Adam Ondra Flashes One of the Hardest Trad Climbs in the World

Adam Ondra just announced that he flashed Lexicon E11 7a in Pavey Ark, U.K. The route was established by Neil Gresham in early September 2021 after a year of on-and-off projecting and specific training. In an interview with UKC, Gresham described the difficulty of Lexicon as a “[5.14a] with 80-foot fall potential from a last move crux and the promise of a hard strike.”

Steve McClure made the second ascent a couple weeks after Gresham’s FA, and Dave McLeod made the third in March 2022. Later that year, Mat Wright and James Pearson also repeated the line. Ondra’s ascent is very likely the sixth.

“It was truly a special day and a moment in the UK, alongside the first ascensionist [Neil Gresham], who was on a very responsible belay,” said Ondra on Instagram. “I got scared, I tried hard, my heart was beating, but I made it to the final ledge without testing that massive whipper.” You can watch McClure take an absolutely gigantic whip in from the crux in the video embedded below.

As always, Ondra was very clear about his climbing ethics, describing exactly what he did prior to his flash attempt. “I would like to explain precisely the style that I used,” he said. “I watched all the videos available on the internet, but mostly focused on the footage of Neil Gresham. It was Neil who first rappelled down the route, cleaned and chalked it up for me. Then, I rappelled down from the top approximately 8 meters to the right of Lexicon along the route Astra and watched Neil explain to me how to place the gear in the break and the moves in the upper headwall of Lexicon. Then I climbed back up to the top ledge and warmed up on the finger board. I was lowered down by [Craig Matheson] to the crux of Sixpence E6, looking to the right and ignoring the view towards the holds of Lexicon.

“I started just above the break of Lexicon, doing the 3-meter crux of Sixpence and stopping just before I could touch or look into the final slot hold of Lexicon. Then I swung right to finish my warm-up by doing the final moves of Magical Thinking. I did this twice to warm up. After that, I racked up on the top ledge and speed-rappelled down along Lexicon, facing the lake so I would not get any view of holds at all. After a short moment of concentration, I set off. Stay tuned, the video will be amazing.”