First grit Font 8B flash goes to Adam Ondra
- Wednesday 25th January 2023
During a recent trip to Sheffield Adam Ondra made the first flash of a grit Font 8B – The Ace.
During a whistle-stop tour to Sheffield Adam Ondra once again made some impressive ascents despite an extremely full agenda. Although he was over primarily to climb with the WideBoyz – a.k.a. Tom Randall and Pete Whittaker – on both gritstone cracks and in Tom’s infamous cellar - Ondra managed to get some time out at Ben’s Roof, Raven Tor and the grit blocs at Stanage Plantation.
His objective at Raven Tor was the world-famous Hubble (F9a). That however was wet so Adam had to settle for an ascent of Fat Lip Font 8B. Originally climbed by Steve McClure, Fat Lip has the added advantage of staying dry given it traverses along the lip of Ben’s Roof.
Also during his trip, Ondra squeezed in a visit to Stanage Plantation. Accompanying Ondra at the Plantation were several other climbers including Will Bosi and Magnus Midtbø as well as Jerry Moffatt himself. The Ace adds a number of moves before the marginal sloppy crimp crux of The Joker. At the time of Moffatt’s original first ascent back in the early 2000s The Ace was one of the hardest gritstone blocs at the time taking Moffatt three years to complete.
Describing his flash of The Ace, Ondra said, “Freak moment! Executed just perfectly!” Moffatt was straight in to give Ondra his congratulations. Ondra’s flash of The Ace is the first time a grit Font 8B has ever been flashed. The same day Ondra also climbed Ron Fawcett’s classic highball nearby at the Plantation, Careless Torque (Font 8A). The tenuous highball climbing on that took Ondra a few goes before he finished it off and rounded off an impressive afternoon amongst some of the most famous boulders in the Peak – if not the world!
During Ondra’s short visit, he also climbed some of the classic routes at Stoney Middleton, Ray’s Roof (E7) at Ramshaw as well as calling into the famous sandstone traversing wall in Sheffield at Broomgroove Road and the School Room, Ben Moon’s training wall in Sheffield. Ondra was here with his videography team so much of what he climbed will at some stage be released in videos on his YouTube channel.