Paul Robinson completes The Story! [updated]

by Björn Pohl - UKC Mar/2011
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+Paul Robinson on The story of two worlds, 189 kb
Paul Robinson on The story of two worlds
Björn Pohl - UKC, Mar 2011
© Paul Robinson

Paul Robinson has now made the 2nd or 3rd* ascent of Dave Graham's The story of 2 worlds, hard 8C, on the Dreamtime boulder at Cresciano, Switzerland. To quote him "Yipppppeeee!!! The epic is over !!!!!!!!!!"

It's been a long time coming and the other day he got agonizingly close when he climbed the whole thing only to touch a tree slightly on one of the last moves... After that he contemplated getting an axe and cutting it down, but I don't think it ever came to that. The ascent was caught on video and will be in Robinson's film The Schengen files, which is coming soon.

Paul has previously described the problem as an 8B into an 8A into an 8A, which would add up to hard 8C or so. The style couldn't be very much further from his own Lucid dreaming, 8C+, at the Californian Buttermilks.

[UPDATE]After the successful ascent, this is what Paul says:
Yeah, so I went for 8C. Was a tough decision but a lot of factors went into it!
In brief, I found that really nice new beta which made a hugggeee difference. Instead of the end being a crux in itself it became a lot easier. My estimate on the breakdown of the climb would be soft 8C to throwing of the toes followed by soft 7C+ or maybe even hard 7C!!!

Beta can do wonders for a boulder. I wonder what Dave used and if he felt as confident on the end as I did. I mean take "Ninja skills" for example. The way Nalle did it is soooo hard! Maybe brinking 8C but for me it was so much easier with the new found beta. I think that having climbed outside so much over the past year has truly opened my eyes to new sequences and even lines that I may have once deemed impossible.

Off to try the "Pample moose" proj again! All moves done but one!

And yes, you are right. Near impossible to compare to "Lucid [dreaming]". Lucid is more of the 1 in a million sequences and this is enduro! Climbs like a route really sans the 1st boulder at the bottom.

Thanks for clearing this up Paul!

*This is a bit complicated. After reviewing the facts thourougly it would seem Dai Koyamada's ascent in May last year wasn't legitimate. When I went back to the video I have of Paul's almost-ascent the other day and compared this to Dai's description, at first glance it looked as though they start in the same position, but when reading Dai's statement on DPM it becomes clear that although he starts on an undercling and an edge, it's not the same undercling and edge. The correct start is actually on the edge 40 cm to the left which Dai mentions below.

Here's what Dai says: I asked some climbers I met in Switzerland but nobody could tell me how to start.
I asked Cristian Core who didn't know and Bernd Zangerl and he said "I don't know the detail but it would not start with both hand on the undercling. It would start on the undercling with the right hand and on an edge with the left.
Finally I decided to start on the directly lowest hold of the line. There is a hold 40 cm left of where I started but it felt a little bit unnatural cause I needed to traverse to the right. Besides the hold exists the same hight of where I started with my left hand.

Dai is definitely not to blame here. He did his best to find out where the start is and as you can see, that's far from obvious...

Crystal clear?

Here's a short video where Carlo Traversi starts in the wrong spot, where Dai started:

Paul Robinson has several sponsors including La Sportiva, prAna and Black Diamond


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