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On December 27, after 25 days of battling snow and skin, Simon Lorenzi made the third ascent of Nalle Hukkataival’s Burden of Dreams, saying that it feels comparable in grade to both Alphane (which he climbed in December 2022) and Soudain Seul (which he established in 2021).
If Soudain Seul’s grade stands (Nico Pelorson thinks V16 is more accurate, but Camille Coudert agrees with the V17 grade, and Lorenzi told me last year that it’s at least as hard as Alphane) he has become the first person to climb three V17 boulders. He’s also, of course, got one of the more impressive bouldering ticklists of all time, with such non-V17 highlights as Off the Wagon Sit (V16), Big Conviction (V16), and La Révolutionnaire (V16), plus more V15s than I can count.
In our conversation, which took place last week over email and has been edited for clarity and length, Lorenzi talked about how he traveled by train and boat to Finland, about beta and replica training, and about how Burden of Dreams compares with the other boulders he’s tried.
The Interview
Climbing: Congratulations on your send! On your Instagram you wrote about how Burden of Dreams was “not even imaginable in my craziest dreams not a long time ago” but now you’ve done it. How did you get from there to here?
Lorenzi: Yes, it feels crazy to think that a few years back I would have never considered trying that boulder and now it’s done. I’ve always had a step-by-step approach to my climbing. I’d say I’m very pragmatic in life in general, so when it comes to climbing I also need to set realistic goals in comparison with what I did before. When I was 15, I was thinking “if I do an 8B [V13] boulder and an 8c [5.14b] route in my life that would be crazy.” Then I reached those levels quite fast, so I realized that I can climb harder and set bigger goals. Also I was training almost exclusively inside so I didn’t have any idea of my true level back then. It’s when I almost did The Big Island (V15) in one session and a few months later sent Soudain Seul that I realized that I had the level to try the hardest boulders on the planet. And I am also a super obsessive person, so once I really have a project in my mind, it’s almost impossible for me to give up or even try something else until it’s done. That’s what happened with Burden of Dreams.
Climbing: From your Instagram account it looks like you’ve been in Finland since early November. What was the thought process behind such a long siege? And what’s life like there this time of year? It looks dark and snowy.
Lorenzi: Yeah, it was my first trip to Finland, and we went by boat and train to be more ecological and reduce the impact of the travel, so that’s one of the reasons why we only did one trip. It’s perfect because I really like that single push format. It can be tough mentally, but the most rewarding battles are the hardest I guess. At least I know that, if it’s harder, the achievement will feel even better, so it’s not a problem. The days are very short, and most of the time it’s cloudy, but I’ve found the country very peaceful, and the landscape is really amazing when the sun is there for a few hours every two weeks.
Climbing: How many sessions did you spend on the boulder?
Lorenzi: It took me around 25 sessions. In the middle of the trip I did a lot of really bad sessions in poor conditions or with really bad skin and taped fingers, which was clearly a waste of time. I learned from that situation, and at the end of the process I was spending most of the days resting or training in the gym to have good skin. It was super hard to do that mentally because I like to climb as much as I can on my projects, but I had no choice but to change that strategy to succeed.
Climbing: What sort of training did you do to prepare for your trip?
Lorenzi: I set the replica in my gym a few months ago. It was cool to train on it, but I have to admit that it was not as useful as expected. We had the old version, and we didn’t set it so well since we didn’t have perfect measurements. Also I mostly trained the second and third moves due to a finger injury—but those were moves that I learned to skip on my first session on the real climb. The best strategy would have been to spend one week on the real one to find the details and make the best measurements, and then come back to train on a good replica. But as I said earlier, the goal was to send in a single push, and I’m more happy like that!
Climbing: A different beta! How did that compare to the ones used by Will Bosi and Nalle Hukkataival?
Lorenzi: So my very first day on the boulder I found a new beta and quickly I was convinced it was the best way for me to do the boulder. Instead of matching on the left hand crimp after the first move, I use a high left foot to put a drop knee. From there I cross directly to the gaston left hand and then I match on the pinch. It’s a super cool move and a much more direct beta since you avoid one quite hard move. For sure the hardest part was the first move for me. The craziest thing is that, at the beginning of the trip, I did it two times in the same session with one specific left foot, which was super encouraging. But I broke that foothold and it took me two weeks and a hundred tries to do it again. I tried a lot with too much fatigue and taped fingertips, so at some point I was completely lost. It was not possible to feel if what I was doing was good or wrong in those conditions. Thanks to Elias Iagnemma, who showed me that rest and good skin was the key. Once I realized that, I could learn that move again.
Climbing: What was the send-day like? Why that day as opposed to the previous ones?
Lorenzi: The session before I sent, I struggled again on the first move, but after analysis I realized that my hip flexibility was the problem. So on December 27 I stretched my hips in every position possible in the maximum amplitude. I was not sure if I was going to climb that day, because I slightly opened my skin the day before, so the strategy was to go to the boulder at the end of the afternoon and then see how the skin felt during the warm-up. The skin was feeling good enough, so after a quick warm-up I was ready to try. I did the first move on my second try of the day but didn’t place the dropknee well and slipped. My skin was limiting, so I knew I had only a few attempts left for that day. I fell again three times on the first move and told myself that I would give one last attempt before taking a bigger rest. But I did the first move perfectly, and even kept the right foot on, and I remember actually thinking I can send it now but please stop thinking while you’re climbing. I did the dropknee and the cross move and arrived at the last move where I had failed a few sessions before. This time I readjusted the left hand so I wouldn’t dry fire. Then I jumped. I almost dropped the swing, and I screamed in fear of falling, but it was done. I did the easy mantle and screamed again a few times. After spending so many days ultra focused on one specific project, everything was done in just a few seconds. What a strange and good feeling!
Climbing: How does the grade of Burden of Dreams compare with Alphane and Soudain Seul?
Lorenzi: I think that Burden of Dreams is hard for different reasons but not harder. The fact is that the first move is low percentage and you have just a few tries before your skin is dead. That means that the opportunities to send are quite limited before you have to rest again at least one day for your skin. Alphane and Soudain Seul are completely different; they are physically more demanding, and it feels harder to put all the moves together, but for the same length of trip you’ll have more opportunities to send once you’ve got everything dialed.
Climbing: It looks like you prefer to climb in shorts and a t-shirt even when it’s super cold. What’s the thought process behind that?
Lorenzi: When it’s too cold I have to wear those thermic/ski underwear to relax, but I don’t feel very free like this. And if I wear pants or sweatpants, I feel like I don’t allow my body to receive as much sensitive information from the skin, which makes me lose a part of my focus for climbing. Also, you get used to the cold, so the more you stay in the cold, the more you learn to stay relaxed and accept it.