New Proposed 5.15a in Australia is Hartkäse
Ryan Sklenica has been on a send train over the past few months, as he takes down some of the country's hardest steep routes
We recently reported that Australia had a new hardest route with Tom O’Halloron’s Hump of Trouble, which he didn’t grade but said was harder than 5.14d. Also this month, Ryan Sklenica made the first ascent of Hartkäse and proposed the grade of 5.15a – making it one of the country’s hardest lines, if not the hardest.
Sklenica has a long list of impressive ascents to his name, including Cobra Crack 5.14 trad, Fiction 5.14d FA, Big Cheese 5.14+, Little Baby Cheese 5.14+, and many more.
Sklenica is originally from Tasmania, an island with bold trad routes and classic sea stacks. After qualifying to compete in Arco, he toured around Spain and France before settling on Vancouver Island. He went on to learn how to bolt and repeated two 5.14b sport routes before moving to Squamish. In fall 2020, he repeated several hard boulders, such as The Method V12, Frontside V12, Room Service V12, Squaminard Low, V12/13, The Deputy V12, Cacahuetes V12, and The Existential Detective V12.
Read an interview between Noah Walker and Sklenica from a few years ago here, and watch him make the first ascent of Fiction below.
Fiction 5.14d FA
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