Adam Ondra makes history by flashing Lexicon (E11 7a)
- Monday 19th May 2025
Red-hot news from Langdale in the Lake District is that Adam Ondra has flashed Lexicon, Neil Gresham’s E11 7a Pavey Ark testpiece, in what is the sixth ascent.
The idea of flashing Lexicon was first mooted by James Pearso,n who made the fifth ascent back in June 2022. At that time, James attempted the route in what was for many a controversial “flash method” having previously abbed down the route and inspected the holds. Although James’ “flash” attempt didn’t succeed, he was able to repeat the route ground-up on his fourth attempt, showing that someone strong enough might one day make a flash ascent. Arguably, James' thoughts and own ascent of Lexicon was a crucial step that, in part, paved the way for Adam to make his own flash ascent.
Writing online after his ascent, James summed up his thoughts saying, ‘It's definitely possible to ground-up it and I think someone who's really strong could flash it without any sort of pre-inspection. It's still totally possible. If you've got a 9a flash level and you're trying to flash 8b+, you've got tons of margin for taking the holds wrong.’
James’ 2022 prediction has now proved to be extremely accurate, given Adam’s flash of Lexicon. In the rarefied atmosphere that the world’s top-end climbers operate, style – in this case, the purity of the flash - is not only of interest but important. Recognising this point, Adam described in some detail his approach to and preparation for Lexicon saying:
‘On a side note, I would like to explain precisely the style that I used. I watched all the videos available on the internet, but mostly focused on the footage of Neil Gresham. It was Neil who first rappelled down the route, cleaned and chalked it up for me ✌️
Then, I rappelled down from the top approximately 8 meters to the right of Lexicon along the route Astra and watched Neil explain to me how to place the gear in the break and the moves in the upper headwall of Lexicon. Then I climbed back up to the top ledge and warmed up on the finger board 💪 I was lowered down by @craigmatheson_climber to the crux of Sixpence E6, looking to the right and ignoring the view towards the holds of Lexicon☝️
I started just above the break of Lexicon, doing the 3-meter crux of Sixpence and stopping just before I could touch or look into the final slot hold of Lexicon. Then I swung right to finish my warm-up by doing the final moves of Magical Thinking. I did this twice to warm up. After that, I racked up on the top ledge and speed-rappelled down along Lexicon, facing the lake so I would not get any view of holds at all.’
Back in 2018, Adam Ondra made history becoming the first climber ever to flash F9a+ when he made the first flashed ascent of the Supercrackinette (F9a+) at Saint Leger. Now, seven years later, Adam has made the hardest ever flash of a trad route at E11. Also this year, Adam has flashed three Font 8B+ boulder problems as well as repeating Soudain Seul (Font 9A) at Fontainebleau.
Ondra’s current climbing form is hitting new heights - even for him! It is interesting to speculate now that Adam is concentrating more and more on outside climbing objectives rather than indoor competitions, what else he might be able to achieve in the near future. Is it possible that this year we might see an F9a+ on-sight or a F9b or a Font 8C flash? Time alone will tell, so watch this space – as the saying goes!
Finally, Adam’s Lexicon flash was filmed for a YouTube video.