Adam Ondra, the Czech rock climber who’s considered the world’s best, was making quick work of the Dawn Wall—until he reached the crux.
It appeared that Adam Ondra was going to just waltz up the Dawn Wall—the 3,000-foot rock climb on the steepest, longest section of El Capitan in California’s Yosemite National Park.
The 23-year-old Czech rock climber, who is a World Champion sport climber and widely considered the best rock climber in the world, had been absolutely crushing the Dawn Wall since he began his bid to achieve its second free ascent at 1:30 a.m. on Monday, November 14. That morning, climbing through the dark and … More
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While the route setters quickly swapped the holds from the women’s superfinal for the men’s ones, Robeat and Trommelfeuer once again took the stage and treated the crowd to some amazing percussion/beatboxing. With the holds ready to go, Jan Hojer and Tomoa Narasaki made their way onto the stage. In front of a home crowd, Jan inevitably got the bigger cheer but all of Tomoa’s victories this year have come away from Japan, so he can cope just fine with or without the crowd supporting him.
Within 30 seconds of the super-final beginning, Tomoa had proved this again. He was already on top of the wall, with the buzzer pressed and his arms in the air having flashed the boulder.
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Jessica Pilz and Janja Garnbret were out first and it was a tense super-final which swung one way then the other, with both climbers coming close to reaching the buzzer, only to fall at the last move. With 90 seconds left on the clock, both climbers were on the crash mats, tired from their previous efforts but beaming broad smiles as the audience roared them on. Time ran out with both athletes on the wall but someone had to win so they climbed on! Finally, Janja reached up for the crucial top hold and as soon as she touched it, the win was a formality. She flopped onto the top of the wall, took a second to compose herself and pressed the buzzer to claim the adidas ROCKSTARS title, a week after taking the World Championship lead final. She is just 17 years old and her trophy cabinet is already rammed full.
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Powerful, dynamic and spectacular moves on vertical walls are guaranteed when the world’s best bouldering athletes meet for the season’s grand finale at the Porsche-Arena in Stuttgart, Germany on 25 and 26 September, fighting for the coveted adidas ROCKSTAR title.
The goal of competitive bouldering is to reach a hold that is marked as ‘top’ using as few attempts as possible. Apart from maximum power, dynamics and creativity, athletes need motivation and adrenaline to reach maximum performance in a competition, which is why this Master event combines white-knuckle competition bouldering with Rock ’n’ Roll.
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