A run of good RRG luck continues –
Mélissa Le Nevé + Cardwell and Ondra

Red River Gorge is definitely a place to be right now. Seems like one can really push their limits with such group of strong climbers from all over the world. The spirit is said to be amazing and it obviously goosed some of the visitors to make their life ascents. We have already provided you with some news about a wave of great achevements started by Ashima Shiraishi and maintained by Adam Ondra, Daniel Woods and Cédric Lachat.

We knew that there was going to be even more world top climbers travelling to Red River and after male conquests we’ve been waiting for some good news regarding particularly female ascents. And here it is: as it was reported by 8a.nu, French athlete Mélissa Le Nevé, known first of all for her boulder achievements (check out our interview!), had presented her rope climbing skills. Not only did she make the onsight ascent of Ultra Perm 8b but also redpointed 50 words for pump 8c (+).

 

Mélissa on 50 words for pump 8c (+)
(photo: Aurelíen Tíxíer/melissaleneve.blogspot.gr)

Mélissa wrote at her blog that she came close to sending the route already two days before but she fell on the very last hard move. Then, she moved to the Chocolate Factory sector and met Adam Ondra who was just about to go and make the onsight ascent of Golden Ticket.

"Just before going, I felt really a lot of energy and excitation growing around him like an aura. He made an incredible try on it, fighting like I have never seen (…) !” – she reports.

According to Mélissa, watching the Czech athlete making one of the best ascents in his life motivated her to such an extent that she managed to clip her rope into the 50 words for pump anchor already in the first try of the subsequent climbing day.

 

Mélissa on 50 words for pump 8c (+)
(photo: Aurelíen Tíxíer/melissaleneve.blogspot.gr)

Seems like Adam is curretly also a good fairy of the spot since also Jon Cardwell decided to check out whether the project he’d been working on with Daniel Woods, would this time go easy on him the same way it did few days ago on Woods. Southern Smoke Direct (9a) indeed gave in and thus the American became the fourth conqueror of the line.

And as we hold Adam Ondra responsible for all that fuss it is worth mentioning that, according to Peter Lundgren,  the young Czech bolted a new route between Pure Imagination and Golden Ticket. The first ten meters of the line include "four or five boulder problems that [Adam – ed. note] could only imagine doing individually", which clearly explains why he used the "Lifetime project” term to describe the difficulty of the line.

 

Sources: melissaleneve.blogspot.gr, 8a.nu, imgur.com/a/M2JEf