Adam Ondra’s FA of Croatia’s Hardest Route

On September 28, Adam Ondra made the first ascent of Croatia’s first 5.15b (9b). Located in the limestone Vranjača cave, Ondra originally bolted the line back in August while on a short family trip. He wasn’t able to finish the line during that summer vacation so he recently returned to get the redpoint. He sent the route on his second day and named it B je to!  Ondra just released a new send film of his B je to! first ascent, which you can watch below.

On that first trip back in August, Ondra actually bolted two hard lines. After onsighting a slew of 5.13b to 5.14a routes in the cave, he made the first ascent of the easier of the two lines he bolted. He named the route A je to! (“It is A!” in English) after a popular Czech cartoon and graded it 5.14d/15a (9a/a+). The names A je to! and B je to! are both nods to his favourite Czech cartoon as well as a play on the grades of the routes.

On the same day he sent B je to! 5.15b, he also made the first ascent of an open project first bolted by Igor Čorko. Ondra named the line To je to! and graded it 5.14b. On his 8a.nu page, he called the route an “absolute king line”, sending it on his second go.

“A je to! is [a] super power endurance route without super hard moves, whereas B je to! has a very hard crux that makes this route so hard,” he said on Instagram, comparing his two new lines. “Second day of this trip, after a very hard fight in the crux, and still very close calls on the upper part, I clipped the anchor of this project.”

Adam Ondra B je to! 5.15b First Ascent