This is a video I never thought I'd be able to
make. Adam Ondra is undoubtedly the best climber of today's generation, but how does he compare
to the past generations? If there was only a way to travel back in time to compare.. and there is,
because in Sheffield there is a well-preserved time capsule in climbing history. They call it
the school room and it has remained identical for over 30 years. This was the testing
ground of Ben Moon and Jerry Moffatt, who were the strongest climbers in the world
back then. They were the first generation to take training seriously and without them
climbing would not be what it is today. This was known as Pod's wall, so there's
a climber called Pete and he found it. That was in the late 70s. I started climbing in 1980 and it was already known, Pod's Wall
was the place to go. Was this before the gyms? There were no gyms here at that time
yeah many years before gyms. So you guys were the best in the world.. was it like 25
years ago? Yes 30 years ago. Yeah and even though it was a long time
ago we still feel like we're the best. Once you've been there you're always there. Yeah
that doesn't go away. I agree yeah. We're still there yeah and Adam is currently the best, so I think
it's going to be interesting to see how he does on some of your tests pieces. We're gonna crush him.
Yeah at the end of the day he is going to be in tears, those guys were so good and I'm so bad, that's what's gonna happen today. But back everything was about endurance and bouldering really wasn't a thing, so if you'd done the hardest boulder problem in the Peak District and you phoned up the magazine
and said I've got some photos this is the hardest boulder problem they'd say we're
not interested throw your photos away, we're not we're not going to print that,
nobody's interested. Then you get that, Then you can pinch that thing to get that thing, get that, up to that and then go up there. So this is all the training that
you did? Yeah it was this and pull-ups and remember somebody saying to me one winter in
fact it was Pete, he said pull-ups are really good for climbing and I remember thinking
pull-ups? I'm going, really? I thought well I don't really believe it, but I'm going to try it for
one winter. And I had one winter and I just did loads of pull-ups. That's all we did, pull-ups, loads and loads of pull-ups. And then at the beginning of next year we went to Stony Middleton and the top rope route we used to do for training was Wee Doris and
I couldn't believe it. Instead of going like this I was like.. That's when I started to think that training
worked, because before then there was a question- mark on does training really work, or is it best
to just go climbing every day? People are obsessed with training these days aren't they, but climbing is still a very technical sport isn't it. Yeah and what is training? I mean climbing is also training. Yeah. First time you are here, could you climb the
Traverse in one session? No, no way, in fact back in the day I don't know anybody who could do this in
one go so you're a pretty good climber to do it. Like this? Yep, you can do it that way, if you're going up there you might as well do it that that way. Yeah and then match
with your left hand and then where do I go with my..? Foot holds are down here. Okay. Up here is really good. You can get shake out just above it. Just a bit further. Right is good. Your fingers are quite strong. He's done 9b+ Jerry. No that's the other guy, that's the tall guy. Dropping right down there. Your foot is a
really good foot holds. Here on these things. Okay. So Adam is going to try to onsight this. It's a
lot easier when I have someone showing me the holds. And then the other one you can do is
you can get your right hand there and your left hand there. This is your last shake out and then this is the crux bit.. the next bit. Yeah crimp that. Crimp that one and get this it's a real .. Awww I had no feeling. Aww I wanted you to do that. You had it! Oh no he's doing it too easy. I'm surprised
your fingers look quite strong Adam. You feel the pressure? Absolutely. He did that because his fingers are so bloody
strong, that is not the easiest way to do it. Oh yeah this is the one I remember it. So we're still just warming up right? Yeah, well
Adam's at his limit already. Yeah that didn't look like a warm-up anymore. All right everybody looks pretty equal in power at the moment. I think you're edging it at the moment Ben a little bit. Looking a little bit
stronger. And some of the hardest problems you're going to show us is around 8A+? I think 8A+, probably, or I suppose Perky Pinky gets 8B, but when you graded those problems that was like
20 years ago there were no.. 8B was kind of the hardest. You wouldn't grade something 8B, really would you? That would be the same as Adam grading an indoor problem 9A or something, or 8C+. Yeah you know you wouldn't grade something 8B. You just wouldn't do it. You'd just think that's not possible, even
though it's taken you.. you know 10 times longer than another 8B, or another 8A+ and you know
you might do one 8A really easy and you might spend two weeks on one, you go "still 8A". I think
one of the other difference when you're going outdoors bouldering now it's just so easy to get
the beta. I think I was watching some of the 7C's you did in Font, you're using like really hard beta just.. Yeah, yeah. Well back then it was hard to find the boulder problems. And there was a bit of a rivalry between France and and Britain at that point..? A
friendly rivalry. Haha okay. Did you make any money off of climbing because I remember in the real thing
you were driving around in like pretty nice cars. Was it hard back then? No, piece of piss haha. It was okay to be honest, you know I think for what you had to do for your sponsorship compared
to now. You had to go to a trade show talk yourself up show a lot of photos, write
stuff in magazines and the prize money for climbing competitions was pretty good. The prize money, a lot of the competitors who train down here.. I was talking to some recently about prize money and it's less now than it was back in our day. And also, we got paid travel expenses to go to the comps by BMC and now they don't even get
that, so it's gone backwards. The top prize money was Bercy that was 5000 pounds, but
5000 pounds back then.. you could buy a house for 20 000. There was no social media back then so it was all about getting into magazines you know. But that's
still, like when I grew up there was also not social media you know, so the sponsors would ask
for your resume like what's your hardest grade, how well have you done in competitions and stuff.
And now it's more about numbers on social media. Yeah. Wow. I mean for me it's good, but it's bad for the industry maybe, because it will squeeze out a lot of talented climbers. Yeah. Who are not good at social media. Yeah. What about that um "Pego's gone to" that's a classic as
well isn't it. Oh that's a classic. 36, 51. Come on. Easy, come on. You had that. Then you could go footless
if you want. 52. 52? No 5.. No 54! I gotta say Ben you look pretty strong, I think you made that look easier than Adam. I mean you've done it many
times before. I've done it a lot yeah. I can feel the pressure. All the cameras.. I felt the pressure as well,
that's why I fell off. With all the filming we did in The Real Thing,
because it was filmed on 16 mm you really felt pressure because it was 100 pounds for three minutes, so every time they went, go! And you're just thinking oh my God. And we all split the money. It was three-way split so all of us are chipping
in for it and you're just.. quiet please, quiet on set And then uh..? Now there's power. Come on! What do you think of the new generation so far, does he look strong? Don't like campusing. We're still warming up. Come on, oh you hit the wall! I would
be super psyched if I flashed this. Actually like a hardcore 7C+ from 25 years ago. Tyler Landmann flashed it, when he was like 16. Oh he did. And Adam flashed it now too. And Megos flashed it. Wow. You would join royalty. Oh wow! Yeah, joining the group. I like that
body power shake. You've got to be bloody strong for that. Every move like. So this is one of the real thing..
Yeah, oh God I hated this! I watched the real thing probably 20 times
and I rewatched it yesterday and there's so many things I would still remember, so like to
to climb on this now it's uh, it's very cool! Well this was probably done in 1993 this problem. That's really weird. Isn't it just better to hold
it like that? This stuff is ______ awkward, the first bit bloody horrible. It's all about getting that thing correctly. So how many people have you seen do this problem? Alex flashed
it, um probably Aiden Roberts I'm guessing. Probably not many. I do feel pressure, for sure yeah.
Do you want me to try the first couple of moves? All right. Yeah do that. yeah all right. Especially when you hear that Alex pissed up it. Hahah Nearly. Haha, but you made the first move look
really easy. Yeah, so then step through. Oh nice! Wow. Come on! Right foot on the spiky one. Come on, yeah easy. No, no. You didn't quite get that one right, did you? if I placed the foot straight away. I don't think you got that one quite right, did you. That's good. That was a historic moment. Yeah, it doesn't matter.
The thing is. The thought that somebody would come and flash this back then would
be ridiculous. It would be ridiculous. The thought of somebody coming trying to do it first go and being annoyed that they fell off it, it's just insane. Come on. Come on, come on, come on, come on! Nice! When that foot was slipping again and again, I
was like there's no chance I'm gonna do this. Come on Adam. Come on. Come on. Yeah, well done! I think it was the pressure that got you, you have too much pressure. Yeah. So where did you guys get like knowledge about training
and stuff? You know when I started climbing you never even thought about training. There was no
such thing, it was just climbing. But were there any books back then? There weren't training
books for climbing but I read books on sort of running. Built a campus board after seeing Wolfgang
Güllich campus boarding. Built a campus board in my back garden and I got this book on Plyometrics.
It was all adapting books from training from other sports, and you'd read it and you think how
can I adapt that for climbing? How can I relate that to get stronger. You know stronger arms and stuff like that. Because now there are a lot of books, and also Martin and Stian,
who made this collab happen, they have a book called The Climbing Bible. You probably recognise
them from the 9c climbing test. You could hold up the book maybe? Technical physical and mental
training for rock climbing.. and this one is? The Practical exercises. This is a picture of my sister actually. And also you have a book as well? I'd read various
books on sports psychology and read different articles and I thought wouldn't it be amazing
if I could get all the best climbers of our time and ask them, like Adam I asked him
some specific questions what do you think about. And I know this would have helped
me massively. And it's the same publisher? Right. So you guys should check it
out. The link is in the description. All right, should we try something harder? Yeah let's do
that. Adjust left foot, go to this one? Yeah. Oh that's a hard move. Good. Oh yeah, if the foot didn't.. You
see like that it's hard. Yeah Do you think this one is around 8B? Yeah,
this one is a little bit harder. Yeah easy, come on Adam. Come on. Yes, come on! Have you seen anyone been closer on the first go? I don't think so. That hasn't been flashes, has it? Yes, you're gonna do it. I thought you
were gonna do it because you got that so good. You really got your
hands up on it. I might try just the top. Come on Adam, yeah that look easy, come on. Come on, yes. Nooo, I was going too static like too careful. Nooo. Do you want some tips Adam? Pull really hard, give it everything. Is this the next problem? Yeah this
is the most famous... Okay, it's not been flushed, Adam did you hear that? Yep,
building up the pressure? That's close. That was close. Come on, yes.. Easy come on. Well this is an honor. Climbing with Ben Moon on the moon board. Yeah we're gonna do a Ben Moon Benchmark
as well. Those are really hard haha Come on. Come on. Nice one. That's a really good training
problem, it's like a.. it's crimpy this. It's not easy right? Nope, it's a benchmark.
What do you think, with the age is the endurance getting better? Yeah, it's just getting better, like my endurance is better than it's ever been,
but the strength, I've really noticed the strength in the last three or four years is declining. So I thought I would bring some present
to the School Room and we could spice up the classic incut crimps of the Moon
Board. We have the Golden Bricks, the perfect pinches. And we also have some chips,
the boosters. You are actually the first one that will have them. Wow. So you have designed these yourself? Yeah. So what do you think, how hard is this? I reckon it could be 7A+/7B. Come on, nice. Bicycle, match. No idea how hard that is, could be anything couldn't it. I I don't think it's harder than 7A+, your benchmark 7A was harder Oh I might be able to do it. Do it and say it's 6C Ben. Nice, come on Ben. Always try to be as wide as possible, and use this edge to really bite into this
part of the thumb. Right. Nice yes come on. Well you have something to work on. I got project.
So I think uh we're gonna end the video there, thank you Ben and Jerry and of
course Adam for being in the video. I think it's a childhood dream for both
of us to climb with you guys. It's great to meet you both and climb with you. Make sure you check
out Mastermind, the climbing Bible, The Moon Board. Also check out Adam on Instagram, YouTube
everything and I will see you next time!
