In 2022, fresh off his first ascent of Alphane V17, Shawn Raboutou established Megatron V17 in Colorado’s Eldorado Canyon. The climb had been a long-standing open project, with some of the best boulderers in the country trying their hand at the line, including Daniel Woods and Drew Ruana. In 2017, Woods established the stand-start version of the problem, Tron V14. According to Woods, the full Megatron links seven moves of solid V15 into the ten moves of Tron V14 without any rest in between. With his first ascent, Raboutou became the first climber in the world to send (and FA) two V17 boulders ..read more

After a year of attempts, Dai Koyamada made the first ascent of Epitaph on Mount Horai in 2009. It follows a line of thin edges up an overhang on soft rock. The second ascent didn’t come until 2017 by Ryuichi Murai. Both climbers said that it was V16. Shortly after the second ascent, a hold broke and the problem was deemed unclimbable. That was until Toru Nakajima arrived, a climber who’d made a repeat of Lucid Dreaming in Bishop. After finding new beta, he started to make links and then on his 13th day of attempts he sent it. Nakajima suggested that it was V16 post-break, but then more rock b ..read more

July 3, 2022, North Buttress of Middle Cathedral, Yosemite Valley. We had a deal, my late climbing partner and me. Over the decades, when we bouldered and roped up in Yosemite Valley, if it were hard face climbing or techy, I would lead. I knew how to bare down on holds and make moves that weren’t 100 percent secure, but he could not. He just wasn’t wired that way. But if it were 5.9 hand jamming, he would lead since he would basically solo this terrain, making his pitches wicked quick. But on 5.10s and 11s, he would freeze up and stall out for an eternity, especially when tinkering small piec ..read more

Starting last weekend with the World Cup in Wujiang, China, and continuing for the next five years, gear manufacturer Trango, founded in Boulder, Colorado, will be the sole safety gear provider for all International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) competitions. “We have supported competitions with gear, holds, athletes, and sponsorship throughout our history,” says Trango’s president, Chris Klinke, who attended the Wujiang competition. “To support the IFSC on a global scale with its safety gear needs is a tremendous opportunity to combine our passion for climbing with our goal of supportin ..read more

Will Bosi, 25, recently made the second ascent of Return of the Sleepwalker V17 at Red Rocks after 12 sessions for his third boulder at the grade. Shortly after returning to the U.K. from America, he made the second ascent of a new V14 called Bultitude. The first ascent of Bultitude was this year by 45-year-old Dave MacLeod, who worked on the problem for several years. ‘Torn on the grade but I’ll go with 8B+ [V14] for now. 8B [V13] seems a bit harsh, although maybe folk strong on undercuts will find it easier,” he said. Watch him projecting it below. Bosi needed only two sessions to repeat Bul ..read more

Team USA’s Natalia Grossman is off to the Paris Olympics this summer. She qualified by winning the Boulder & Lead Combined final at the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, last year. She crushed the Boulder round, being the only woman to top three out of the four problems. On the fourth problem, she got heartbreakingly close to scoring a top, with her hand touching the final hold, but failing to latch. With her Boulder round finish of 84.3 points, Grossman moved into the Lead round well ahead of her other competitors. Brooke Raboutou trailed in second with 69.4 points, with Alannah Yip ..read more

Palmer Larsen has climbed a famous boulder in Red Rocks called The Nest V15, located in Fish Creek Canyon. Larsen, who works as a climbing coach for Team Momentum, said the send is his ”proudest accomplishment to date.” This is Larsen’s hardest climb to date, with runners up being Show Your Scars V14 and two dozen V13s. About his sends, Larsen said, “I let go of my expectations and feelings of deserving and wanting to send the climb and enjoyed the beauty of Red Rock, the intricacies of the moves, and those around me and that seemed to do the trick. On likely my last go of the last day of the ..read more

Jordy Shepherd is a mountain guide based in Canmore who’s been involved in dozens of search and rescue calls over the years. His work experience includes being a Canadian Avalanche Association (CAA) course leader for avalanche search and rescue, a provincial park ranger, a national park warden, a mountain and industrial rescue specialist, a heli-skiing operations manager and much more. He’s also the host, with Chris Kaipio, of the podcast Delivering Adventure, which you can listen to here. We touched base with Shepherd to learn how rock climbers can stay safe this year. What are the basics cli ..read more

July 3, 2022, North Buttress of Middle Cathedral, Yosemite Valley. We had a deal, my late climbing partner and me. Over the decades, when we bouldered and roped up in Yosemite Valley, if it were hard face climbing or techy, I would lead. I knew how to bare down on holds and make moves that weren’t 100 percent secure, but he could not. He just wasn’t wired that way. But if it were 5.9 hand jamming, he would lead since he would basically solo this terrain, making his pitches wicked quick. But on 5.10s and 11s, he would freeze up and stall out for an eternity, especially when tinkering small piec ..read more

July 3, 2022, North Buttress of Middle Cathedral, Yosemite Valley. We had a deal, my late climbing partner and me. Over the decades, when we bouldered and roped up in Yosemite Valley, if it were hard face climbing or techy, I would lead. I knew how to bare down on holds and make moves that weren’t 100 percent secure, but he could not. He just wasn’t wired that way. But if it were 5.9 hand jamming, he would lead since he would basically solo this terrain, making his pitches wicked quick. But on 5.10s and 11s, he would freeze up and stall out for an eternity, especially when tinkering small piec ..read more