Four time climbing world champion, Adam Ondra, met with AAU students at HUDY Boulder Karlín to give climbing tips, snap some selfies, and sign chalk bags, water bottles, and one suspiciously sweaty climbing shoe.
Renowned for his extreme body contortion that would alarm most chiropractors, Adam Ondra turned heads at the 2025 Climb World Tour on 9 April with his phenomenal climbing and even more mesmerizing shorter haircut.
“I don’t have much hair left anyway,” said Ondra when asked why he cropped his signature curly mop.
Fans of the champion were also presented with Ondra’s legendary grunts when conquering strenuous routes. Although the primal scream is trademarked as a laughing stock for the community, the U.S National Library of Medicine supports his exotic methodology with research by publishing in a 2022 study that shouting strengthens muscular exertion, forcing the brain to maintain the grips mid-climb.
Accompanying Ondra in this event was his son Hugo who will be 3-year-old in May—the same age as when Ondra started climbing. Hugo will have big shoes to fill: literally and figuratively. Following his dad’s size 44 footsteps meant feeling the pressure to defeat a 7b+ (V8 in U.S scale) by the age of 8-year-old.
Climbing routes and boulders are graded by difficulty using different systems. In Europe, the most common are the French Numerical System (Fontainebleau scale), which range from 1 to 12 with letters and +/- signs for finer distinctions. In the U.S., the V-Scale (Hueco Scale) is standard, ranging from V0 being the easiest to V17. While grading systems vary, all share the principle that higher numbers indicate harder climbs.
“Obviously I want my son to start climbing, that would be amazing,” said Ondra. “But we will see if he likes it.”
Crowned by Lacrux Climbing Magazine as “the better half of the world’s best climber”, his wife, Iva Ondra, took time off climbing to give birth to Hugo in 2022, but before that she was climbing 8c (V12) routes in addition to attaining her masters degree.
As of April 2025, Silence, a 48 meter cave-like climbing route in Norway conquered by Ondra, remains undefeated. Silence is the first sport climb route in the world with a grade that exceeds the climbing scale at 9c.
At 32-years-old, the Czech athlete will compete in his final professional boulder event from June 6-8 at the 2025 International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) Climbing World Cup in Prague and students are encouraged to purchase tickets to see the man soar before he shifts his focus to lead climbing and outdoor projects.
