Adam Ondra makes FA of Zvěřinec at hard F9b+
- Monday 21st November 2022
Adam Ondra has confirmed making the first ascent of Zvěřinec (Menagerie) F9b+ at his home crag Moravian Karst in the Czech Republic.
Describing his ascent Ondra said, “After struggling the last two weeks with conditions, today it was just perfect 👌 0 degrees of Celsius (32 °F), overcast, no wind, absolutely dry rock. With perfect warmup at my homewall, I could fight the cold temperature of the air and the advantage of the best friction.”
Ondra’s addition, called Zvěřinec in Czech, shares the crux with Perlorodka (Pearloyster), a route which he first climbed in 2011 and graded F9a+.Taking a striking line on his home crag Moravian Karst, Ondra described the main difficulties saying the route has an, “improbable crux at solid 8B+ difficulty with reachy moves and desperate slapping of the completely rounded lip of the overhang.”
Ondra originally, graded Perlorodka (Pearloyster) F9a+, however, he now believes it might well be worth F9b. His new addition, Zvěřinec (Menagerie), has a different start which he thinks would be worth F9a+ on its own. Following a rest, Zvěřinec (Menagerie) then climbs the crux of Perlorodka (Pearloyster). Overall, Ondra believes that the new addition is hard F9b+ and second only to Silence which he famously added at Hanshallaren back in September 2017.
In total, Ondra has now done a number of F9b+ first ascents; Change, La Dura Dura, Vasil Vasil as well as his latest offering, Zvěřinec. Of these, only Change and La Dura Dura have been repeated. In addition, Ondra has also added Move at Hanshallaren and although that was originally graded F9b/+ by Ondra, he and the second ascensionist Seb Bouin, thought that it could be soft F9b+.
Ondra confirmed that a video would be released of his first ascent of Zvěřinec in the new year.