The Boulderer
@crimpandclimbhq • 4,631 subscribers
I'm Rowan. Climbing, questionable shoe purchases and the occasional uphill detour. More about me here → https://t.co/Bexh6FPWVM
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Margo Hayes fell at La Rambla’s final hold-then delayed her return. In 2017, 19-year-old Margo Hayes became the first woman to climb a confirmed 5.15a-then one of climbing’s hardest grades-when she completed La Rambla at Siurana in Catalonia, Spain. The achievement looked sudden, but Hayes had spent the previous year building a base across fourteen 5.14 routes in seven climbing areas, deliberately learning different rock and movement instead of rehearsing one perfect test. La Rambla had already occupied her mind before she touched it, because she had studied videos and photographs of the famous 40-metre limestone line for months. Then Jon Cardwell and Matty Hong invited her to Spain, and the dream acquired an awkward limit: she had only one week. The route is not a single party trick, but a long chain of steep, powerful climbing whose hardest section waits high above the ground, after fatigue has begun stealing precision. That changes the job completely, because a move that works fresh can disappear when every unnecessary squeeze, late foot or wide swing has quietly spent the strength needed for the top. Hayes arrived from training for the US bouldering championships, so she trusted that her power was ready and that her endurance would return once she was back on a rope. Across seven days she refined the links, and on the sixth day she climbed through almost everything before falling from the final hold. Her planned return to France was due the next day, but leaving with every move solved-and the finish that close-would have turned one slip into the ending. She changed the plan and tied in again on 26 February. Watch the height of her feet in the clip, because she sometimes places a shoe where most climbers would expect a hand, raising her hips before her fingertips commit to the next tiny edge. That is the useful lesson inside the history (and the one route setters can reproduce): flexibility does not merely make a pose possible; it changes the distance and direction of the next move. Hayes started the successful attempt at about 4:25pm and spent roughly half an hour climbing, resting and protecting the small reserve she would need for the upper sequence. When she reached the last hold this time, the canyon erupted before she had fully absorbed what had happened. She cried, asked a friend to pinch her, and later celebrated with burgers alongside the people who had shared the week. Seven months later, Hayes climbed Biographie at Céüse in France, becoming the first woman to finish it and proving La Rambla was not one perfectly timed day. The first breakthrough still turns on the smallest contrast: one afternoon the final hold ended the attempt, and the next it opened the door.
The Boulderer101,854 просмотров • 1 месяц назад
THOSE BACK MUSCLES AREN'T JUST FOR SHOW. One of the biggest differences between beginner and elite climbers is lock-off strength. The stronger your back, shoulders and lats, the longer you can hold difficult positions and reach for the next move without losing control.
The Boulderer187,814 просмотров • 2 месяцев назад
Starting with a toe hang is seriously impressive 😮💨
The Boulderer135,335 просмотров • 3 месяцев назад
What part impressed you most, the one-arm lock-off or the precision dynos?
The Boulderer121,781 просмотров • 5 месяцев назад
Chris Sharma spent weeks falling on the same move before Realization became the route that changed sport climbing forever. In 2001 at Céüse, France, Sharma was trying to finish a line that would become the world’s first confirmed 9a+ climb. The hardest part was not simply pulling harder. It was learning a sequence where every small mistake in body position took away the chance to move on. Realization’s crux was a lesson in precision. The holds were small, the movement was powerful and the margin was tiny. Sharma had the strength to do the individual moves, but linking them required a different skill: making every foothold, hip turn and reach happen in the same rhythm. The project forced him into unfamiliar territory. Before this climb, Sharma was famous for natural talent and flowing movement. Realization demanded patience, repetition and accepting failure as part of the process. The breakthrough came when the moves stopped feeling like separate battles. The route was no longer a collection of impossible holds. It became one sequence that his body understood. That is what makes the footage still fascinating. The final send looks like a display of power, but the real achievement happened in all the attempts before it. The falls were where the climb was solved. Realization was eventually climbed by Sharma in July 2001 and pushed the idea of what was possible on rock. The route became a symbol of a shift in climbing: elite performance was no longer only about having the strongest fingers or biggest pull. It was about finding the exact movement that made the rock work. More than two decades later, the lesson remains visible in every project session: sometimes the hardest move is not the one that requires more strength. It is the one that requires you to understand the problem better.
The Boulderer35,293 просмотров • 1 месяц назад
i don't think anything could've prepared me for that last shot 😳
The Boulderer39,388 просмотров • 2 месяцев назад
HORRIFYING: Mat Wright’s trusted tiny cam ripped—and he hit his belayer. Mat Wright had rehearsed Celtic Crack 40 or 50 times on a top rope. But that practice had hidden the hardest move of all: leading the whole system for real. The project follows a thin, flared crack in a Scottish quarry. After the first hard sequence, there are only two positions where Wright can pause long enough to place protection. Even then, “pause” is generous. The useful slot is a tiny section of an eight-millimetre crack. Place the cam lower and it blocks the foothold he needs. He cannot see it properly because it goes behind his thumb, so he has to place it by feel while hanging on poor holds. His first proper lead attempt looked promising. He passed the crux, fell on the awkward foot sequence above, and a small yellow cam caught him. It held several more falls during the session. That history mattered. By his final attempt, a piece of protection that had worked before felt trustworthy. Wright cleared the crux again. He placed the next cam, pulled up rope to clip it, and his left hand suddenly slid from the smooth side of the crack. He had felt stable. There was no warning to shout down to his belayer and fiancée, Anna Taylor. This is the detail the clip cannot fully show. On a top rope, the climber only has to execute the moves. On lead, one hand must hold the body in position while the other manages gear and rope. Fatigue grows, balance shifts and extra slack enters the system. Wright knew every move, but he had not yet joined movement, clipping and fall distance into one safe sequence. He dropped about 26 feet. The trusted yellow cam ripped out. A second cam lower down held, while Taylor pulled in slack. The rope tightened near the bottom, but Wright still struck the side of her chest and cracked one of her ribs. Wright says Taylor reacted well and may have prevented a far worse injury. He does not blame the cam or the belay. His suspicion is that the awkward placement left the cam angled, allowing it to rotate and pull. He has returned to inspect the crack, but he has decided he is not ready to lead Celtic Crack again. Next time, he plans to clean and check the placements more carefully, climb only in good conditions, discuss the worst fall before leaving the ground and place two cams where he trusted one. That will cost precious seconds on terrible holds. It is also the new crux. Anna Taylor will not belay him on Celtic Crack again.
The Boulderer17,319 просмотров • 1 месяц назад
holding that position TAKES A RIDICULOUS AMOUNT of body control. agree?
The Boulderer27,171 просмотров • 3 месяцев назад
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