With the crux coming at 18 meters above the sea, and with a difficulty equal to Es Pontas, the American opened this first ascent.
Chris Sharma arriving to the crux, 18m over the water
“Last week I was able to send a long term project that I'd been trying over the last 5 years on the Northwest coast of Mallorca. In honor of my beautiful daughter I named the line Alasha. So proud of this one. I really had to work hard, dig deep and pull out all the tricks in the book” - Chris Sharma on his accomplishment.
Sharma opened Alasha almost ten years exactly to the date, after sending Es Pontas, a milestone he worked extremely hard for. When he did that, our title at the time was: “Chris Sharma Climbing the Mallorcan Arch, Elevating Deep Water Soloing to an Art-form”.
He never gave Es Pontas a grade as there were too many factors beyond the sheer difficulty in it but if we had to guess, it would probably be between 9a and 9b. However, deep water soloing is very different to sport climbing and cannot be evaluated in the same way. After all, how can you attribute a difficulty grade of a crux, to a line that has a drop of 18 meters to the sea?
After announcing the opening of Alasha, Chris affirmed that “it has a very different style than Es Pontas, but I would say that regarding the difficulty, they are in the same range”. A common characteristic of Sharma’s climbs throughout his life has been to not only seek out the difficult climbs, but the beautiful ones as well.
“I am very proud of this line. Felt like one of my top 10 climbing moments! In the photo, I am passing the crux, an 8b boulder located 18m above the water.”
He also said, “Time passes by quickly, it’s crazy that it has already been ten years since my opening of Es Pontas and a lot has changed since then, but my passion goes on. Life is truly wonderful!”
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