Adam Ondra, the best climber in the world before the most difficult wall in the world in a cave in Norway

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It was a decade ago when the Czech Adam Ondra, a myth among climbers, perhaps the best in history, appeared in

, in Flatanger, in central Norway, and discovered El Dorado there.

Countless extremely difficult walls, the most demanding routes in the world, the future of the specialty.

Before his arrival, the area was barely known, now history is being rewritten there.

"There is no place in the world like Flatanger.

I feel a deep connection with that cave and despite all the trips I have made there, of all the years that have passed, it never ceases to impress me," Ondra proclaims in a telephone conversation with EL MUNDO and it is no wonder.

In that corner of Norway, in 2012 he opened what was then the most complex route in history, the first with a grade 9b+, named Change, and in 2017 he doubled the bet with an even more complicated route, the first with a grade 9c, called Silence.

With those two milestones, the place would already be legendary, but now Ondra wants to take it even further with her most ambitious bet:

.

- Is it the most difficult wall that human beings have ever tried to climb?

- It's possible.

Project Big has always attracted me and, at the same time, intimidated me.

It's too big.

It scares me, but not because it could hurt me, but because it might take too much time.

I may never be able to complete it.

In case it succeeds, Project Big would be another step for rock climbing, the penultimate.

In the degrees of difficulty, which go from 1 upwards and are subdivided into six (a, a+, b, b+, c and c+), before Ondra set foot on Flatanger in 2012, only 9b had been reached.

Now it is estimated that this new route could be the first 9c+ ever, that is, three points above, although some specialized media have fantasized about the option of already reaching a 10a difficulty.

«No, no, I am far from the 10th.

In fact

.

If Project Big is the first 9c+?

It is possible, but I have to see it and assess it once it is on the wall", analyzes the climber, who will be the one who establishes the difficulty of the route in a sample of the nature of his sport: you do not compete to see who can do more, you explored and flagged for future testing by others.

The complexity of Project Big lies in its length, more than 100 meters, and in a central block of about 15 meters that Ondra himself believed to be insurmountable.

«In my first trips to Flatanger I already equipped a good part of Project Big because it seemed to me the hardest and most amazing route in the cave, but

From below, in principle, it was not visible where to go.

On the other hand, the following year I studied the possibilities again, I found a more direct line and it was magnificent.

Since then I think about doing it all the time," says Ondra, 29 years old and with almost a million and a half followers between his social networks and his spectacular YouTube channel, who will condense his attempts at Project Big next spring and then focus on the World Cup in Bern in August.

There he will look for his fifth title of all time, there he will claim revenge against the Spanish Alberto Ginés, who snatched the gold medal of the combined

against forecast , and there he will meet the Austrian Jakob Schubert, his partner in the Norwegian dream.

Because to face the most difficult wall in history, a few months ago, Ondra asked another specialist, Schubert, also several times world champion, for help, and he was delighted to accept.

- Is such a solo climb impossible?

- I don't think it's impossible, but working with someone so good helps a lot.

Last summer Jakob decided to come with me to Flatanger and it was great.

Trying such a hard wall with someone capable of doing all the possible moves is something unique.

I think between the two of us we will make it.

Whether he does it or not, yes, Ondra has already moved the epicenter of elite sport climbing to Norway to the detriment of Spain.

At the beginning of the 2000s, with Ramón Julián or Chris Sharma as references, the highlight of the outdoor specialty took place in the mountains of our country, especially in Catalonia, in the schools of

.

The best came there, including Ondra himself, in search of the most complicated challenges.

Now those challenges are in the Flatanger cave.

«It has been many years in Norway and I would say that I only have two routes left to do, Project Big and another.

If I get it, I'll have had enough.

I will look for new challenges far from there.

I will always be able to go back to the cave and feel the place, but I will do it with another approach”, Ondra says goodbye, a myth among climbers, perhaps the best in history, before the most difficult wall that he has never tried to climb.

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