Adam Ondra Retries Terranova V16
Ondra recently joined Jana Švecová for a session on his notoriously difficult first ascent that's yet to see a repeat
In November 2011, when he was only 18 years old, Adam Ondra made the first ascent of his first-ever V16 (8C+), Terranova. Located at the Holstejn area of Czechia’s Moravsky Kras, Ondra spent 12 days over two seasons working the problem before his eventual send. Now over 13 years old, the problem still hasn’t been repeated. Ondra recently retried the moves on his old FA during a climbing session with Czech climber Jana Švecová. You can watch them on the problem in the video below.
Terranova is by no means a five-star boulder, but it does contain some interesting movement on some unique holds. The line traverses through heinous crimps and pinches, passing the starts of several sport routes before ending at a drop-off jug. “Well, it is not not the most inspiring line,” said Ondra on his 8a.nu page after sending the line back in 2011. “It is a low [12-move] long traverse with interesting moves though, but climbs at the bottom of a cliff for sport climbing and ends up in a jug. Definitely not the way bouldering should look like. But I have been going around and looking [at] those tiny holds for ages and always wondering if it is climbable and this autumn I devoted myself to it.”
After not seeing much action over the past decade, a couple top climbers have started working it this year. Czech climber Jana Švecová did all the moves of Terranova in isolation after only two sessions. Because she’s much shorter than Ondra, she’s come up with new beta for key sequences. Švecová’s continued to make links but hasn’t been able to send the nails-hard problem just yet.
The problem is also and on-and-off long-term project for Will Bosi. He’s tried the problem on multiple trips to Czechia but hasn’t yet been able to solve it. “I haven’t sent it, so I don’t wanna say anything definitive about the grade, but I am confident that that is a [V17] boulder,” said Bosi in a recent Climbing interview about Terranova’s sandbagged grade. “In comparison to the [V16s] I’ve done, it is for sure a level above.”
