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In an attempt to make space for the newsworthy ascents that occur with ever-increasing regularity, we’re launching a new weekly series in which we try to celebrate a few outstanding climbs that for one reason or another caught our attention. We hope you enjoy it.—The editors.
Aidan Roberts Makes FA of Swiss V15
The 24-year-old Brit needed only three days to FA Unison (V15), in Ticino, Switzerland. Roberts, who made the second ascent of Alphane (V17) last fall, grew up in Northern England’s Lake District. Since the pandemic, he’s made the transition from World Cups to outdoor climbing, and has systematically been sending some of the world’s hardest lines.
Roberts first spotted the line of Unison during an initial trip to the area a year ago. At the time, it seemed impossible, so he forgot about it until last fall when Shawn Raboutou remarked on its potential. Roberts returned to Ticino this past February and went to work—he began cleaning the line on his first day of arrival. The landing was a bit concerning, so the next day, with help from Giuliano Cameroni, James Pearson, Tom Peckitt, and Luke Murphy, Roberts crafted a log platform. The group gave the boulder a few rips before sundown, and Roberts sent the next day.
Vladek Zumr, who witnessed the send, described the climb: “It is kind of a high and steep boulder problem with really small crimps, with which you have to be very precise, and you need to have enough strength to do the topout. … The crux is definitively the precise movement on the crimpy middle/upper section.”
On Instagram, Roberts commented that Ticino has started to feel like “home,” and, “With this has come the satisfaction of feeling to help develop an area which has offered me so much.”
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For most of us mere mortals, V15 is an unfathomable grade, but for Roberts it’s hardly worth mentioning. In addition to sending Alphane, he’s made quick work of numerous V15 and V16’s. And because earlier this year Roberts set a replica of Nalle Hukkataival’s Burden of Dreams using scans and 3D printed holds, well, we’re watching. There really aren’t too many climbers we’d bet might send the infamous Finn line, but Roberts’s track record speaks for itself.
P.S.: Faster than we can get this news out, Roberts has sent another no-doubt challenging line: Innocent Man, FA’ed by Niky Ceria. He declined to comment on the grade, however based on the two’s capacity for ticking cutting-edge boulders, we suspect it’s well-worth the mention. —Delaney Miller
Ignacio Mulero FA’s One of the World’s Hardest Trad Routes
A 40-foot boulder is now home to one of the hardest trad routes in the world: El boulder del pedal (5.14c) in La Pedriza, Spain. Ignacio Mulero told 8a.nu that he initially envisioned bouldering out the entire pitch (the V14 crux is in the first 16 feet and protected with crash pads) but a conversation with Nalle Hukkataival, who was also projecting the line, convinced him to not needlessly add danger to his ascent.
El boulder del pedal now joins the ranks of the hardest proposed trad climbs in the world, including Magic Line, The Recovery Drink, Meltdown (all 5.14c); and Empath, a bolted line which Connor Herson did on gear last year and proposed 5.14d. Not included in this list of “world’s hardest” are the deliberately ungraded Tribe and Bon Voyage, both speculated to be at least as hard as Empath.
Mulero’s first ascent caps a successful season at La Pedriza, where in January he also made the first free ascent of the 50-foot Snoop Dogg (5.14a), also on gear. Mulero is enroute to Annot, France, to surely sample some of its trad-climbing goodness, before heading to Norway to try The Recovery Drink.—Anthony Walsh
Tom Bolger Repeats Yet Another 5.15a
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There was a time when 5.15a was cutting edge—but that was a long time ago. Nowadays, climbs like La Rambla and Jaws II and Biography see an indecent number of ascents each year; a friend of mine, who’s climbed 5.15a, isn’t even the strongest climber at his gym…. So why do I think that Tom Bolger’s second ascent of Maya, a 5.15a in the El Purgatori sector of Margalef, is worth a brief acknowledgement here? Two reasons:
Reason #1: I admire Tom Bolger.
I’ve been a quiet fan (a.k.a. Instagram creep) of Bolger’s for years now. At first this was largely because I couldn’t understand how someone (him) could do things like weighted front levers on the 20mm monos on the Beastmaker 2000—holds I’m not even sure I can safely hang. But the more I learn about Bolger, the more I admire his choices in life. He’s not even close to the world’s strongest sport climber, and at 35 years old he never will be; and yet he has nonetheless structured his life around his love for Spanish limestone, relocating from the UK to Catalunya, where he now climbs and develops new climbs and rents guest houses to visiting climbers. And I guess I think there’s something very commendable about identifying your dream life and pursuing it.
Reason #2: Maya was first climbed by… Ramon Julián.
The fact that Maya was FA’d by Ramon Julián Puigblanque in 2016 and went unrepeated until now is significant. Why? Because Ramonet, as he’s often called, may be the single most prolific sandbagger of the modern era.* Even if Maya is “only” 5.15a, as Ramonet first suggested and Bolger seems to confirm, trying an unrepeated Ramonet route takes some nerve—a willingness to check your ego at the door, which is something that, quite frankly, not all pro climbers are willing to do. So I think that even trying Maya is commendable and that confirming its grade is news.
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*The nerds among you may remember when, back in 2016, Jens Larsen sparked a typically raucous debate on 8a.nu by claiming, in a one-paragraph op-ed, that “Ramonet is the toughest FA grader in the world.” But though Larsen was perhaps too cavalier about his statement, and though he did a pretty lazy job trying to back it up, I don’t think he was entirely wrong. Last week, while working on a piece about Jorge Diaz-Rullo’s recent 5.15c FA in Margalef, I heard a rumor (which I haven’t verified) that when Adam Ondra first tried Ramonet’s 2013 route Mejorando Imagen (for which Ramonet proposed 5.14d), Ondra thought it was harder than Chris Sharma’s famous 5.15b First Round, First Minute. And when Alex Megos finally made the second ascent, in 2021, he confirmed Ondra’s feelings by proposing that exceedingly rare thing: the double upgrade. Want more evidence that Ramonet’s routes are hard? Just scroll through the comments on his latest Instagram post. You’ll find some very famous climbers openly joking about his grades. —Steve Potter