Sharma Sends Hardest Yet

Chris Sharma on his newest–yet unnamed and ungraded–250′ sport route at The Monastery, Clark Mountain, California. Some, including Sharma himself, consider it his most difficult send to date. [Photo] www.bigupproductions.com

Chris Sharma has completed his single-pitch, 250-foot sport project on the limestone of The Monastery, on Clark Mountain in southeastern California. Having made breakthrough progress on the route more than a week before, Sharma was successful in its completion on Thursday, September 11. “[Sharma] owned every hold, did every sequence exactly right, and topped out his hardest, proudest route,” reported filmmaker Josh Lowell on the Big Up Productions website.

The yet-to-be-named route on Clark Mountain’s Third Tier was first devised as a three-pitch route by Randy Leavitt more than a decade ago. Sharma, placing new bolts and reworking the route over a period of a year and a half, consolidated it into a single pitch to up the ante.

Sharma pioneered the 5.15a grade with Realization in Ceuse, France in 2001. Since then he has established numerous difficult sport and deep-water-solo climbs, though his recent accomplishment at Clark he considers “for sure the hardest route he’s ever done,” Cooper Roberts said.