Silence

Grade: 9c (5.15d)
Style: Sport
Where: Hanshelleren cave, Flatanger, Norway
First ascent: Adam Ondra, 3 September 2017

Silence was the first route in the world graded 9c. It takes about 45 m of granite through the back of the Hanshelleren cave in Flatanger, rolling into a full roof, and Adam Ondra finished it on 3 September 2017 after more than four years and thousands of tries on the crux. Ondra has said that without its kneebars it would be 10a, not 9c.

History

Ondra first called the line Project Hard. As of 2026 it is unrepeated. Will Bosi has done the crux boulder, which he grades 8C+, and has climbed from its end to the top. His project is the second beta on this page.

The route

The route shares its start with Nordic Flower, then goes kneebar to kneebar.

Section	Ondra’s grade	Bosi’s grade
Start to the rope change	8b	8b
To the crux, with a boulder before the last kneebar	V7 boulder	8b+, with a 7B boulder
The crux, through an upside-down crack	V15	8C+
To the sloping jug	V13	8A+
Undercuts and friction slopers	V10	7B+
Finish to the chain	V5	6B

Adam Ondra’s beta

The 8b. A crimpy boulder at the start, a section of pinches to a first kneebar, then an undercut traverse on bad feet and a groove.
The rope change. A knee goes into the crack and the hands let go. The climber sits upright, no hands, while the rope is pulled through and clipped. Ondra spent about four minutes here on the send.
To the crux. A couple of metres with a whole leg in a crack above the head lead to a double kneebar, upside down from both knees. Then comes a physical V7 boulder to a bad kneebar, good for 10 to 15 seconds at most.
The crux. A sloping three-finger drag and a terrible foothold lead to the hardest move, a stab to a pinch with the little finger locked in. The body cuts loose and swings, and the left foot goes straight into a toe jam above the head, with no chance to adjust it.
Through the crack. Upside down from here, feet first through the roof: a bump to a sloper, another into a mono lock, then a slopey lock and an extreme drop knee.
The bat hang. Upside down, no hands, switching knees. A bat hang of 15 seconds in 2016 became minutes after a year of calf training.
The V13. A strange undercling beside the feet, a very high step and a big gaston lead to a decent edge and a flick to a big sloping jug. Ondra rested about 37 seconds there, in a heel-toe cam.
The V10. Undercuts and friction slopers on bad feet, up to a huge jug in the blocks of the roof, the last rest.
The V5. A big undercut with the feet up in the roof, a commitment to an angled edge, a high heel, and a long reach to the jug. Then the chain.

Will Bosi’s beta

Bosi has not sent the route, so this is his project as he describes it. Where he says nothing, the page’s file follows Ondra.

The toe jam is on the right foot. He swings completely upside down, walks his feet and places it slowly. Most of his falls happen there.
There is no drop knee. He and Stefano Ghisolfi climb the top half of the crux differently, and the file only draws it on the crack’s holds.
He has extra steps, because he cannot reach what Ondra does: an intermediate foot before the bad kneebar, an undercut flake after it, and a sloping hold before the final jug.
He has his own kneebar off an undercut in crux two, before jumping to the sloping jug, which makes the next section much less of a crux.
He swaps legs in the rope change, where he has stayed 10 minutes.

Open it in the app

Open it in the web app with the button below, or download the file and import it into Broken Crimp. Either way, step through both betas move by move and slow them down. You can also compare them on the same wall. A new install of the app starts with this climb.

Open it in the web app Download the .beta file

Sources

An unofficial reconstruction, put together from the public sources above. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the climbers or sources named, and it is no substitute for your own judgement on the rock. See the Terms of Use.