Wasabee Roof 5-12+, Eldorado Canyon

Okay, to discuss the Sharma factor, I must present my background for comparison. I have been climbing for over 20 years. I have climbed with and filmed a number of the hottest climbers in the world. I'll explain, unlike other sports, climbing affords this opportunity, because, great climbers always need good belayers, and it can be hard to get a film guy into the world cup climbing element, unlike other sports where to film doesn't mean to hang it out there with the athlete. Okay, over the past ten years, I've seen and filmed many great climbers like Jim Karn, Kurt Smith, Scottie Franklin, Todd Skinner, Christian Griffith, Steve Hong, Tommy Caldwell, Vadim Vinokur, Robin Erbsfield, Bobbi Bensman, Shelley Presson, and Beth Rodden, … get the picture, I have poured over endless hours of footage in the edit room of these athletes, and seen their moves hundreds of times, enjoying their creativity and brilliance, they're truly great. However, no person I have seen climbing, to date, has matched the sheer genius and self-confidence of Chris Sharma. I'll do my best, but I don't think I can convey with words what I have seen in his movement on film.

Sport Climbing with Chris SharmaChris's easy onsite flash (Wasabee Roof 5-12 Warm-up) Chris must be the delightfully most self-confident climber in the world. Why would I say this when there are such ridiculously great climbers as Francois Legrand out there with a host of other great European climbers with magnificently well honed world cup talent? Well, even though you can see these world cup greats cranking off figure four moves on super hard 5-13+ moves with total precision, you won't see them dyno fly from a move where every one else peals only to have that precarious maneuver propel them upward, unless you're watching Sharma. Photos by CG Hill ©

How Chris does what he does is not in your textbook sport climbing manual, and explains how he cranks off a 5-14 flash on a torn ACL. Chris will rest fully on a small vertically overhanging sloper, (one that I saw Steve Hong pulling on with all his will to get past), and Chris will do it with one hand while surveying the terrain above him. He just loves to climb. Chris just loves to climb really hard, and believes anything can be climbed, easily. Chris's idea of a warm-up in Eldorado canyon was the 5-12+ Wasabee roof, and he flashed this route in his usual style of one good hand and one good foot somewhere, while the other's are fishing for vertical motion. A pinch and a grab, a fly and a dyno, and Sharma is gone. Chris is truly a gifted and intelligent climber. While the Euro masters demonstrate a seriously trained focuse about their approach, Chris exhibits a playfully articulated motion. If you haven't seen him climb, you've just got to try and get some of the footage, because, if you still frame the moves, you won't believe what you'll see.

Oh by the way, Chris (in his usual energetic manner) cross trains hard in other sports, and who knows, in the future he may be asking Dr. Hong how to recoup from a snow board wreck so he can make it to the next ASCF National intact, and I sometimes wonder what Dr. Hong would tell him?