Video-Link: https://youtu.be/NXe7d4ouRpg
Jernej Kruder klettert Es Pontas (9a)
Es Pontas (9a?) was set up by Chris Sharma in 2006 after 3 years of working on the route. The line got popular by showing his ascent in the movie „King Lines“ by BigUpProductions. Many climbers have tried to do the second ascent since then, but no one succeeded – until Jernej Kruder showed up in October 2016 and repeated the route after just 39 tries. He agreed to Chris Sharma in not putting a grade on the route: „I’ll just stick with Chris‘ words: This thing is so specific. For sure it’s about 9th grade, but there are so many different factors. Like the dyno. If there are 200 people in the world climbing 9a, maybe just 10 percent of them can do it. Then there is the fear factor. The mind battle of trying it all over again without knowing if you’re able to do all the moves or not.“
Congratulations to Jernej Kruder for doing the second ascent on this extraordinary king line!