Via 27Crags comes word from the Italian site Alta Montagna that Adam Ondra has done the first repeat of Christian Core’s much sought after problem Gioia in Varazze, Italy. The problem was opened in 2008 by Core at a suggested grade of V15, but over time V16 seemed be thrown around more when referring to this problem. Based on the Alta Montagna article it seems as though Ondra agrees with the latter number.
This ascent comes on the heels of Ondra opening a potential V16 called Terranova at his home area just a few weeks ago. You can see more pictures of that problem in this gallery.
Update: Here are a few pictures taken of Ondra working the problem
zWHAT. I do hope there is video.
I know your reply is tongue in cheek, but the Italian site posted in the link breaks the problem down as 8B/+ into 8B so it could potentially be a hard 15 or soft 16 using the average equation.
Yeah, my bad. My ACTUAL guess is that it very well is V16, whatever the hell that means to us mortals.
I agree with Adam’s idea that rampant grade deflation is just as harmful as inflation. No one wants to have their v16 downgraded (Lucid Dreaming v15 and Woods calling the game v15 in retrospect) and it seems in vogue to downgrade hard problems versus expanding the grading beyond v15 or v16.
Adam’s got balls to stick to his guns with his grading v16 last month and now this. Plus, he is experienced enough that it isn’t unimaginable that it is v16. If people want to bitch about it, go climb it and then downgrade it yourself. Good luck though.
If I recall correctly, the point about “rampant grade deflation” was not Adam Ondra’s, but, rather, added commentary by a random person on the internet. Go back and check the comments.
My mistake and thank you for clarifying. Adam does comment that saying everything that is super hard seems to be regarded as 8C as though 8C+ could not exist. I think he is brave throwing the big v16 number around , though not frivolously, and standing by his honest opinion of the problem and not being influenced by his fear of having his v16s downgraded.
How Brave!
…and Humble!
Should get him one of these
I had seen pictures of Christian core and watched the video, but somehow I had never realized how steep it’s was until I checked out the pictures of Adam on it. Incredible.
Remember the OFFICIAL GRADE CALCULATOR is:
Grade = [log(w)*log(W)]/D*HS/2+T/RH+X
Where w = wingspan, W= weight, D= distance between holds, HS = relative hold size, T= temperature and RH = relative humidity. No ones knows what x is though. Shame about that.
Should the metric system be used for the variable values?
Video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8YOj33U1Bg
where does one get a brave and humble t?