25 Year's Later: Chris Sharma Unveils the Untold Story Behind Climbing's First 5.15

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The burnout following the 2001 ascent drove Sharma away from traditional sport climbing crags. Rather than spending another decade obsessing over bolts and clipping sequences, he redirected his energy toward the Balearic sea cliffs of Mallorca, Spain. There, he embraced psicobloc, deep water soloing without ropes above crashing ocean swells.

This shift birthed his 2006 masterpiece, Es Pontàs, featuring a seven-foot sideways dyno over thirty-five feet of open water. Free from ropes, quickdraws, and crag politics, Sharma rediscovered the pure, elemental movement that originally drew him to rock. The fluid, intuitive power perfected on Es Pontàs later enabled him to return to inland sport climbing with renewed vigor, leading to the historic send of Jumbo Love (5.15b) at Clark Mountain in 2008.