Miles Adamson Sends Ambrosia V11X Highball
Miles Adamson is one of Canada’s top all-round climbers with 5.14+ and V13 sends to his name.
He’s recently made an ascent of Ambrosia V11X, a classic highball on the Grandpa Peabody boulder in Bishop. “Ambrosia went very smoothly after working it on TR,” said Adamson. “I felt amazing, got it first try of the day. The heel hook beta is a breeze compared to the high left foot method. More people will probably repeat it that way in the future.”
Many highball routes in Bishop require a TR or toprope before making a ground-up attempt due to the tricky cruxes over 30 feet off the ground where a fall could result in major injuries.
“I really wanted to push myself with the ground up style on a famous route,” said Adamson. “The move above the hueco was far harder than it looks in videos. That made me wonder if higher moves were harder than I thought too. They actually were too, I thought the top holds were edges with some bite but they were mostly slopey features.
“The decision to bail on that was hard because it was basically all I trained for. But I couldn’t have realistically tried it more without getting hurt. I took around 10 falls total (across both trips) from above the hueco. It fuckin hurts the knees even with four layers of pads.”
Kevin Jorgeson made the first ascent of the super highball Ambrosia and the first repeat of Luminance V11 back in 2009. His ascent came after an audacious trip to England’s gritstone. The 45-foot problem climbs the central wall of the Grandpa Peabody boulder.
Local expert Wills Young said that the line had been attempted in the early 1990s by Tommy Herbert and dubbed Ambrosia, food of the immortals, before being abandoned. Jorgeson took up the challenge and toproped the line prior to a successful solo. Young commented further that Kevin “has taken headpointing to a new level at the Buttermilks.”
The problem has seen over a half dozen ascents, by Alex Honnold, Isaac Caldiero and others. Many of the holds have broken and higher on the problem, holds have been reinforced with glue.
Repeat ascents have used slightly different beta than Jorgeson, “which made it easier,” Honnold wrote on his 8a.nu card after his 2010 second ascent, “but I’m still calling it 8a (V11), just cause it’s so tall.”
In 2017, Nina Williams became the first woman to climb the monster V11X, basically a 5.13 free-solo. Watch the clip below.
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