Adam Ondra Visits Smith Rock and Onsights Classics

Adam Ondra is touring America and has made a stop at Smith Rock in Oregon after crushing in Yosemite.

Last week, Ondra nearly onsighted Salathe Wall and made quick work of the Book of Hate 5.13d trad.

Since arriving in Smith Rock, Ondra has onsighted Scarface 5.14a, White Wedding 5.14a and nearly onsighted To Bolt or Not To Be 5.14a.

I love visiting new climbing places and I have been looking forward to this place so much! It is basically birthplace of America's sport climbing. And it did not disappoint at all. I did super classics Chain Reaction and dark Side of the Moon for warm up, then I wanted to onsight the uberclassic To Bolt Or Not To be, first 5.14a 8b+ in America from 1986. I gave it OK try, unfortunately not good enough. But I finished the day off with onsights of Scarface 8b+ and White Wedding 8b+ (in the picture). Pic by @bernardo_gimenez @blackdiamond @lasportivagram @mytendon @montura_official

A post shared by Adam Ondra (@adam.ondra) on Nov 7, 2018 at 10:22pm PST

Ondra, one of the best all-round rock climbers in the world always meets the local legends and in Smith Rock he touched base with Alan Watts, the pioneer of many of the area’s hardest routes.

Ondra said, “It was such a honour to meet Alan Watts yesterday. He is a pioneer of sport climbing in US who put up the first sport (bolted) route in the country in 1982. Before, everything in the US was trad (placing your own protection) or aid climbing.

“The birth of sport climbing was difficult even in your Europe, but traditionalists were even stronger in U.S.A. He received a lot of criticism, but later on, Smith Rock became popular and international destination for climbers all around the world and sport climbing got accepted even in US.

“This guy had the vision. Being a very strong climber himself, he bolted both To Bolt Or Not To Be 5.14a 8b+ (FA Jibe Tribout 1986, done by Watts a few years later as well) and Just Do It 5.14c 8c+ (FA Jibe Tribout 1992). Both of these routes were the first of the grade in the country. Actually there are still futuristic projects bolted back in late 80’s that Alan showed me yesterday, still waiting to be climbed.”

Don’t be surprised if Ondra sends some of those old projects before he departs for his next location.

We changed a destination and moved a little more north to Oregon. Cannot wait to climb tomorrow. @patizoncom Pic by @mkanurek Side note: we are desperately struggling with internet in US, is there anyone around Smith Rock (even a little longer drive) that could offer high speed internet, ideal speed could be 100 Mbps, we need upload 100 GB. We have a lot of footage we want to share with you, soon we will publish short videos from this trip.

A post shared by Adam Ondra (@adam.ondra) on Nov 6, 2018 at 6:37pm PST