Hannes Van Duysen repeats Es Pontas, legendary Deep Water Solo on Mallorca

Belgium's Hannes Van Duysen has made an extraordinarily quick repeat of Es Pontas, the hardest deep water solo in the world located just off Mallorca in Spain. The spectacular natural arch on the SE part of the island sports a prohibitively long dyno just below half-height that was first climbed by the undisputed master of this type of climbing, Chris Sharma, back in 2006. The first repeat was carried out a decade later by Slovenia’s Jernej Kruder in 2016, while Germany’s Jan Hojer followed suit in 2018 as did Jakob Schubert in 2021.

Van Duysen is known above all for his amazing competition climbing performances, indeed he was only one of  20 male athletes to qualify for the Boulder & Lead discipline at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, and in the past despite concentrating on comps he has nevertheless climbed 8c+ at the crag and sent 8C boulders.

This trip was his first-ever deep water soloing on Mallorca, and evidently psicobloc suits his powerful, agressive style of climbing completely. The 20-year-old immediately set his sights sky high, on what he himself has described as "an absolute lifegoal", and his send of this "incredible line" came about after a mere 4 sessions.

It is worth noting that a few days earlier Van Duysen managed to flash the nearby DWS Poseidon's kiss. At 8c, this is arguably even more impressive performance than Es Pontas.

 

 

 

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A post shared by Hannes Van Duysen (@hannipan_)