Chris Sharma on his newest–yet unnamed and ungraded–250′ sport route at The Monastery, Clark Mountain, California. Some, including Sharma himself, consider it his most difficult send to date. [Photo] www.bigupproductions.com
Chris Sharma has completed his single-pitch, 250-foot sport project on the limestone of The Monastery, on Clark Mountain in southeastern California. Having made breakthrough progress on the route more than a week before, Sharma was successful in its completion on Thursday, September 11. “[Sharma] owned every hold, did every sequence exactly right, and topped out his hardest, proudest route,” reported filmmaker Josh Lowell on the Big Up Productions website.
The yet-to-be-named route on Clark Mountain’s Third Tier was first devised as a three-pitch route by Randy Leavitt more than a decade ago. Sharma, placing new bolts and reworking the route over a period of a year and a half, consolidated it into a single pitch to up the ante.
Sharma pioneered the 5.15a grade with Realization in Ceuse, France in 2001. Since then he has established numerous difficult sport and deep-water-solo climbs, though his recent accomplishment at Clark he considers “for sure the hardest route he’s ever done,” Cooper Roberts said.
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