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The man who brought you the world’s first 5.15c and 5.15d, the first flash of a 5.15a, a blistering free ascent of the Dawn Wall, and countless ear-splitting power screams, Adam Ondra, has defied expectations once again. He just flashed the fearsome U.K. trad route Lexicon—a 5.14 R with 80-foot fall potential. (And, yes, the runout is at the crux.)
Lexicon (E11 7a) was first established in 2021 by the legendary all-arounder Neil Gresham, who had to level up nearly every aspect of his life, including his ballet performance, in order to send. At the time, he compared Lexicon to the trad-climbing equivalent of an Olympic gold. “I wasn’t going to achieve it with the approach of a keen amateur,” he said. “I would need to give everything.”
Soon after Gresham sent, a Who’s Who of cutting-edge trad climbers flocked to the Pavey Ark crag to have a go. Steve McClure, in his classic shoes-untied, laissez-faire style, quickly began giving redpoint attempts. He hadn’t dialed the route nearly as much as Gresham, but figured the nest of gear at two-thirds height would keep him off the deck should he fall from the top of the pitch.
McClure’s subsequent 60-foot whipper—caught by Gresham just barely off the deck—instantly became the stuff of lore among core trad climbers.
All this background makes Ondra’s flash attempt even more impressive. Ondra watched that whipper. He understood it was a fall that resulted from a glassy foot slip, and one which, theoretically, any talented climber could also take. He also understood there was still another three feet of very hard climbing above where McClure pitched off. He knew the margin of error on those crux 5.14 moves was basically zero.
Even so, Ondra couldn’t resist. He warmed up on sections of the neighboring routes at the crag, making sure to not look at any of Lexicon’s crux grips. Sure, he’d watched beta videos of others climbing it, and the holds had been freshly brushed and ticked for him, but he wanted to find some balance between non-lethal recreation and a proper adventure.
“After that, I racked up on the top ledge and speed-rappeled down along Lexicon, facing the lake so I would not get any view of the holds at all,” he wrote.
Warm, racked up, and ready, Ondra got a reassuring fist bump from Gresham and started up the route. “I got scared, I tried hard, my heart was beating, but I made it to the final ledge without testing that massive whipper,” he said.
Bravo, Adam. That was badass.