Highlights include:

Route description: The technical crux is a six-move boulder problem, “about 8B+,” or V14, in the first 12 meters of the route. After a “pretty decent” rest at 20 meters, the route continues with a 6-meter bouldery section, followed by continuous climbing all the way to the chains. “I’d say that on many sections of this route I was completely at my limit,” Ondra told Planet Mountain.

Redpoint crux: Although the route gets easier the higher you get, Ondra had to fight the hardest after the second boulder problem. He said he nearly fell off at the second-to-last bolt during his successful redpoint.

Working the route: Ondra put three weeks into the climb this summer, and another two weeks in the fall, the longest he had ever worked a route.

Grade: After he sent the first crux and felt “fresh” on the second section’s crux passage while working the climb, Ondra thought the route might be “only” 9b. [He has climbed at least five 9b (5.15b) routes before.] “But in the end I kept falling off that first section so often, it became such a demanding process both physically and mentally that I believe it is significantly harder than all the other 9b’s I’ve done,” he said.

Click to read the full interview at Planet Mountain. Click here to see video of Ondra attempting the V14 technical crux on the first part of Change.

Date of Ascent: October 4, 2012

Source: planetmountain.com