I swear I have heard this same exact narrative at least 20 times… strong climber repeats hard stuff, but locked in with school or work, gets free, starts doing FA’s, expresses physical and mental stress, but ongoing obsession with the project, then the send. yaddah yaddah yaddah. Rate me down if you want, maybe I just need to stop watching so many climbing videos.
Obviously only Adam can know for sure, but from an armchair viewer’s perspective Change looks way harder than La Dura Dura. While you’d imagine Sharma, Woods, and a few others have the strength and power endurance to climb Dura Dura (after a ton of work of course), I can’t imagine anyone else besides Ondra right now who could do the crux sequences on Change.
I don’t know how you can think one looks harder than the other, just by watching video. Change certainly looks like it might favor a more flexible climber.
And it seems like everyone is assuming that that is the only way to do that move. Woods is a shorter guy, maybe he’d fit in there better have a different sequence, who knows?
I can’t even imagine how hard that route must be. I remember seeing I think Dave Graham say that it would be ridiculous (but possible in his opinion) to do just what Ondra did on this route, which is to do a V14/8b+ boulder in the middle of a long pitch of hard climbing. That is just insane! I can’t even concieve of how hard that must be. Big props to Ondra for showing that crazy ideas can be realized.
I am surprised to see so many comments about Woods. While he has done some hard sport routes (5.14d), he is primarily a boulderer. The grade that Ondra is talking about here is 15c, which is pretty much out of Daniel’s league at this point. Don’t get me wrong, Woods is crazy strong, but Change is still 3 full grades harder than his toughest send.
It’s not that surprising. Woods has climbed 5.15a, twice. And if we’re trying to think of a person who can climb a V14 boulder problem in the middle of a hard route, Woods is probably the most likely candidate other than maybe Chris Sharma. Just to have that crux be manageable, you would have to be one of the best boulderers in the world (which Ondra is). And of the top boulderers, Woods has shown probably the most inclination to be a really good route climber, with 9a+ redpoints and an 8c+ flash to his name.
I think y’all missed the most significant take aways from this video. Adam’s “Change” clearly refers to his belay candy that gets her own feature time in the film. Also shows us how to go hands free without backing up the gri gri while AO is in direct. Regardless, well played Mr. Ondra. Well played.
While the narrative was good, I would have liked to see more of the route. We mostly got shots of the same few sequences. Four stars.
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Seems like it’s pretty much a teaser for the movie.
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Really nicely done bit of filming; they did a better job of the storytelling than most short climbing videos.
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I think they also did a good job of showing us how absurdly hard that crux move is.
I would scream like a monster also, right after my shoulders exploded.
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I swear I have heard this same exact narrative at least 20 times… strong climber repeats hard stuff, but locked in with school or work, gets free, starts doing FA’s, expresses physical and mental stress, but ongoing obsession with the project, then the send. yaddah yaddah yaddah. Rate me down if you want, maybe I just need to stop watching so many climbing videos.
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Yeah, and then that climber establishes the new hardest route in the world, blah blah blah. Happens all the time.
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It’s pretty rare for someone to send a big project without actually projecting it.
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Obviously only Adam can know for sure, but from an armchair viewer’s perspective Change looks way harder than La Dura Dura. While you’d imagine Sharma, Woods, and a few others have the strength and power endurance to climb Dura Dura (after a ton of work of course), I can’t imagine anyone else besides Ondra right now who could do the crux sequences on Change.
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I dunno that crux looks alot like witness the fitness. Don’t underestimate the power of muscle memory and lots of free time.
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If I recall correctly, he described it as an 8b+ boulder problem (v14)…Which is certainly within the limits of many premier climbers at this time.
It’s doing it in the middle of a huge pitch, however, that favors Ondra.
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I don’t know how you can think one looks harder than the other, just by watching video. Change certainly looks like it might favor a more flexible climber.
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Disregarding who can do it, based on how uncomfortable it looks in the video, who would actually want to do that move???
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And it seems like everyone is assuming that that is the only way to do that move. Woods is a shorter guy, maybe he’d fit in there better have a different sequence, who knows?
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Ondra said La Dura Dura was harder than Change.
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I can’t even imagine how hard that route must be. I remember seeing I think Dave Graham say that it would be ridiculous (but possible in his opinion) to do just what Ondra did on this route, which is to do a V14/8b+ boulder in the middle of a long pitch of hard climbing. That is just insane! I can’t even concieve of how hard that must be. Big props to Ondra for showing that crazy ideas can be realized.
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I am surprised to see so many comments about Woods. While he has done some hard sport routes (5.14d), he is primarily a boulderer. The grade that Ondra is talking about here is 15c, which is pretty much out of Daniel’s league at this point. Don’t get me wrong, Woods is crazy strong, but Change is still 3 full grades harder than his toughest send.
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It’s not that surprising. Woods has climbed 5.15a, twice. And if we’re trying to think of a person who can climb a V14 boulder problem in the middle of a hard route, Woods is probably the most likely candidate other than maybe Chris Sharma. Just to have that crux be manageable, you would have to be one of the best boulderers in the world (which Ondra is). And of the top boulderers, Woods has shown probably the most inclination to be a really good route climber, with 9a+ redpoints and an 8c+ flash to his name.
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I think y’all missed the most significant take aways from this video. Adam’s “Change” clearly refers to his belay candy that gets her own feature time in the film. Also shows us how to go hands free without backing up the gri gri while AO is in direct. Regardless, well played Mr. Ondra. Well played.
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