Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson’s free climb of the Dawn Wall on El Capitan in 2015 was one of the most seismic achievements in rock climbing history. For 19 days, the pair grappled with this most iconic of big wall climbs, the first of its kind at the 9a (5.14d) grade. The climb and subsequent film captured attention way beyond the climbing world. Then, one year later, a 23-year-old Czech climber repeated the feat, free climbing the Dawn Wall solo in just 8 days. His name? Adam Ondra.
A prodigy widely held to be the finest climber of his generation, Ondra’s list of achievements is staggering. No one in the world has sent as many almost impossibly hard sport climbs, including Silence, the 5.15d (9c) route that may be the world’s most difficult. He’s simply prolific. Yet, Ondra doesn’t just dominate the world of sport climbing, he’s also one of the world’s best boulderers, as one of a handful of people who have climbed at the V17 grade, and one of the most decorated competition climbers too.
