Chris Sharma Climbs a New 5.15c
This is his second route at the grade after La Dura Dura. His first 5.15b was 15 years ago with Jumbo Love
Chris Sharma has climbed a new 5.15c in Siurana, Spain, which he’s called Sleeping Lion. We reported in December that he was projecting the route at the same time that he’d sent La Reina Mora, a classic 5.14d. This is Sharma’s second 5.15c.
“As I battle it out on my main project Sleeping Lion these days, I’ve also enjoyed climbing on this iconic route nearby,” Sharma said about his repeat of Mora. He began working on his project in 2021. Sleeping Lion is located on the wall across from La Rambla and La Reina Mora and follows a line on a section of rock with no route within 40 metres. Watch him project Sleeping Lion below.
Sharma was born in California in 1981 and started climbing at the age of 12. He won the National Bouldering Championship at 14 and just a year later made the first ascent of Necessary Evil 5.14c, the first route of this grade in the U.S.A. In 2001, he made the first ascent of a project in Ceuse dubbed Biographie; which he officially called Realization – it was the first climb to ever be graded 5.15a.
Listen to Sharma on a recent episode of Enormocast, where Sharma talks about hard climbing and says he’s in the prime of his life. See below for a list of Sharma’s hardest sends, and here for the hardest in the world.
Projecting Sleeping Lion
Sharma’s Hardest Sends
Sleeping Lion – 5.15c First ascent
La Dura Dura – 5.15c Second Ascent
El Bon Combat – 5.15b/c First ascent
Jumbo Love – 5.15b First ascent
Golpe de Estado – 5.15b First ascent
Neanderthal – 5.15b First ascent
First Round First Minute – 5.15b First ascent
Fight or Flight – 5.15b First ascent
Stoking the Fire – 5.15b First ascent
Realization – 5.15a First ascent
Papichulo – 5.15a First ascent
Demencia Senil – 5.15a First ascent
Pachamama – 5.15a First ascent
Power Inverter – 5.15a First ascent
Catxasa – 5.15a First ascent
La Rambla – 5.15a
Dreamcatcher – 5.14d First ascent
Era Vella – 5.14d First ascent
Alasha – 5.15b DWS First ascent
Es Pontàs – 5.15b DWS First ascent
Practice of the Wild – V15 First ascent
Witness the Fitness – V15 First ascent
Catalan Witness the Fitness – V15 First ascent
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