the first ascent of an open project first bolted by Igor Čorko. Ondra named the line To je to! and graded it 5.14b. On his 8a.nu page, he called the route an “absolute king line”, sending it on his second go.
“A je to! is [a] super power endurance route without super hard moves, whereas B je to! has a very hard crux that makes this route so hard,” he said on Instagram, comparing his two new lines. “Second day of this trip, after a very hard fight in the crux, and still very close calls on the upper part, I clipped the anchor of this project.”
“I was a little hesitant about whether it deserves the grade 9b [5.15b] or maybe a slash grade fits better (then the name doesn’t make any sense),” he added about the grade. “But considering good conditions, [a] crux that fits my style and pretty good sensations of my body recently, I propose 9b [5.15b]. If it ever gets downgraded, we might have to find a different name!”
With this send of B je to!, Ondra has now climbed 23 5.15b’s, four 5.15c’s, and one 5.15d, according to his 8a.nu page. He’s also sent 49 5.15a’s and a staggering 129 5.14d’s.
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