Melloblocco 08

Just returned from this years MelloBlocco shindig in Val di Mello, northern Italy - the fifth year this event has run. The bad news is - hard bouldering as we know it has just been kicked into touch by Adam Ondra - the Czech 15 year-old that has been dispatching all the hardest sport routes in Europe with worrying ease the last year or so.

Melloblocco attracted somewhere around 3,000 climbers to its terrible location of 'Northern Italian alpine valley beside a glacier river with brand new areas being discovered all the time'

I'm always a bit cynical of the new greatest things - the new font, the new Malc Smith, etc, but I have witnessed with my own eyes the thorough humiliation of the some of the worlds best boulderers at the hands of a scrawny kid with no discernable muscles !

Ondra did 6 of the competition boulders - the hardest of which was a stern (and I mean STERN) 8b. The 8a+ I watched him flash (watched also by wads like Thomas Mrazek, Michael Caminati, Andy Earl and Martin Stranek who had been sessioning the boulder without success for some time) was a revalation - no idea of the sequence, doing it all wrong, and still cruising to the top so smoothly it was un-nerving. The abject dejection on the faces of everybody who had been trying the problem as he topped out spoke volumes. This kid is taking climbing to a new level - no bulls**t. He doesn't really do much bouldering, prefering routes, so it was nice to see him having a try of something new!!!

The wunderkid himself, Ondra on Antropos, 8b

I spoke briefly to Toni Lamiche and Jerome Meyer who had spent 2 days working a horrific 8b that had not been repeated in 2 years. Apparently they too suffered the humiliation of looking on miserably as Adam p****d up it after a bit of work when he came over to see what they were up to on day 2 of the event. To quote Lamiche, "It's finished for us guys! This kid is the new school."

Adam could will be about to push standards in climbing through the roof - or he'll hit puberty, grow into a 7 foot beer monster with more time for ladies than rock and give up climbing for something more worthwhile.... by the time that happens though, he could well have done all the hard climbs and boulder problems in the world so it won't be a problem for him.

At some point I might try and locate a list of big names he beat at Melloblocco this year (off the top of my head... Mauro Calibani, Gabi Moroni, Michael Caminati, Thomas Mrazech, Jerome Meyer, Toni Lamiche, Patxi Usobiaga, Andy Earl, Christian Brenna...) - an incredible climber.

Percy