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Sharma Sends Hardest YetPosted on: September 12, 2008 ![]() 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. advertisement
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. Sources: www.bigupproductions.com, www.climbing.com, www.ukclimbing.com
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wow! it's not a matter of will he do, its just a matter of when! i'm not sure i agree with the fact that chris pioneered the 5.15a grade however, i think it was adam ondra that was calling open air, a alex huber route, 9a+; and what about akira the fred roughling 5.15b. also, i don't think chris ever rated realization, i think his sponsors and other people did. i could be wrong, just food for thought. |
yeah. he rarely rates his ground-breaking ascents, though...he often just says, "hardest thing i've ever climbed." which, i guess, is the most honest way to put it. what else do we have to determine route grades by, past our own subjective judgement?