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In an attempt to make space for the newsworthy ascents that occur with ever-increasing regularity, our weekly news roundup tries to celebrate a few outstanding climbs (or interesting events) that for one reason or another caught our attention. We hope you enjoy it. —The editors
Mat Wright FAs the difficult and dangerous Magical Thinking (E10 7a)
On July 14 Mat Wright made the first ascent of Magical Thinking, a hard and terribly runout single pitch at Pavey Ark, in the U.K.’s famed Lake District.
Keen readers of Climbing will remember my frequent coverage of another route at Pavey Ark, Lexicon (E11 7a/5.14 R), a Neil Gresham FA that shares the same belay ledge as Magical Thinking. But the belay ledge is where those routes’ similarities end. Lexicon’s crux has an 80-foot fall potential during the runout at the top of the route—you could fall off and get away with “merely” a broken ankle. Magical Thinking has an equally big runout, also mid crux, but with a brutal slab lurking below.
Wright described Magical Thinking’s crux sequence as a power-endurance 5.13c (or a long V10) up a thin seam without any suitable protection. Speaking to UKClimbing, Wright described the start of the crux section as a “tricky” V8 with a bouncing, slabby fall potential. “After the boulder, you gain some crimpy undercuts and enter the start of the no-fall zone, above which is the second crux,” he said. “The style changes from here and your fate is well and truly in your hands. You commit to some big moves on some slightly bigger holds. It’s a great sequence, and doing these moves so high up the crag, whilst in a position of complete commitment, feels utterly surreal to say the least.” —Anthony Walsh
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Watch Vadim Timonov Send a Proposed V17
Last May, Vladimir Timonov—who has had to put aside his main project, Nalle Hukkataival’s Burden of Dreams, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted Finland to close its border to Russian nationals—established his hardest boulder problem, Blackflip Sit, in Djan-Tugan, in the Caucasus Mountains. Unusually for Timonov, who’s known for compiling huge ticklists in the V13-V15 range but, by his own admission, rarely has the attention span to siege limit boulders, Blackflip, the V15 stand start, took him three years of intermittent effort to send. He topped out in April, then did the sit two weeks later. In the below film, and on social media, Timonov has expressed some timidity about the grade. On his 8a.nu scorecard, where he lists Blackout Sit as V17, he writes that while he is anxious about proposing the full V17 grade, the climb feels harder than any V16 he has previously tried. “I know your skepticism and understand it,” he writes, before adding that giving it V17 is his attempt at an honest assessment. “Blackflip is one of the hardest [V15s] in the world in my opinion,” he says, and the five moves from the sit add significantly. “I am also ready to accept mistakes in case I was wrong.”
“Someday,” he says in the video, “we will have world peace, and climbers from other parts of the world will [be able] to come here and try.” —Steven Potter
Watch Tyler Thompson Send Bone Tomahawk (5.14d)
Released today, the video features 21-year-old Thompson hiking the powerful, gymnastic line through the Fynn Cave, in Saint George, Utah. It was the second of his now three career 5.14d’s, and they’ve all occurred on the heels of his first 5.15a ascent, Full Metal Brisket, which he put down in February. Read the full interview here. —Delaney Miller