Adam Ondra


Adam Ondra is a Czech professional rock climber, specializing in lead climbing and bouldering. Rock & Ice magazine described Ondra in 2013 as a prodigy and the leading climber of his generation, Ondra is the only male athlete to have won World Championship titles in both disciplines in the same year. He is also the only male athlete to have won the World Cup series in both disciplines.
Ondra started climbing at the age of 6. At age 13, he climbed his first route graded. Rock & Ice reported that by 2011, Ondra was "onsighting 5.14c’s by the handful", and by 2013 had "more or less repeated every hard route in the world—easily". As of November 2018, Ondra had climbed 1550 routes between grades and, one of which was a, three were, and three were onsights of.
Ondra is famously the only climber to have redpointed a route with a proposed grade of , the first climber to have redpointed a route with a proposed grade of , the first to flash a route, and the second to onsight a route. According to The Economist, Ondra is "regarded as possibly the best climber ever to fondle rock".

Biography

Ondra started climbing at the age of six; his parents are climbers and they shared their passion with him.
In 1999 in Rovinj, Croatia, Ondra easily climbed a route with bolts every half meter. Soon he became famous in climbing magazines, as his achievements quickly grew more and more notable:
In 2007 and 2008 he won the IFSC World Youth Championship, category Youth B.
In 2009, at age sixteen, Ondra competed for the first time in the Lead Climbing World Cup, winning ahead of Spanish Patxi Usobiaga and Japanese Sachi Amma.
In 2010, he won the Bouldering World Cup, ahead of Austrian Kilian Fischhuber and Japanese Tsukuru Hori, becoming the first athlete in history to win the World Cup in both disciplines.
In March 2011, during a trip to Spain, Ondra became the second person ever to have onsighted after Patxi Usobiaga. In only a few days he onsighted five routes, including two on the same day).
On October 4, 2012, Ondra redpointed Change, in the Hanshelleren Cave, Flatanger, Norway. It was the first route to receive a proposed grade of.
On October 29, 2012, Ondra flashed one of the Red River Gorge's hardest routes, Southern Smoke Direct, suggesting the grade of. On November 1, he onsighted Pure Imagination and The Golden Ticket, both 9a, suggesting the grade of 8c+.
On February 7, 2013, Ondra sent La Dura Dura, in Oliana, Catalonia, Spain, his second after Change. He worked on this project with Chris Sharma and the first ascent took Ondra nine weeks of work.
On February 9, 2013, just two days after La Dura Dura, Ondra succeeded in the second ascent of the Fight or flight, first climbed by Sharma in 2011.
On July 9, 2013, Ondra realized the second onsight in history after Alexander Megos, with the ascent of Cabane au Canada in Rawyl, Switzerland.
On November 21, 2016, Ondra completed the second free ascent of The Dawn Wall, a multi-pitch route at El Capitan in the Yosemite Valley. The route is widely regarded as the hardest big wall in the world. Ondra was also the first person to lead every pitch. The first free ascent was completed by Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson in January 2015. They needed 19 days to complete the route, while Ondra needed only 8 days.
On April 23, 2017, he set a new highpoint of the Black Diamond Project in Stockholm, Sweden believed to be the hardest indoor sport route in the world.
On September 3, 2017, after about 4 years of trials, Ondra climbed Silence, in the Hanshelleren Cave. At that point, the route was unclimbed and widely considered to be the most difficult project in the world, together with Le blond, a route which is still unclimbed, bolted by Chris Sharma in Oliana. Silence was the first route to receive a proposed grade of. The route was previously known as Project Hard.
On February 10, 2018, Ondra realized the first flash of a confirmed 9a+ route with his ascent of Super Crackinette in Saint-Léger du Ventoux, France. The route was first climbed by Alexander Megos after 3 days of work in 2016.
On November 12, 2018, Ondra onsighted Just do it, a historic 8c+ route bolted by Alan Watts in 1989 and first ascended in 1992 by Jean-Baptiste Tribout. At that time, Just do it was considered the hardest route in the U.S. It is a long slab with many tricky moves and small holds hardly visible from the ground. This kind of classic route is considered to be particularly difficult to onsight, by both Adam Ondra and Alan Watts.
As of 2019, Ondra is working towards qualifying for the 2020 Summer Olympics. He failed to qualify at the 2019 IFSC Climbing World Championships as he was disqualified for accidentally toeing a bolt during the lead climbing portion of the combined event. However, at the Olympic qualifying event in Toulouse later that year, he managed to secure his selection for the Olympic games even though he fell ill after making it through to the finals of the event.

Rankings

Climbing World Cup

Climbing World Championships

Youth
Discipline2007
Youth B		2008
Youth B		2009
Youth A
Lead111

Adult
Discipline2009201120122014201620182019
Lead2331121
Bouldering-2-12176
Speed-70---8158
Combined-----218

Climbing European Championships">IFSC Climbing European Championships">Climbing European Championships

Rock Master

Number of medals in the Climbing European Youth Cup

Lead

Number of medals in the Climbing World Cup

Lead

Bouldering

Single-pitch routes

The table below shows the large number of routes graded or more ascended by Adam Ondra in about 16 years, from August 2, 2002 to November 10, 2018.
The total number is 1554, of which 1 was at and 725 were onsighted, including 3 onsights at and 1 flash at.
GradeRedpointFlashOn-sightTotal
11
33
2020
39140
10123106
124121146
110161172
96485185
10819143270
8217207306
6535205305
Total749807251554

Redpoint

On-sight

Boulder problems

Ondra won the bouldering gathering Melloblocco in 2008, 2009 2010 and 2011.
He climbed 293 boulder problems between and. Namely:

Multi-pitch routes