Project Big: World’s Hardest Sport Route?

Pretty awesome footage. I watched the film they put out last year (?) about projecting the route.

This discussion shows that there is no useful, objective metric for how hard a route is. # of attempts, # of repoint attempts, # of sessions, # of days, etc are all quite subjective useless without context. 

It seems to me that the only way to understand the difficultly of the route is to up your game to the 5.15 level and send it ...

Great job Jakob.

“I have never tried a route that much. This is actually the first lead route that I have tried and didn’t finish in one trip. Now I have almost tried it for two months.”
~Jakob Schubert

Jakob Schubert did not send this route the 6th time he tied in and got on Project Big. He had 6 live stream attempts, totally different. 

I can see an argument for it as a contender, given Ondras feedback regarding his experience and difficulty with the route. Other than that, I can’t shake a stick at those grades. What I did find completely bonkers was Jakob breaking off a rock while cruxing, lol.

hillbilly hijinks wrote:

This was very inspirational and caused me to buy another new set of draws, some cams plus shoes.

All in all it had a great effect on my climbing.

Not.

You know what is inspirational? Quoting on a topic just to say how little you care about said topic. Thank you for that.

Not.

Jakob Schubert - https://www.instagram.com/p/CxtCl5Lo58g/ 

TLDR - B.I.G., formerly known as project big, went at 9c

Took me a while to sort out my thoughts about my most important ascent so far.

I’d like to start with a huge shoutout to @adam.ondra for bolting this incredible line and inviting me to try it with him. It was such a cool process and in the end it does feel like a team ascent to me, since we helped each other so much and figured out the route much quicker that way. I‘d have never been able to send this beast without you, Adam and fully appreciate the effort that goes into finding and bolting such a king line Without a doubt, B.I.G is 5 stars and I can’t wait for more people to try it!

My reflections regarding the grade: When we started trying this route last year, I initially thought it could very easily be 9c, but after making a lot of progress very quickly and feeling pretty close on it after 2 weeks already, Adam and me both were pretty confident it’ll be 9b+. But somehow we tried a lot more and didn’t make much progress and in hindsight I don’t even think we were actually that close, because we were mostly struggling to stick the crux move and believed to be in for the send once that happens. Knowing how my attempts unfolded this season puts things into a different perspective, as I stuck that move four times without sending.

My reference for 9b+ is Perfecto Mundo which I sent in about 3 weeks of work and which felt way easier to me than B.I.G. The only other guy who tried B.I.G. a lot is Adam and I’m happy he shared all his opinions with me which definitely helped me draw my conclusions.

I felt at a point where I had found the most efficient way possible for me, the whole route was worked out perfectly and I didn’t see any room for improvement. So all that it came down to was my physical & mental shape which I think are very good right now. Given the current information that I have and considering Adam’s opinion, it feels right to propose 9c and I’m looking forward to see what time will tell. You can find some more specific thoughts on my profile on @thecrag_worldwide

Anyways, the one thing I know for sure is that it will always be one of my most memorable ascents 

Adam Ondra https://www.instagram.com/p/Cxvax5ft-F7 

TLDR - agree with 9c

I’ve seen a lot of speculation that Silence could be harder than 5.15d, and I tend to think this route could help confirm* that, especially after reading Ondra’s comments.

*As subjective as all climbing grades are, seems to be almost impossible to scale climbs at the cutting edge at this point.

Ben Silver wrote:

I’ve seen a lot of speculation that Silence could be harder than 5.15d, and I tend to think this route could help confirm* that, especially after reading Ondra’s comments.

*As subjective as all climbing grades are, seems to be almost impossible to scale climbs at the cutting edge at this point.

How do you arrive at this notion? Ondra sent Silence, Schubert did not. Schubert sent BIG, Ondra did not…Ondra’s comments also didn’t allude to anything harder than 5.15d, and in fact I could interpret them as BIG being easier than 5.15d due to Ondra’s comments…doesn’t he specifically say there is no move harder than like 8A+ and that it “might not sound like 9c to me”…?

“I punted after the crux so it must be harder”

 Damn, wish I could get away with that excuse

hifno wrote:

You know what is inspirational? Quoting on a topic just to say how little you care about said topic. Thank you for that.

Not.

The point, my friend, is that other's climbing should have no effect on your own. Especial big numbers because they are the most meaningless outliers.

Unique challenges like one arm, or severe disease, or difficult life circumstance are inspirational. Not another mutant's gift that 99.99999% of climbers will never have.

hillbilly hijinks wrote:

The point, my friend, is that other's climbing should have no effect on your own. Especial big numbers because they are the most meaningless outliers.

Unique challenges like one arm, or severe disease, or difficult life circumstance are inspirational. Not another mutant's gift that 99.99999% of climbers will never have.

Somebody sounds bitter. But hey, everyone poops, so who are we to tell you not to do it on Jakob Schubert

hillbilly hijinks wrote:

The point, my friend, is that other's climbing should have no effect on your own. 

How am I supposed to know what grade a climb is if other’s climbing has no effect on my own?

Unique challenges like one arm, or severe disease, or difficult life circumstance are inspirational. Not another mutant's gift that 99.99999% of climbers will never have.

Severe diseases are insipirarional?

hillbilly hijinks wrote:

The point, my friend, is that other's climbing should have no effect on your own. Especial big numbers because they are the most meaningless outliers.

Unique challenges like one arm, or severe disease, or difficult life circumstance are inspirational. Not another mutant's gift that 99.99999% of climbers will never have.

You know what else is inspirational? People telling other people what they should be inspired about. Bonus points if you can look down on other people's sources of inspiration because yours are more virtuous.

I find Martin Luther King Jr. and Mother Teresa inspirational. Top that!

hifno wrote:

You know what else is inspirational? People telling other people what they should be inspired about. Bonus points if you can look down on other people's sources of inspiration because yours are more virtuous.

I find Martin Luther King Jr. and Mother Teresa inspirational. Top that!

I’m inspired!

Look, I think you all should get back to sharing your stoke. There certainly is nothing wrong than that.

Climbing is fundamentally about overcoming adversity and personal limits be it one man's local choss or another man's Project Big. We might use subjective ratngs to come up with objective ratings for climbs...but that does not mean it isn't way harder for some than others. Everyone's limit is their 5.15C that day.

Take your joy where you find it but remember that someone overcoming ie severe life-threatening asthma to be a successful climber (by his own measure, no other's) might mean just as much as a new 5.15C by someone with every physical gift and sponsorship. They may have both worked as hard (perhaps in their own way) and you should take just as much time to recognize one as the other, imo. Then take that hard work by those seemingly ordinary around you overcoming their profound fears/challenges/circumstances and be as inspired to overcome your own limits which are likely assuredly far below some other's. 

But eventually, it's just you alone and your personal highest peak. Climbing is an individual journey we take and most often with the support of others. If you take the time to look, people all around you are "climbing 5.15" and are great sources of inspiration.  Don't assign value to big numbers alone. That is what I am trying to communicate.

J W wrote:

If you haven’t seen the livestream video of Jakob Schubert on Project Big (6th attempt), avail yourself of the opportunity. It’s an incredible bit of footage.

If it’s a given that Silence is the hardest previous sport climb and that Ondra initially chose to work Silence and postponed Project Big because it was too intimidating, is there a credible case to be made for a new world’s hardest climb?

Does it ultimately matter? Probably not. Just idle armchair speculation.

Props to Schubert, though. Project Big is no misnomer.

Project Big

Cool thread! It’s fun watching the world’s best climbers vying for the top spots.

Li Hu wrote:

Cool thread! It’s fun watching the world’s best climbers vying for the top spots.

I’m not sure that’s how it works…