Adam Ondra and the Style & Ethics of Pre-clipping


Is Adam Ondra the future of climbing? Yes. This video of him sending one of the hardest routes in the world, Chaxi Raxi, is great. Chris Sharma bolted this route and let Adam do the first ascent when he was around Oliana this spring. Chax Raxi starts out on a 30-foot blank face that contains a V14 boulder problem crux. Sharma had originally envisioned stick clipping a high first bolt due to how difficult the first 30 feet are, but Ondra wanted to climb the route from the ground, sans any pre-clipped bolts. He asked Sharma if it was OK to add a few more bolts to the route in order to make it possible to clip on the go; Chris said it was, and so that’s what Adam did.

This brings up an interesting bit of sport-climbing ethics–about what is fair and unfair. My personal opinion is that if you don’t have to stick-clip, you shouldn’t; however, it IS sport climbing, after all. The purpose of sport climbing isn’t about climbing dangerous terrain; it should be inherently safe (to a reasonable degree) in order to allow you to focus on the free climbing.

Style and ethics, however, are defined at the top, by the elite climbers, and it trickles down from there. They set the standards and rules by which the rest of us attempt to play. I don’t think Ondra means to make a big deal about whether or not you stick clip the first bolt; it’s his own choice. But I agree that it’s a prouder means of ascent–especially when he is stopping to clip amid V14 moves (which you can see at the beginning). When I was at Oliana this spring, and saw Sharma working on the bottom boulder problem, he came quite close to hitting the deck on a few falls, so it’s definitely impressive that Ondra keeps it together so well in this video through that section.

Then, there’s the runout Ondra takes at the top. He just totally goes for it, and risks huge falls, running it out like that. Pretty rad.

About The Author

Andrew Bisharat

Andrew Bisharat is a writer and climber based in western Colorado. He is the publisher of Evening Sends and the co-host of The RunOut podcast.

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Comments

17 Comments

  1. Avatar

    Maybe it’s just the way the video is edited, but it looks like when he’s starting the route he’s already clipped in standing at the base.  Where was the original high first bolt and where are the bolts that Adam added?  There’s a good bit of debate between my friends and I on the ethic of stick clipping.  If safety is an issue, I advocate the stick clip, but if I feel I can make it, I’ll take the proud send and clip the first bolt while climbing.

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    Maybe it’s just the way the video is edited, but it looks like when he’s starting the route he’s already clipped in standing at the base.  Where was the original high first bolt and where are the bolts that Adam added?  There’s a good bit of debate between my friends and I on the ethic of stick clipping.  If safety is an issue, I advocate the stick clip, but if I feel I can make it, I’ll take the proud send and clip the first bolt while climbing.

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  3. Avatar

    Maybe it’s just the way the video is edited, but it looks like when he’s starting the route he’s already clipped in standing at the base.  Where was the original high first bolt and where are the bolts that Adam added?  There’s a good bit of debate between my friends and I on the ethic of stick clipping.  If safety is an issue, I advocate the stick clip, but if I feel I can make it, I’ll take the proud send and clip the first bolt while climbing.

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     It looks like that first bolt can be clipped from the ground just by reaching, I think it is more there to keep him from having a nasty spill down the steep slope behind him than to protect a ground-fall…

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    You make some great points.  What Ondra does will definitely trickle-down, as it should.  I’m already reevaluating when to take my stick clip to the crag and when to leave it at home.  However, I certainly remember my first trip to Smith Rock, which was done without a stick clip.  Climbing the greasy opening of Wedding Day to reach the first bolt way above a concrete-hard landing felt way too much like old-school versus the sport climbing experience I had anticipated.  So the stick clip’s in for me at Smith.  I can also see stick clipping the first or even second bolt when projecting.  Why risk a tweaked ankle while learning the route?  But there’s no question that the send is prouder, ground up, no pre-clip.  What Ondra does is what we hope for from all top athletes: he shows, by example, what is possible. Not only in terms of difficulty, but style.

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     It’s pretty awesome that he clips during off those insanely tiny holds. Still wails like a wounded cow, though…

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    You scramble up onto a slab, and clip a bolt from there–that is what Ondra has clipped. He added that one, as well as the next bolt that he clips (which is above the bolt sharma had originally placed, and had envisioned stick clipping). 

    When I saw Chris working on repeating Chaxi Raxi (after projecting Fight or Flight), he was using it as a way to gain some power … and the clips looked quite hard … not to mention to moves.

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      I’m going to completely disagree with Ondra’s take on this.  It seems silly to make a sport route harder by adding difficult clips.  There are many ways to make sport climbs harder.  Hang your own draws (like someone pointed out on climbingnarc), put the bolts higher so you have to lock  off and clip high, climb it without chalk, or wearing flip-flops.  My goal when bolting climbs is to make the clips as easy and safe as possible so that you don’t have to think about it.  Just focus on the climbing.  If Ondra is saying that clipping adds difficulty then shouldn’t he clip every bolt instead of skipping every other one like he does and committing to the ‘rad’ runouts at the top?  It seems to be the very contradiction of what he did at the bottom. 
      I know this is a gray area and I do understand that pre-clipping the second or third is pretty weak in some cases but oddly, the length of a standard stick clip prevents this from getting too out of hand. 
      Then you have the issue of safety.  It sounds like you have to be kind of ‘brave’ to make the low clips on Chaxi, risking busted ankles if you blow it.  That is ridiculous in sport climbing.  How stupid would it be if the world’s best climber was laid up in the hospital from blowing a clip?  There are many climbs out there that can test your mental game; trad climbs, high ball boulders, gritstone ‘E’ climbs…but not sport climbing.  That’s why we, the collective climbing community, put the bolts in; to make it safe so you can focus on pushing difficulty without fear of injury.  In some sense that is the definition of sport climbing, right?  I don’t know but Andrew probably does.  I think he wrote a book about it or something 🙂
      Don’t get me wrong.  Ondra is the man and is so bad ass I can’t even comprehend it but I think that he could be standing at the top of a slippery slope.   

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        I agree, Mikey. I’m sort of with you on this one. Sport climbing should be safe–the bolts are there to allow us to focus on difficult moves. Clipping/gear should, ideally, not be a huge factor in the equation of redpointing a line. 

        There are examples of routes here in Rifle that were poorly bolted — Cantina Boy comes to mind. There used to be a difficult clip because the bolt was placed way out to the left, and people just climbed on it and the difficult clip became part of the sequence, so to speak. Lee Sheftel moved the bolt over so it was easier to clip it, and that created a tiny uproar because some people perceived that the route had almost been “chipped” in a way so that it’s easier. (Now, though, everyone has forgotten about that, and people enjoy the route more now than before — moving the bolt was an improvement).

        IT’s a dangerous slope, however — you don’t really want people to feel entitled to move a bolt just because they have trouble clipping it. Figuring out the clips is also part of the sequence … for better or worse. As you know, Mikey, it takes judgement, experience and vision to equip a route — what Ondra did may or may not shake out as a paradigm in this regard. 

        Ideally, it’s cooler to start on the ground, and just climb up, clipping the bolts as you go simply because I hate having to carry a stick clip, or remember to bring one.
        Also, it’s worth noting the additional hardware: two bolts had to be added to the face instead of just having one high bolt that you stick clip (which is still there, as far as I know), just to start on the ground and climb up. So now, there is a bunch of hardware that’s somewhat unaesthetic. I’m not afraid to stick clip. But I think it can be taken too far — like anything else. When you start having a 20-foot or 30-foot toprope on a 50-foot route, that seems silly, of course.But that’s what’s cool about climbing: people can do what they want, and what they do says more about them –their vision, their tolerance for running it out, etc. — than anything or anyone else  

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          Yup, I agree with everything you’re saying and I think one of the important points here is how it is specific to each route.  Limestone climbing is very different than the rock we deal with here at the New.  On endurance oriented limestone you may wander up the low slab clipping bolts before the pump sets in.  Some routes here require a very high stick-clip over a low roof to prevent heinous drag or to protect a V9 boulder problem off the ground over a jagged landing.  I’d say it’s easier to carry a stick clip to the crag than a crash pad.  
          I’ve established sport climbs along Summersville Lake that require a high clip of the first bolt about 15 feet up because the water rises in the summer and those low bolts would be underwater rusting.  Those are extreme examples of the different factors that route equippers look at when determining whether a stick clip should come into play and it certainly doesn’t always have to! 
          I may be coming off as pro-stickclip all the way and that’s certainly not the case but the way jens makes it sound over at 8a is that Ondra is setting a ‘no-stick clip’ precedent that is somehow ethically superior.  There are just too many factors to make a rule about it.  How about keeping the low bolts out of eyeline of hikers and birdwatchers?  That is something we’ve dealt with here and the NPS is all for it.  Visual impact is a huge deal with them as is safety.  High clips = less broken ankle rescues.  
          It’s a big world out there and setting a precedent or ‘rule’ for anything is the problem, especially in climbing. 
          Interesting historical note:  The stick clip reportedly has origins in the new river gorge region.  Gunks climbers used to call them ‘new river clips’ way back in the late 80’s.  I wonder who was the first to ‘cheat’ with a stick?  Did you come across anything when researching the sport climbing book Andrew?     

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            Ha, I’d never heard that … albeit I didn’t research the history of stick clips … It wouldn’t be surprising to me if the New was an origin of the stick clip since the New has lots of high first bolts and lots of sticks nearby as it’s engulfed in the woods.

            If we rely on Jens as a compass for style/morals/ethics in climbing, we’ll all be doomed–though, to his credit, he is bringing lots of stuff to the table that no one else cares to Debate/Jens.

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            Ha, I’d never heard that … albeit I didn’t research the history of stick clips … It wouldn’t be surprising to me if the New was an origin of the stick clip since the New has lots of high first bolts and lots of sticks nearby as it’s engulfed in the woods.

            If we rely on Jens as a compass for style/morals/ethics in climbing, we’ll all be doomed–though, to his credit, he is bringing lots of stuff to the table that no one else cares to Debate/Jens.

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            I was under the impression that the aid climbers came up with it in Yosemite- another tool for doing hard aid routes. Leavitt would know.

      • Avatar

        Good discussion and an interesting point… adding bolts now leads to ‘better’ style?  Oh this topsy turvy climbing game! 

        Reply
      • Avatar

        Good discussion and an interesting point… adding bolts now leads to ‘better’ style?  Oh this topsy turvy climbing game! 

        Reply
      • Avatar

        Good discussion and an interesting point… adding bolts now leads to ‘better’ style?  Oh this topsy turvy climbing game! 

        Reply

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