Sharma Sends First-Round First-Minute

After several seasons of work and repeated falls on the final move of his Margalef, Spain project, Chris Sharma was finally able to put this route to bed.  After years of effort, the project became mental for Sharma and the heavy publicity surrounding the route didn’t help.  Big Up had hours of footage of Chris falling at the last move and the project was soured momentarily by media hype surrounding Nalle Hukkataival’s visit and Sharma’s polite request for Nalle to try other projects while he was there. 

Chris on First Round, First Minute.  Photo: Pete O'Donovan

Having ones performance on a route so heavily scrutinized certainly doesn’t help the mental game but Sharma was able to put it aside, drop his expectations, and surprisingly send on a day he didn’t even intend to try the route.   After warming up in a different area the conditions got perfect, and with almost no one else around, Chris decided to give it a burn.  Sharma has not offered a grade for the route but based on the amount of time and effort he put forth, somewhere in the 5.15b range seems appropriate. 

Chris will be turning 30 this Saturday and he is still at the top of his game.  Congrats Chris!

Click here for great footage of Chris working the line.