Gripped Magazine
Sam Richard Climbing Chris Sharma’s Famous Deep Water Solo Es Pontas 5.15a
In October 2025, Sam Richard sent Chris Sharma’s legendary Es Pontas 5.15a (9a+) deep water solo in Mallorca, Spain. Richard’s ascent of the iconic line was followed by his hardest bouldering send – only 20 days later, he topped Simon Lorenzi’s Soudain Seul V17 in Fontainebleau, France.
When Sharma FA’d Es Pontas back in 2006, it was the hardest deep water solo ever. A handful of climbers have since topped the feature, including Jernej Kruder, who got the second ascent, Jan Hojer, Jakob Schubert, Léo Favot, Hannes Van Duysen, and Mejdi Schalck. A new video of Richard’s ascent of Es Pontas has just been released on his YouTube Channel, which you can view below.
Es Pontas means “the big bridge” in Catalan, the language of the Catalunya region in northeastern Spain. The picturesque limestone arch stands approximately 20 meters high and is only accessible by water (boat or swimming). There is a massive seven-foot dyno crux – it took Sharma around 50 attempts before he stuck it. An even harder upper crux awaits on the lip of the arch.
“Just sent the craziest line of my life,” said Richard on Instagram back in October. “Can’t express how good it feels. [Two] trips, 12 sessions, too many attempts, and [six] times sticking the jump. That was a mental battle from the first day, but today I was in the flow, I gave my all, and it finally went down. I wasn’t born when [Chris Sharma] did the FA, then ten years ago he signed me a chalk bag, and the last dry chalk bag I had before the send was this one. Thank you for the inspiration you have been for me.”
In April 2023, at only 15 years old, Richard sent his first V15 with his ascent of The Big Island in Fontainebleau. In July 2024, he got the second ascent of The Power of Now Direct V15 in Magic Wood after only three sessions. His fifth ascent of Lorenzi’s Soudain Seul V17, a low start to The Big Island, went down October 2025. In addition to his hard sends on rock, Richard is an active comp climber. In June of 2025, he podiumed with Sorato Anraku and Mejdi Schalck, achieving bronze at the Boulder World Cup in Prague.
Sam Richard climbs Es Pontas 5.15a DWS
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