BURSTOn October 23, Mejdi Schalck repeated Chris Sharma’s famous deep water solo Es Pontás in Mallorca, Spain. The 20-metre line ascends a stunning limestone arch feature over the Mediterranean. With Sharma’s first ascent in 2006, the line became the world’s first 5.15a DWS and one of the first 5.15a rock climbs anywhere. Sharma’s ascent was featured in the classic climbing film King Lines. Schalck just released a 33-minute film about his ascent, which you can view below.
Climbing ropeless above the roaring waves below, Sharma spent months attempting the route’s iconic seven foot dyno, splashing down at least 50 times before finally sticking it. He then then fell many more times at the even harder lip of the arch.
“Yesterday I sent Es Pontás, one of the hardest deep water solo in the world,” said Schalck on Instagram after his ascent. “After falling 6 times on the last hard [move] of the route in the past 2 sessions I sent it on my second go of the day. Another dream route ticked on my list, after this one I feel really hyped for more hard outdoors projects in the future and of course for some more deep water.”
Schalck’s ascent of Es Pontás comes after a successful trip to Squamish in August where he repeated another famous Sharma route, Dreamcatcher 5.14d. According to his 8a.nu profile, before Dreamcatcher, he had two other 5.14d’s to his name – Shortcut in 2020 and Bio Sharma Graphie L2 in 2023, both located in France. At 5.15a, Es Pontás is the 20-year-old French climber’s hardest outdoor route yet.
Mejdi Schalck on Es Pontás 5.15a
Chris Sharma’s FA of Es Pontás 5.15a
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