Watch Trailer to Adam Ondra’s Silence 5.15d Send

On Sept. 3, 2017, Adam Ondra climbed his long-time project in Flatanger’s Hanshallaren Cave and called it Silence 5.15d.

The 45-metre route had been dubbed Project Hard for years before his send. The 24-year-old called it Silence because a big part of his climb that day had to do with visualizing himself in his own world with complete silence.

Silence 9c, Flatanger, Norway. (formerly known as Project Hard). When I was climbing through the crux of this route, I felt like if I was in my own world, with my mind in complete silence, my body relaxed and flowing up the moves in complete harmony despite the extreme difficulty of the moves. When I reached the anchor, I wanted to scream, but I could not. Too overwhelmed to break the silence. pic by @bernardo_gimenez @climbflatanger @montura_official @lasportivagram @blackdiamond @mytendon @chimpbars @gardatrentino @ivavejmolova @pavelblazek

A post shared by Adam Ondra (@adam.ondra) on Sep 8, 2017 at 3:00am PDT

“When I reached the anchor, I wanted to scream, but I could not, too overwhelmed to break the silence,” said Ondra.

Silence is the most difficult sport climb in the world. To celebrate, Ondra jumped into the sea with his clothes on. Unfortunately, he couldn’t buy a beer to celebrate because you can’t buy beer in Norway on a Sunday.

When asked by Rock & Ice in this interview if Silence was at the absolute limit or is 5.16a possible in the near future, Ondra said:

“It might not have been my actual limit on the send try itself, but the extremely tiny margin I felt is not sufficient for 9c+ [5.16a], by miles.

“I have an honest opinion that this climb is 9c [5.15d], but I have no idea if it is low level 9c or medium 9c. It is definitely not upper end of 9c. I might climb something that could be on slightly higher level within 9c range relatively soon (a couple of years), but if I ever climb something as hard as 9c+, we are talking about a decade-long project.”